Josh Andrews

Pro Sports Leagues Prepare For Legal Betting Ahead of Ruling

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Across the states of Arizona and Florida, professional baseball teams are getting ready for the inevitable surprises of a 162-game season. Players and coaches often use spring training so as to limit unknown variables and this year Major League Baseball is following suit.

By mid-season, baseball fans in some states might finally be able to place legal bets on baseball games and as such, Major League Baseball (MLB) officials are well aware that they cannot afford to wait till then to get things planned out. The league’s preparations have already begun with players from each and every team being given “enhanced education” this spring on sports betting. The same goes for both coaches and umpires.

The United States Supreme Court is expected to deliver a ruling that will certainly have a huge impact on sports gambling in the country. The most anticipated culmination would be the abolishment of the 25-year old federal law that outlawed sports betting in all but one state, Nevada. The other states have always had the liberty of allowing or prohibiting fans from wagering on sports but – not many have legalized sports betting and this is what makes the prospects of legalized sports betting so exciting to fans.

“We’re realistic that sports betting in all likelihood is going to expand in the United States,” MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said on a conference call with reporters a week ago.

All the four major United States sport professional sports leagues have been buckling up in preparation for the ruling. In fact, some are even eager about what the new world could bring after the court’s decision. Furthermore, they have all been, to varying extents, offering their players some education that includes analytics that monitors betting data. In addition to this, the league have been working tirelessly towards researching the best possible partnerships and business opportunities that will definitely open up new revenue streams.

Russia’s New Online Gambling Laws Raises Stars Group Concern

Reading Time: 2 minutes

As part of 2017’s earnings reports, renowned gambling operator Stars Group pointed out that the Russian gambling market would be a potentially troublesome one in 2018. The earnings report also included what the online gambling operator is expecting to make this year with the figures further including assumptions that Russia would be introducing and implementing new online gambling rules that will essentially make it harder to process payments for Russian players.

There has been no official explanation from Russian officials in regards to the implementation of the new law that is likely to be enforced as from May 25. However, it is expected that the regulations will restrict banks from partnering with foreign payment processors or gambling operators that have been blacklisted by the Russian government.

While the new atmosphere will certainly not kill the Russian online gambling market, it undoubtedly has the potential of clamping down on the size of the gambling industry in the country. This is we put into consideration a similar scenario in the United States where the online gambling industry was clamped down after the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) was passed back in 2006. In the likely case that this occurs, the Stars Group will take quite a hit especially because the Russian online gambling market accounts for a huge chunk of its global market.

Stars Group Working on Contingencies

The effects of the changes that the Russian government is going to make is off-putting for investors but Stars Group is not giving up so easily. Rafi Ashkenazi, the Stars Group CEO said that he and his team are already working on contingencies that will help the company to deal with anything that the Russian government throws at them.

“We have plan As and plan Bs and plan Cs for every type of scenario that may happen in the market,” Ashkenazi told analysts. “We are monitoring, we are assessing, and we are ready.”

The concerns that were raised about the Russian gambling market were shared as part of an overall earnings reports which showed a steady 2017 for Stars Group – this encompassed both PokerStars as well as the group’s other online gambling sites. Total annual revenue went up 13.6 percent for fiscal 2017, summing up to over $1.3 billion. The same goes for other earnings as well – the net earnings rose by over 25 percent within the same period.

Bitcoin Mining Has Just Been Banned in Small New York Town

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Plattsburgh, a small lakeside town in northeastern New York has banned the establishment of new bitcoin mining firms for the next year and a half citing the fact that the miners have been exploiting its low-cost electricity. This comes at about the same time that the New York public utilities arm gave a ruling that allowed the municipal power authorities to charge higher electricity rates for cryptocurrency miners.

The town which is quite close to the Canadian border put the one and a half year moratorium on cryptocurrency mining in a bid to preserve its natural resources, the health of its residents as well as the “character and direction” of the city. Thus, for the next 18 months, the city will not be considering any new applications for commercial cryptocurrency mining. Breaking this rule will attract a fine amounting to $1,000 daily for the period that the moratorium is violated.

“It is the purpose of this Local Law to facilitate the adoption of land use and zoning and/or municipal lighting department regulations to protect and enhance the City’s natural, historic, cultural and electrical resources,” Plattsburgh officials said after holding a public hearing on the matter Thursday.

Cryptocurrency mining is the process by which mining firms or individuals get paid with cryptocurrencies for running complex mathematical equations on high-powered computers in order to confirm the validity of transactions. This process needs enormous computing power and thus is very energy-intensive hence miners will almost naturally be drawn to areas with significantly lower electricity costs. Thanks to its hydropower plants and the subsidies that some of the municipal power authorities allow on the electricity, some parts of New York are able to offer electricity rates that are as competitive as the Chinese bitcoin mining market. Furthermore, the naturally lower temperatures in the state also significantly reduce the cost of cooling facilities at the mining firms.

