Category: Announcement

Bitcoin Nears Regulatory Crackdown, Says Bank of England

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The Bank of England has issued a warning stating that bitcoin is headed towards a regulatory crackdown – it also pointed out that “inherently risky” cryptocurrencies are failing to fulfil their most basic function as a store of value. The banks’ governor, Governor Mark Carney, in a speech and interview that were held on Friday, tore into bitcoin. In his words, the world’s most popular decentralized digital currency is on the verge of a “pretty brutal reckoning.”

His remarks extended beyond bitcoin as an individual asset and included cryptocurrencies as a whole, which he also thinks have “all the hallmarks of a bubble. And normally they end with a pretty brutal reckoning.” Carney’s most significant concern was however portrayed by his call to have the “anarchy” of cryptocurrencies being utilized as a medium of exchange for criminal activities brought to an end. He said that it was about time that relevant authorities worked towards a framework to “regulate elements of the crypto-asset ecosystem to combat illicit activities”.

There are already a number of efforts around the world that are geared towards bringing bitcoin under the control of governments and central banks especially due to the prevailing fears that bitcoin users are likely to lose their money due to market manipulation. On the same note, there have been even more efforts directed towards curbing the use of cryptocurrencies for criminal activities such as drug dealing, money laundering and even financing terrorism.

In the run to Christmas in 2017, bitcoin soared very close to the $20,000 mark before plunging back by more than half at the beginning of the year. It has however recovered to $11,000 but there is still a ton of uncertainty plaguing the digital currency.

“Authorities are rightly concerned that given their inefficiency and anonymity, one of the main reasons for their use is to shield illicit activities. This cannot be condoned. Anarchy may reign on the dark web, but in the UK it’s just a song that your parents used to listen to,” Carney said in the speech.

Will Everything Be Put Under Scrutiny?

Staunch believers in the bitcoin dream have maintained that the underlying technology of most, if not all, cryptocurrencies will certainly revolutionize the existing financial systems and in the process make everyday payments not only cheaper but also easier than they seem to be at the moment.

Carney clarified on this particular issue saying that the bank would still study, explicitly, the use of the distributed ledger technology that powers cryptocurrencies. He concluded that, as much as cryptocurrencies “do not appear to pose material risks to financial stability,” the situation is bound to shift as more people become aware of them.

Stars Group Expands Sports Betting Business with CrownBet

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The Stars Group, PokerStars’ parent company is expanding their sports betting business with the recent purchase of 62 percent of the CrownBet Holdings Pty Limited for about $117.7 million. As per the terms of the sale, CrownBet founder and CEO, Rowen Bruce Craigie, now owns 38 percent of the company and will continue to operate the business. Currently, CrownBet is one of the most popular online sports betting operators in Australia.

CrownBet’s revenues rose from AUS$76.5 million in 2015 to AUS$2014 million (which is approximately $158.9 million) in 2017. Furthermore, unaudited EBITDA for last year came in at approximately AUS$7.9 million which is equivalent to $6.15 million.

“We are excited to enter the regulated Australian sportsbook market with CrownBet. CrownBet has become one of the fastest growing online sportsbooks in Australia through its strong management team, proprietary technology, mobile app, unique partnerships and market-leading loyalty program,” said Stars Group CEO, Rafi Ashkenazi.

CrownBet still owns the Betfair branded betting exchange business which means that it has not yet exited this particular facet of the market. CrownBet’s primary business revolves around the Crown Casinos that are based in Sydney, Melbourne, and Perth. The revenues from their online effort are still relatively smaller than what the casinos rake in but this should improve with under the new part-ownership with the Stars Group.

More to Come from Stars

At the moment, the Stars Group has already moved to recruit new sports bettors from its significantly huge online poker face. The company has been making use of cross-selling in order to maximize the amounts it rakes in from each and every one of its constituent businesses.

For instance, it is currently running a “Big Race” promotion that combines action with a race-themed poker tournament which is scheduled for March 4, followed by a Cheltenham Gold Cup horse race promotion set for March 16th.

Since CrownBet will be joining the Stars Group family of brands, a number of similar marketing efforts will be directed towards it so as to increase the range of services that the Australian market will receive from CrownBet.

Spain’s La Liga and Barcelona Venture into Esports

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Recently, there have been a couple of huge announcements affecting or involving the Spanish football; scene and they all revolve around Esports.

