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NY Legislative Session Ends with Online Poker Still in Limbo

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The state and future of online poker in New York was subject to a whole lot of speculation even though 2018 seemed like the best bet for the activity after two years of cautious optimism. However, it turns out that this year was not the safe bet that New Yorkers were hoping for after all.

The New York Assembly ended the legislative session on Wednesday at 11 p.m. thus pulling the plug on the possibility of any online poker or sports betting legislation getting passed this year. This is starting to become a norm and, therefore, in retrospective, this outcome is more of a variation of the same story that the Assembly tells every year – regardless of the fact that a number of changes have been introduced to the process, the end result is always the same.

Was 2018 All About Sports Betting?

Naturally, following the US Supreme Court ruling that repealed the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA), there was a lot of buzz and hype around the sports betting. As a result, online poker was once again relegated to the sidelines just like it was in 2016 when it was daily fantasy sports that were a big deal – it still is.

Unfortunately, despite the fact that the sports betting proposals stole the show at the state legislature and seemed to have support from both sides, unlike daily fantasy sports lawmakers were not able to reach an eleventh-hour consensus when it came to online poker. Sports betting joins a pile of other unfinished business – including online poker – which will hopefully be finished during the 2019 legislative session.

Still, there is no absolute certainty that the legislation will go as expected in 2019. This year, it was quite evident that the chaos in the legislature, especially the Senate, was starting to get out of hand – it was even worse as the session neared its end. This is probably one of the reasons why the online poker and sports betting bills were not passed even though New York was a favorite to pass at least one of these legislations this year.

What Now?

There is almost absolute certainty that the New York legislature will revisit the sports betting bill come next year. This is mainly because passing on sports betting will undoubtedly put the state at a competitive disadvantage to other states such as Delaware and New Jersey who have already legalized sports betting. Reportedly, the Assembly was just a little less than ten votes shy of a majority and the idea of adding online poker into the mix had been floated around earlier this year.

For the most part, until the 2019 legislative session begins, the leaders have plenty of time to carefully craft legislation that majority of the lawmakers can agree on. For now, we will just have to wait and see the developments that await.

BlitzPredict Debuts App to Predict World Cup Match Results

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BlitzPredict, a blockchain-based application that aims to help sports betting fans receive “reliable and transparent” betting advice has recently launched its main platform just a few days after the FIFA World Cup kicked off in Russia. The platform aims to provide these revolutionary solutions to some of the most daunting issues that have plagued the sports betting industry by recording predictions on the outcome of sporting events on an immutable blockchain.

The Las Vegas-based company will be responsible for time-stamping against true market odds in order to create what the BlitzPredict team refers to as a “verifiable, public record of everyone’s predictions.” Hopefully, the technology will make it harder for experts to hide their record, lie about the prices they receive and delete their losses altogether thus giving the users the opportunity to make informed decisions on the betting strategies they choose to back.

The blockchain would, in essence, provide the public with the transparent figures of any expert’s return on investment which is a great indicator of the expert’s past performance. Usually, due to the lack of such insight, the bettors usually end up risking their money by following bad advice from “experts” whose prediction histories and return on investment are not verifiable.

BlitzPredict will also allow users to purchase World Cup betting advice using its XBP bitcoin which is built on the Ethereum network and is ERC-20 compliant. In addition to this, the platform will be offering blogging functionality and a Major League Baseball (MLB) model to complement its current offer, that is, soccer. The company believes that the MLB model has had a 25-8 start which has, in turn, resulted in a 76 percent win percentage – in fact, the BlitzPredict has confirmed that it has already “recommended plenty of underdogs that have come through.”

BlitzPredict’s XBP token is also doing quite well as it is already being listed on a number of exchanges that include Bancor, HitBTC, Idex, and Bankor. This means that for users of the platform it will be very easy to make deposits, trades, and withdrawals.

Taking Advantage of the Changing US Market

Since the United States Supreme Court ruled to allow the states to decide on whether or not to legalize sports betting, there has been a lot of buzz with many companies moving to take advantage of the new opportunity and the emerging market that comes with it. BlitzPredict has not been left behind and they even go further ahead to admit that they had been eagerly waiting for the judgment.

BlitzPredict says that the rejuvenated demand for legal sports betting offerings will be accompanied by an aggressive appetite for high-quality content as well as tools that can help enhance the bettor’s chances of winning the bets they place. As far as the company is concerned, blockchain-driven tools are the way to go.