First, Barcelona announced its first Esports team that will compete against other European soccer giants in Pro Evolution Soccer 2018. Barcelona is now the first Catalan club to compete in the Esports game after it reached an agreement with Konami and eFootball.Pro. The team members are also quite excited about the Barcelona’s entry into the world of Esports. Gerard Pique, FC Barcelona’s center-back pointed out that the team would be able to contribute their values to the competition on top of being a formidable foe to the other teams.

“Barça is attentive to what happens in this global and technological world, and in view of the important growth of eSports, it is opening the way to also being a leader in this field,” said the Vice President of Marketing and Communication for FC Barcelona, Manel Arroyo. “FC Barcelona, in keeping with its innovative spirit, has decided to participate in a pioneering competition in the world of eSports, by the best partners, Konami, and eFootball.Pro. We are confident that this competition will continue to make members and culers from all over the world, as well as followers of eSports, proud.”

La Liga Sees Bright Future for Esports

La Liga, the Spanish football league has also revealed that the league will be expanding by venturing into Esports with a number of Esports projects they plan to effect in the very near future with soccer, or football, being at the center stage.

The league’s projects are intended to bridge the gap between the league and millennial generations as well as increasing engagement with the already established audiences. They also intend to grow the brand further in a way that will certainly appeal to new audiences.

To kick off its venture, La Liga has launched La Liga Esports, which, as stated by them, will include “ambitious projects, the details of which will be revealed in the coming months, which aim to bring together a passion for football and the exciting world of esports. Hard work, competitiveness and teamwork are some of the values that are common to both football and esports and these are the characteristics that football-loving gamers or those who, over time, may acquire such a profile will get the chance to showcase through these projects.”

Some of La Liga’s sponsors are clearly impressed by what the Esports scene has to offer. However, the Esports projects will initially be rolled out only in Spain in coming months before being expanded further to include international audiences.

Circle’s Latest Acquisition Could Make It A Financial Giant

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Circle, a renowned financial services firm that specializes in cryptocurrencies and related mobile payments, yesterday (February 26th) announced that it would be purchasing the cryptocurrency exchange known as Poloniex. The exchange has been operational since 2014 and was at one time considered to be one of the biggest exchanges in the market. Even though a lot of competition has sprung, Poloniex remains to be among the top 20 largest cryptocurrency exchanges by trading volume. According to Fortune, Circle will be parting with $400 million or thereabouts for the acquisition – this move effectively makes Circle one of the most influential and largest companies in the industry.

In an official statement following the announcement, Poloniex said that its teams would be strengthened by the operational and customer support resources from Circle that will help them to scale effectively henceforth.

We recognize that our extraordinary growth these past few years has not come without some growing pains for our users. We look forward to bringing Circle’s experience to increase the scalability and reliability of our platform and operations. – Poloniex.

Circle’s history is quite interesting. It was first pitched as a bitcoin company that intended to make bitcoin more accessible – something along the lines of being the PayPal for bitcoin where the users could buy and sell bitcoin quickly and easily in the simplest way possible. Later, the company went ahead to dub itself as a social payment company, a Venmo competitor. However, the company eventually got back into the cryptocurrency game full swing with Circle Pay.

Circle Pay is Circle’s peer-to-peer payment service that is now one of the companies more critical efforts. Circle also runs an over-the-counter trading desk for large crypto exchanges and investors known as Circle Trade. Circle Trade essentially fosters liquidity between cryptocurrencies and a number of fiat currencies. It also powers Circle Pay. Fortune reveals that Circle Trade manages $2 billion in monthly transactions and it generated close to $60 million in revenue in a span of just three months.

A Timely Expansion?

Now, Circle is expanding its portfolio of products with an easy-to-use investment app called Circle Invest that will mostly cater to people who want to start buying digital currencies. Ultimately, having a cryptocurrency exchange of its own would be great for Circle and this is where Poloniex comes in. Circle intends to build on the work that had already been done by the Poloniex team with the end goal being to push it past being “an exchange for only crypto assets.”

“We envision a robust multi-sided distributed marketplace that can host tokens which represent everything of value: physical goods, fundraising and equity, real estate, creative productions such as works of art, music, and literature, service leases and time-based rentals, credit, futures, and more,” Circle co-founders Jeremy Allaire and Sean Neville wrote.

Poloniex assured its users that there would be no disruption of the services the exchange offers during the transition. All the updates that will be made in the course of the transition will be done in the background and will be geared towards optimizing user experience, security as well as the overall performance of the exchange.