Betting on the FIFA World Cup 2018 with EtherWorldCUp

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The 2018 FIFA World Cup is indeed one of the biggest sports events in the world, and we do not intend to get left out of all the action and enticing activities that will be going on as a result. Even though the United States did not qualify, there is still plenty of side action for soccer enthusiasts in the United States especially those who love to bet on their favorite teams. This particular article further addresses the needs of a much larger demographic thanks to the three different aspects that it involves – that is, crypto, sports betting and the World Cup. How amazing is that?

What I am referring to is the EtherWorldCup which is a new Ethereum-based betting platform that was created with nothing but the 2018 Russia FIFA World Cup in mind. Other than just helping people to invest using Ether, the platform is designed to combat some of the problems that many sports bettors face today – these include lack of transparency, high betting fees, bureaucracy as well as a ton of trust issues that stem from the fact that the bettor have to reveal lots of sensitive information and then entrust the operators with that information and their money.

How It Works

Using Ethereums’s blockchain technology and smart contracts, EtherWorld Cup will be providing solutions that will make the sports betting ecosystem more transparent and discrete while at the same time dispelling the need for trust. The smart contracts are the main highlight when it comes to the issue of trust as they can be used as trustless tools that will automatically deliver your funds whenever you win a bet.

To participate, all a customer needs to do is to install Metamask on their computers and have some ETH to bet on their favorite team at the World Cup. As mentioned earlier, all the trading will be carried out through smart contracts and therefore players will not need to worry about dispensing any personal information.

EtherWorldCUp bets are not audited since the team behind the platform believes that auditors have high fees that would result in higher costs of investment for their customers. This does not, however, mean that your money is any less safe as the company explicitly outlines that it has taken all the necessary steps to ensure that customer funds are safe and secure.

These smart contracts further help to keep the fees lowed that 7 percent and users are only charged when they decide to give up on a bet or when they withdraw their funds. The platform also uses two of the best live score APIs to determine the winners – Sportmonks and footballdata.org.

So, while there are certainly a number of sports betting sites based on the Ethereum blockchain, if you are a World Cup fan then look no further than EtherWorldCup simply because it was created specifically for that event and therefore does a great job at optimizing service delivery in that regard.

2018 FIFA World Cup Betting Guide

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In the United States, Las Vegas is and will probably always be the Mecca of sports betting. However, in the wake of the landmark United States Supreme Court ruling that paved the way for nationwide sports betting, many more states will be giving Nevada a run for its money. As it stands, Delaware was the first state – after Nevada where some forms of sports betting have been legal for years – to legalize sports betting. This move has since been followed by New Jersey and many more including Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Mississippi are expected to do the same very soon.

As you might have already guessed, this is perfect timing since the World Cup just kicked off recently (last Thursday) and this presents a huge opportunity for some side action. If you are only finding out this now then you are a little late to the party. You will be forgiven for not knowing though – it is growing more understandably clear the FIFA World Cup can either bring out either absolute indifference or rabid interest when it comes to the United States.

This year will probably lean more towards the side of absolute indifference especially because, for the first time since 1986, the United States failed to make the World Cup. Ouch!

“Las Vegas is such an international city and the World Cup is such an international event that people are still going to be around to bet on it,” Sunset Station sports book director Chuck Esposito commented. “It’s going to be a tremendous event for our sports books, but the U.S. not being there is definitely going to have some effect.”

However, the country remains to be the third most populated country in the world, which means that even a tad bit of interests represents a considerably large number of people. With legalized sports betting now a reality, there is still a lot that Americans can play for. Patriotism aside, it is time to make some cash. If betting is not for you, then too bad. I am sure there are a couple of other things that you can do; the opportunities are endless.

Odds to Win

Country Odds % chance to win

Brazil 18-5 22%

Argentina 19-5 21%

Germany 9-2 18%

Spain 5-1 16%

France 11-2 15%

These top five choices represent 92 percent of the win equivalent even before you consider other contenders that include formidable teams like Belgium and Portugal as well as several other spoilers in the 32-team midfield. It would probably be smarter to wait for the knockout round before you jump in with these teams especially if you want to get a little more insight into what you are getting into. Still, the futures prices will not have changed much since the assumptions to qualify are already baked into the numbers.

Alternatively, as the knockouts begin you could bet on your preferred team to advance on game-by-game lines – this will roll out your investment at every round and is likely to yield a better return than betting futures prices.

New Bill Could Finally Bring Online Gambling to Michigan

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On Tuesday night Michigan lawmakers voted 68-40 for two main bills that are intended to create a Lawful Internet Gaming Act that would responsible for regulating online renditions of the state’s licensed brick-and-mortar casino games. Introduced last year by Rep. Brandt Iden, R-Portage, the legislation, if passed, will see to the establishment of a Division of Internet Gaming within the existing Michigan Gaming Control Board.

This new division will be tasked with issuing internet gaming licenses thus allowing the state’s operational casinos to accept online bets – it will also include sports betting supposing the board decides to legalize statewide sports betting following the recent Supreme Court ruling that paved way for the activity.

All online gambling will be made through the existing land-based casinos that will receive the licenses from the new division, which implies some partnerships are bound to surface as a result. The same will go for the existing tribal casinos that will be working with the state to achieve the new technology.

“People in Michigan are already gambling over the internet, but they are doing so at risky and illegal websites,” Rep. Iden pointed out. “The Michigan websites will have strict state oversight, unlike the illegal and unregulated sites our resident use now, at great risk to their finances and personal information.”

Michigan plans to impose an 8 percent tax rate on online gambling revenue – 35 percent of this tax revenue will go to the Internet Gaming Fund that will be tasked with enforcing the online gambling regulations. The lion’s share of the revenue (55 percent) will go to the city of Detroit which hosts all three of Michigan’s commercial casinos while the remaining 10 percent would be shared equally between the school state aid fund and the Michigan transportation fund.

Tribal Casinos Not Left Out

On condition that their compacts are either recreated or amended, the bill will also allow Michigan’s 23 tribal casinos to offer online gambling. The tribe’s quest for inclusion was among the most pressing concerns and impediments to the bill during the initial stages of its launch. Fortunately, they did get what they wanted thanks to a “poison bill” that would effectively rescind online gambling and sports betting in the state in case the federal government decided to bar the tribal casinos from participating in the new online venture.

The bill still has a long to go though. Michigan residents will have to wait until the Senate session resumes this fall that is the next step towards legal and regulated online gambling in the state.

“When we come back in the fall,” said Iden. “This is going to be at the top of the agenda. Michigan should be at the forefront of that.”

Switzerland Votes to Block Foreign-Based Gambling Operators

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Switzerland’s referendum had two main highlights – first, they voted in favor of allowing the local casino operators to offer online gambling and second, the voted to block the domains of the international gambling operators licensed to operate in the country. The international operators’ only option will then be to secure partnerships with local casinos.

The new Gambling Act which won the support of 72.9 percent of the voters was previously approved last fall but the student wing of the Free Democratic Party moved to challenge it and succeeded by gathering enough petition signatures to force a referendum under Swiss law. Now that it has been passed yet again, the new gambling law will take effect at the beginning of next year.

The Swiss government says that that the law is designed to tackle gambling addiction by enforcing strict rules such as the blocking of known addicts among other things. In addition to providing a solution to the issue of problem gambling, the law is also expected to allow the government to effectively tax gambling revenue which will be channeled towards these anti-gambling measures and initiatives.

The Specifics

According to advance polling, the ‘No’ side appealed mostly to youngsters who feared that the law in many ways provides a precedent that would allow the Swiss government to block other domains it found objectionable.

Older voters, on the other hand, tended to lean towards to the ‘Yes’ side since they believed that allowing foreign or international gambling sites to operate in the country would impede the Swiss government’s ability to fund social programs such as pension funds.

A Win for Local Casinos

The local casinos stand to benefit the most from the new gambling law and they could not wait to celebrate the news of this huge win. Marc Baumann, the chief executive officer of Swiss Casino Group issued a statement shortly after the results of the vote urging the government to put the new gambling law into effect as soon as possible.

Swiss Casinos Group currently runs a free-play online casino and has been planning to venture out and cooperate with a foreign company for a real-money gambling site. So far, so good. This might actually happen.

Will It Work?

Domain-blocking has proven to be rather ineffective in forcing online gamblers to stick to the locally authorized gambling sites. This has been true in other markets including Belgium and as such, Switzerland will have quite a tough time ensuring the law is adhered to. But this does not mean that it cannot be done.

Then, there is the issue of tax. The local gambling operators are looking at between 20 percent and 80 percent in revenue taxes. The president of the Swiss Federation of Casinos, Beat Vonlanthen, however, said that the government will do its best to cushion the tax blow by offering the local casino operators tax breaks of up to 50 percent for the first four years. This grace period will allow the casinos to lure in a sufficient number of steady customers before the ‘un-cushioned’ tax-rate kicks in.

New Jersey Law Proposes a Limit on Esports Betting

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So far, one of the biggest sports and gambling stories of the year has been the United States Supreme Court ruling pertaining to the legality of sports betting. By striking down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA), the court paved the way for sports betting in the country.