Second Annual Live Gaming Summit: What to Look Forward To

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Since its rather humble pioneering start over a decade ago, live casino gaming has grown to be a vital component of the online gambling industry – the revenue statistics are proof of this. In fact, according to data provided by H2 Gambling Capital, by 2014 over 60 percent of the European Union’s regulated market’s Gross Gaming Revenue was generated by live online gaming. This already impressive revenue stream is expected to increase by 50 percent by 2020.

Owing to these outstanding financial statistics mentioned above as well as the tremendous market developments in the recent past, the Live Gaming Summit was conceptualized so as to bring together operators, providers, experts and many other stakeholders in the gambling community. This year on April 26th, the second ever annual Live Gaming Summit, is set to be held in Barcelona and will extend beyond discussions on online gambling to other key components of the gambling industry such as TV betting fantasy sports and land-based among many others.

It Is Getting Bigger

Many of the operators and suppliers who attended the recent ICE Totally Gaming Conference showed a great deal of interest in 2018’s Live Gaming Summit. Last year, close to a hundred visiting parties from over fourteen countries participated in the maiden edition of the annual Live Gaming Summit and they got to enjoy a number of sterling presentations as a well as an all-night networking opportunity.

As it stands, participating speakers from Ezugi, Evolution Gaming, Mr. Green, Unibet, and LeoVegas have already confirmed their attendance. With the diversity that the summit is promising this year, the summit has confirmed the attendance of representative from a number of AR and VR suppliers, fantasy sports providers, TV betting companies as well land-based casinos. Also confirmed to be attending are a decent selection of sponsors and media partners even though they are yet to be officially announced.

This year’s annual Live Gaming Summit will be hosted at the elegant Casino Barcelona which will still be running live action of its blackjack and roulette games. so, there is really so much more to look forward to.

MLS Reaching Out to New Breed of Soccer Fans Using FIFA 18

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Sports leagues are always racing to appeal to next-generation fans but Major League Soccer might have more at stake than any other league out there. In the Western sports world, that is, in Canada and America, soccer is still struggling to penetrate a market that is dominated by four big professional sports leagues: NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL. However, this does not imply that there is no progress being made. Soccer has begun to become increasingly popular and this is all thanks to the young people of this era. How? You may ask. Well, apparently, the line between MLS fans and video game lovers is getting blurrier by the day and the league is capitalizing on this by launching its own Esports organization.

Dubbed eMLS, the Esports league was forked out of the MLS’ existing partnership with Electronic Arts (EA) for the video game provider’s popular FIFA series which in all rights can be said to have always had a near cult following. MLS is really focused on establishing an even stronger connection with their fan base. Based on the nature of the MLS audience, there is a distinct proof that there is a connection between electronic gaming and the league. According to 2017 research data from Simmons Research, MLS fans are twice as likely to be video game enthusiasts as average sports fans.

MLS also, through a survey that it conducted in 2014, found that over 60 percent of its avid followers pointed to Electronic Arts’ FIFA series as the first thing that got them interested in soccer – this is much higher than the percentage of FIFA players who got interested in playing the video game from being part of an actual soccer team.

“We’re starting to shift how we think about fandom holistically to say, ‘Hey, gaming’s a major component of that.’ Not only in where they spend their time, but how they express themselves as fans,” said James Ruth, the senior director of properties and events at MLS. “We want to use competitive gaming and eMLS to get the MLS experience to more people. There’s a ton of people — especially in North America — who engage with FIFA, but they’re not necessarily engaging with MLS.”

eMLS’ First Tournament to Stream on Twitch This April

The MLS’ first Esports league tournament first-ever is scheduled for the upcoming PAX East where the MLS’ 19-player team will compete for a spot at the league’s global payoffs. These 19 players will be split into two separate conferences – ten in the Eastern Conference and the other nine in the Western Conference. Each and every competitor will be required to create their own 11-player squads for the start, with seven more on the bench and additional five on reserve. The only catch is that three of 19 MLS players will have to be on the field at all times, including two from the club that the competitor represents.

The eMLS Cup will kick off on Thursday, April 5th with the preliminary rounds, with the top eight players from each of the conference progressing to seed being allowed to progress to seeded knockout rounds on Saturday prior to the Sunday’s Cup Final. The venue for the weekend matches will be the PAX Arena Main Stage, but if you cannot make it to the venue, you can stream it on PaxArena’s Twitch channel. The final, on the other hand, will also be broadcasted on MLS channel and its website.