However, while we now know that states are going to have the final say about whether or not to legalize sports betting, even in states where there is a lot of pro-sports betting discussions Esports betting still lingers in limbo. New Jersey has become the first state to speak out on this issue but, unfortunately, the state’s stance on Esports betting is not very reassuring.

The New Jersey state legislature this week introduced a bill that calls for a ban on betting on professional gaming and Esports events. To put this into perspective, the bill’s synopsis says that the law “allows wagering at casinos and racetracks on certain professional and collegiate sports or athletic events,” but it also defines “all high school sports events, electronic sports, and competitive video games” as “prohibited sports events.”

On the brighter side, this ban will not apply to international Esports events where half of the participants are over 18. Still, these limitations have caused an immediate reaction from some of the proponents of the competitive electronic video gaming field one of the most vocal being Bryce Blum, an Esports attorney. The ESG Law founding partner took to Twitter to share his concerns:

“NJ’s sports betting law excludes ALL esports events unless they are (1) international and (2) more than 50% of players are over 18.
The law treats esports the same as high school sports, which is actually insane. Obvious problem w/ ppl regulating something they don’t understand. pic.twitter.com/WbzcULETph”

“This is a perfect example of why I fear any form of regulation surrounding esports.
Here are the bill’s sponsors – do they look like esports experts to you?
You cannot effectively regulate what you don’t understand. This could be just the tip of the iceberg. pic.twitter.com/rL8O0qvXm7”

Esports Betting Was Just in the Line of Fire

Apparently, the bill was not specifically meant to target Esports and thus there is a certainty that the topic will be discussed and analyzed explicitly in the coming weeks in order to clear things out. One of the major concerns emanates from the fact that bettors are allowed to bet on overseas events such as League of Legends European LCS, but are prohibited from betting on the outcomes of local Counter-Striker tournaments.

Being at its earlier stages, the bill’s wording is certainly still very vague and its full implications are yet to be fully thought through. As such, with the apparent localization of the bill’s effect and its vague nature, it remains to be seen how exactly it will change the Esports status quo both in New Jersey and the United States as a whole.

Delaware Becomes First State to Launch Sports Betting

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Barely a month after the United States Supreme Court paved the way for nationwide legalized sports betting through a landmark ruling that lifted a federal ban on sports betting, Delaware has become the first state to launch sports betting. This move not only marks the dawn of a new era for both the gamblers and the operators but also gives a significant boost to legal sports betting in the country.

This began at 1.30 p.m. ET last Tuesday when the Delaware governor, John Carney, placed the first bet, wagering $10 on the Philadelphia Phillies to beat the Chicago Cubs.

Always Been Ready

The state had made prior preparation for the new development – during the duration of the federal ban, the state was already offering parlay betting. Launched in 2009, the parlay cards offered by the state were provided through the state lottery. In addition to this, Delaware also went ahead to build sportsbooks within its casinos in preparation for the inevitable lifting of the federal ban on sports betting.

When the state’s sports betting industry went live on Tuesday, three Delaware-based casinos – Delaware Park, Dover Downs and Harington Raceway – launched single-game wagering on NBA, MLB, NFL, and the World Cup. These will eventually be followed by sports betting offerings for others sports including college football, the NHL, and golf.

So Far So Good

Despite the absence of big game events such as Stanley Cup or even an NBA Finals game on the day Delaware sports betting went live, there was still plenty of betting action to go around. Vernon Kirk, the secretary of the Delaware state lottery reported that $322,135 was bet on sports at the state’s three casinos on the first day.

“For us, it’s really an enhancement of our tourism industry,” Governor John Carney told ESPN on Tuesday. “It will attract a lot of visitors to our state, particularly at this time of year, during the summer, coming to our beautiful beaches south of here. They come here and stop at the casinos and do slot machine and table gaming. This will be another opportunity for them.”

Projections from Eilers & Krejcik Gaming, a research firm, anticipates that the amounts wagered on sports every year will be in the range of $350 million and $760 million – this is if online sports betting is implemented fully. Of these projections, the state will receive between $23.1 million and $49.6 million annually from both sportsbooks and online sports betting services.

Fortunately, according to the secretary of the state lottery, Delaware intends to offer internet and mobile sports betting products in the near future but first wanted to get the physical sportsbook off the ground before proceeding.

Esports Betting Already Enticing Criminal Fixers

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Esports just like any other sports is unanimous with betting and as always, where there is gambling money, vices are not far behind. Putting into consideration the approximately 380 million people who will watch Esports games and tournaments this year, it is very likely that Esports fixers are already looking devising ways to get the best out of what is now the fastest growing sports in the world.