Artificial Intelligence Transforming Online Casino Gambling

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The age of artificial intelligence (AI) is upon us and its impacts are already being seen with the significant waves of disruption that it has been casting in various industries and sectors. Many businesses are scrambling to capitalize on this new frontier in a bid to understand and utilize it especially in the field of technology. However, these are not the only people who have their sights set on artificial intelligence.

The gambling industry and the online casino operators have not been left behind and they are now part and parcel of the AI transformation or revolution. This has been the case for quite some time – artificial intelligence and casino gaming had been paired as early as 20 years ago when IBM’s Deep Blue computer which was considered to be the epitome of artificial intelligence at the time, beat renowned pro chess player Garry Kasparov 3.5 to 2.5 in a six-game match.

Last year, artificial intelligence once again demonstrated the sheer power it holds as far as gambling is concerned. This was elaborated by Carnegie Mellon’s Libratus AI which (or who) won several thousands of poker hands over master poker players in Heads-Up No. In many ways, it may seem like this how big it can get, but the truth is, the influence of artificial intelligence on casinos and how they operate is just beginning.

Re-imagining User Experience and Protection Against Addiction

The gambling industry has always been at the helm of analyzing and studying customer behavior. In many cases, this is often done through programs that involve the utilization of sophisticated systems that are aimed at deriving meaningful information that will help the business understand their customers better. The data that can be collected is so diverse that eventually the opportunities to collect and leverage this data explodes when it is taken to the online space. As it stands, more people gamble online than in brick-and-mortar casinos.

With AI, casinos can now tap into the benefits of this valuable insights to take users experience (UX) to higher levels. AI allows for this by making it possible to easily track the activity all online casino customers based on their user accounts instead of relying on data from fractions of the total number of players.

Other than tracking customers, artificial intelligence has been used to further improve user experience (UX) customer service touch points. New breeds of AI have proven to be way better than impersonal and often frustrating customer service bots that were part of many online casinos.

Also, thanks to AI, operators can now detect and prevent gambling addiction through the analysis of player behavior that may be problematic or erratic spending. Evidently, artificial intelligence is going to leave a mark on the gambling industry as a whole.

Leveling the Playing Field

What this implies is that AI is a great tool for rooting out unscrupulous players for the good of both other players and the operator using insightful data analysis and machine learning capabilities. AI has been able to quickly identify and eradicate cheating schemes. Malicious individuals will still always find ways to cheat, including their own versions of AI but in the end, the playing field will be evened out which is the most important thing.

Adam Silver Just Made a Mess of the Leagues’ Talking Points

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On Saturday, NBA commissioner Adam Silver cited the extraordinary value of the league’s intellectual property in an argument meant to justify the controversial royalty that the NBA and other professional sports leagues have been asking for in case the Supreme Court legalizes sports betting countrywide. In what was his first public comment following the NBA’s move to outline a model framework for a legal sports betting marketplace back on January 24th, Mr. Silver said that the league should be compensated. The reason he gave was that the league would be incurring more expenses in case the law that prohibits professional sports betting is reversed.

At the New York Senate hearing on January 24th, the league, through Adam Silver, proposed the so-called 1 percent integrity fee for gaming operators from the total handle of all the wagers on the games in states where sports betting is already legalized or will be legalized in the future.

“I would only say from the NBA’s standpoint we will spend this year roughly $7.5 billion creating this content, creating these games,” Silver said at an NBA All-Star Weekend press conference. “Those are total expenses for the season. So this notion that as the intellectual property creators that we should receive a 1% fee seems very fair to me.”

The leagues and their lobbyists have been insisting that the fee is correlated with monitoring that is associated with sports betting. They have further pointed out that the proposed integrity fee will be used for ensuring game integrity due to the “increased expenses” that are part and parcel of sports betting markets. However, the proposed integrity fee does not, in any way, put any strings on how the leagues will need to use it.

Not Many Are Buying the Idea

NBA’s proposal has been met with lots of resistance especially from major international sports books and gambling trading industry trade groups who see the fee as a levy of some sort and this, according to them, will have a negative impact on their operations. Case in point, for a Nevada sportsbook that pays top state taxes amounting to 6.75 percent of its gross sports gambling revenues along with the 0.25 percent federal excise tax, the amount that the professional sports leagues will get out of the sportsbook’s annual revenue lies between 15 percent to 20 percent.

Ohio Lawmaker Gets Involved

NBA’s request is attracting a lot of attention and now an Ohio lawmaker has gotten into it. The lawmaker hopes that the Legislature does not give in to the demands to share potential sports wagering revenue with the leagues.

“I think the 1 percent integrity fee is an absolute joke,” said Fluharty, lead sponsor of the House legislation. “Nevada doesn’t even pay them. I can’t help but see the irony that MLB won’t let Pete Rose in the Hall of Fame because he bet on sports, yet now the league wants to make money on sports betting.”

Telegram Raises an Initial $850 Million for Its ICO

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According to a document filed with the U.S. Securities Exchange and Exchange Commission (SEC) after being signed by Telegram CEO and co-creator Pavel Durov, Telegram’s billion-dollar initial coin offering (ICO) has already amassed a whopping $850 million in the pre-sale stage. The figure was initially expected to get to about $600 million and was to be raised entirely from venture capital firms. As a result, not only has the company reached and surpassed its first milestone by a significantly huge margin but it has also gained a lot more confidence from the venture capitalists it intended to appeal to.

The document that was filed, a “Notice of Exempt Offering of Securities”, that was filed by Pavel and Nikolai Durov with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on February the 13th reported that the $850 million that had been raised under the SEC exemption Rule 506(c) from 81 venture capitalist investors would be for “the development of the TON Blockchain, the development, and maintenance of Telegram Messenger.”

The SEC filing offers a type of securities that is referred to as the “Purchase Agreements for Cryptocurrency” and are filed under the Rule 506(c) exemption. This means that citizens of the United States who invest must be accredited investors, that is, they have to either be worth over a million dollars or have an annual income of about not less than $200,000 in order for the tokens they are investing in not to be registered as securities with the SEC. The investors, in this case, reportedly bought rights to Telegram’s TON internal cryptocurrency known as “Grams” – these will be distributed once the platform is launched next year.

What This Means for the Company

The $850 million raised by the messaging company is the highest amount ever accumulated from a pre-sale – the closest comparisons are from previously completed ICOs by Filecoin and Tezos, which raised $257 million and $232 million respectively. In many ways, this affirms Telegram’s popularity within the crypto community and things are about to get even better as the company plans to use the funds to extend its services to include such offering as VPN solutions, cloud file storage as well as peer-to-peer micropayment transactions.

Considering the huge overshoot of the initial funding, there are a couple of questions that have arisen with regards to how it might affect the proposed public sale that is set to begin in March. However, everything seems to point to the public sale proceeding as planned although it is quite apparent that it might end up being heavily oversubscribed.

The Drew Las Vegas Casino Resort Set to Open in 2020

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Global development firm Witkoff and Marriott International have partnered in a bid to open a new integrated resort and casino on the site of a project that was previously known as the Fontainebleau Las Vegas. The large casino-resort whose construction on the Las Vegas Strip has been left unfinished since 2009 is now scheduled to launch towards the end of 2020 under a new moniker – The Drew Las Vegas.

The site initially hosted the Thunderbird Hotel and Casino that opened in 1948, after which it was later renamed to Silverbird then El Rancho before it was finally closed in 1992. Eight years later in 2000, Fountainbleau Resorts purchased the property but after imploding El ranch bought additional acreage and began a construction project that was halted in 2009 before it was sold to Icahn Enterprises’ L.P.’s majority shareholder Carl Icahn for $600 million.

In addition to featuring a casino and about 4,000 rooms and suites, the new luxury entertainment project will also be hosting the Las Vegas strip’s first JW Marriot. Also, once open, Marriot International will be responsible for managing the hotels.

“It is going to be a design-forward building, and when we bring it all together, people are going to say, ‘I really want to come back,’” said Steven Witkoff, chairman, and CEO of Witkoff. “The structure here is so well conceived, even from nine years ago, that there are a lot of possibilities for us to put our imprint from a design standpoint on that property.”

What to Expect

The resort is expected to include 50,000 square feet of convention and meeting space alongside a variety of nightlife, entertainment, retail and over 20 dining options. Witkoff further mentioned that while the building’s design is yet to be finalized, the existing eight-and-a-half acre pool deck will be redesigned to make it stand out among all other in Las Vegas.

Another project that is also in the works and has an anticipated 2020 launch date is the multibillion-dollar Resorts World Las Vegas that is going to lean more towards Chinese and Chinese-American tourists. In total, the two projects will be offering 7,000 rooms to the area and this will also be at about the same time that a mega expansion of the Las Vegas Conventions Centre will be completed. Looks like Sin City is about to get even more exciting.