According to iNews, Esports bets will inevitably go over the $45 billion mark this year, a sum that is bound to attract the attention of fixers. Already, a number of Esports players and fixers have already, been banned and, in some cases, even imprisoned for cases of match-fixing. Similarly, last year, the Esports Integrity Coalition is reported to have received 39 suspicious betting reports with at least 13 of them being genuine fixes.

Apparently, no game is harder to detect fixing in than Esports since it is a product of geography, technology as well as its relative newness. About 15 percent of traditional sports betting in the world is fully legal and this makes it rather easy for anti-fraud and anti-fixing bodies to trace and follow betting patterns in order to identify game fixing. On the other hand, only 4 percent of Esports betting in the world is fully legal.

According to Ian Smith, the head of the Esports Integrity Coalition, the low numbers are partially due to the fact that Esports is most popular in East Asian countries like South Korea and China, where, as it turns out, traditional sports betting is illegal. Even in the United States where Esports has been going nowhere but up, 99 percent of Esports betting is illegal, even though with the recent Supreme Court ruling that revoked a federal ban on sports betting. Still, all these factors make match-fixing in Esports very hard to detect and even when detected, just as impossible to track.

Is Regulation the Answer?

New Esports games are constantly being invented and popularizes and this makes it harder to ascertain what should and what should not be regulated. This is unlike the cases with traditional sports where there is an abundance of history and data that can be used to inform anti-fixing bodies about criminal activities of this kind.

“If you get an alert in say cricket you can be reasonably certain – 80 or 90 percent – that there is something wrong,” explained Ian Smith. “In eSports, it’s kind of the opposite – because it’s all a little bit chaotic and new and changeable, about 90 percent of alerts don’t mean anything and only 10 percent do.”

The main takeaway here is that the institutional weakness of Esports makes it particularly susceptible to match-fixing simply because we still do not have a universally accepted governing body for the activity. The formation of such a body is perhaps the only way to keep the rapidly growing Esports ecosystem from being a serious criminal enterprise.

Integrity Fee Included in New N.J. Sports Betting Bill

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Just a few days ago, a top lawmaker in New Jersey called for all governors to reject the efforts by pro sports leagues to have an “integrity fee” on sports betting revenue included in the various states’ sports wagering laws. State Senate President Steve Sweeney, the lawmaker who also happens to have championed the state’s efforts to have the federal ban on sports betting overturned, said that the demands by the leagues are tantamount to “extortion.”

“Essentially, the leagues are asking to be paid to allow games to be played fairly,” Sweeney wrote. “Ironically, they are calling this extortion attempt an `integrity fee,’ even while fully aware that providing participants a stake in the volume of betting would amount to what could more accurately be called an ‘anti-integrity fee.’”

Sweeney expressed concern that the leagues had blatantly shifted their focus on getting a piece of the sports betting pie instead of concentrating on the integrity of their games. The lawmaker’s sentiments are quite justifiable especially considering the fact that, prior to realizing the inevitability of the abolishment of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA), the leagues had spent millions of dollars fighting against the sports betting laws in New Jersey.

“The Leagues fought with all of their resources to stop states from allowing their citizens to legally wager on sports,” Sweeney wrote in a letter that was addressed to the governors and lawmakers in all 50 states. “Now that their efforts have been ultimately unsuccessful they wish themselves to make ‘the fast buck’ and to ‘get something for nothing.’ Essentially, the Leagues are asking to be paid to allow games to be played fairly…. Taking the Leagues at their word, giving them a ‘piece of the action,’ would make suspicions grow whenever turning-point calls in close games go in favor of the more popular team — whose presence in the ‘big game’ would drive ratings and betting.”

New Jersey, however, chose to take a different approach – the state introduced a new bill with a proposed integrity fee, only that its version of the integrity fee is completely different from the ones in other bills and the one that the professional sports leagues have been lobbying for.

What It Entails

The proposed integrity fee, called the Sports Wagering Integrity Fund, diverges from the other bills mostly because it will be controlled by the state instead of the leagues. The idea is to bypass the pro sports leagues’ push for the 1 percent integrity fee on handles while at the same time offering them an alternative to ensure that do not miss out entirely on the fund’s coffers.

The draft bill states that all the money deposited into the Sports Wagering Integrity Fund will be channeled towards the recovery of any costs and expenses incurred during investigations that will be carried out in order to maintain the integrity of sports betting.