It Is a Positive Move, Some Agree

While this might not be a favourable ruling for cryptocurrency miners, one local bitcoin mining operation, Plattsburgh BTC, has expressed its support for the ruling. David Bowman, the founder and CEO of the bitcoin mining firm said in an email that the move was a positive one for both the city of Plattsburgh and crypto mining as a whole.

“We will be actively working with the city right away to find solutions that work in all of our interests, like possibly shutting off the machines if we are in danger of going over the city’s quota, looking into energy recapture as a way to heat buildings,” he added. “Anything is on the table.”

Two More Major Esports Player Associations Are in the Works

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Esports just keeps getting better and better in almost every way possible with the most recent development being the move to put together player associations to cater for professional video gamers who play Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Overwatch. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s association will include players in the FACEIT ECS as well as the ESL Pro. It is led by attorney Michael Doi and Esports broadcaster Scott “SirScoots” Smith.

In an interview with Sports Business Journal, Scott Smith said that the Counter-Strike Professional Players Association (CSPPA) will not be looking to establish itself as a United States Union simply because Counter-Strike players originate from many different parts of the world. However, the association will be working towards signing all of the 255 professional players.

“Every day I sign another guy,” he said. “I would say 70 or so have signed an official membership document that they are for the players association, are behind the players association, they want to be in the players association.”

There has not been any official news regarding the Overwatch players association but the officials have confirmed that formal details on the same will be availed in around four months. The Overwatch player association efforts are being led by former player and Overwatch coach Thomas “Morte” Kerbusch and sports labour attorney Ellen Zavian. It is reported that the Overwatch association is likely to be modelled after existing U.S. unions like the National Football League (NFL) Players Association.

“I don’t see this [players association] as any different than any other PA just because it’s eSports,” Zavian said. “So this isn’t something that will be a lighthearted step. This will be a big step.”

If the two associations are formed successfully they will be joining the Riot Games’ League of Legends players association that is ran by Hal Biagas. Esports player associations are still in the very first stages of development but many agree that it is certainly a logical step for competitive video gaming as it draws nearer to being a mainstream activity, just like traditional professional sports.

Nevada’s Anti-Online Poker AG Running for Governor

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Nevada’s Attorney General Adama Laxal on Tuesday announced via his Twitter account that he had officially filed the necessary paperwork to run for the state’s Governor this fall. This particular move has caught the eye of the gambling community, especially poker enthusiasts since the lawmaker is extremely against online poker and he has been very vocal about it.

Laxalt’ stance with regard to online poker became known towards the end of 2015 when he confirmed that he would be signing a letter with some other state Attorney Generals in support of Sheldon Adelson’s Restoration of America’s Wire Act (RAWA) bill. Sheldon Adelson, the CEO of the renowned Las Vegas Sands Corp., is known for being a Republican donor and his passionate campaign towards having online gambling completely outlawed in the United States. This is despite the fact that online gambling is now legal in four states, a number that is likely to increase soon, and that a number of Las Vegas Sands Corp.’s competitors like Caesars Entertainment and MGM Resorts are backing online gaming.

The aspiring Governor reiterated his position in 2016 in a letter addressed to the then newly-elected Donald Trump Administration. In the letter, Laxalt, along with nine other state Attorney Generals asked for online poker to be banned. However, unfortunately for them, President Donald Trump, who happens to be a former casino owner and operator took a neutral stance in this case.

Furthermore, the online gambling ban at the federal level is rather unlikely owing to the vast bipartisan opposition. In fact, a decent number of stakeholders and interested parties have pointed out that a ban of such kind will violate states’ rights. Laxalt, who allegedly has other controversial ties to Adelson, has been strongly rebuked by fellow Republican, Sandoval, over this.

“I am very concerned that anyone representing the state’s legal interests would speak out against current state law in our leading industry,” Sandoval said. “At its core, this is a state’s rights issue and I disagree with the Attorney General that a federal government one-size-fits-all solution is in the best interest of Nevada.”

Sandoval is the former state regulator that signed Nevada’s online poker legislation. He also brokered the online poker liquidity sharing deals with Delaware and New Jersey. Both of these actions were an effort towards growing or nurturing the regulated online poker market.

Dafabet Closes UK-Facing Online Casino amid Regulatory Heat

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Renowned online gambling operator Dafabet has recently announced that it will be exiting the United Kingdom’s online gambling market, a move that is speculated to have been triggered by the ongoing regulatory pressure within that particular field.

Dafabet’s United Kingdom-facing online casino stopped accepting deposits from its customers last week on March 8. The players now have up to Tuesday, March 20, to withdraw their funds from the online betting site. Fortunately for the operator’s customers, their player balances will be automatically returned through the deposit methods they used to register if the will not have made withdrawals by the specified withdrawal deadline. Also, sports betting fans have nothing to worry about as Dafabet also assure their users that the sports betting operations will not be affected by the closure of their casino business.

As it stands, Dafabet is the most popular and the biggest brand of Philippine-based AsianBGE, its parent company. Its operation in the United Kingdom is backed by a license from the UK Gambling Commission but this is not the only place it excels at – the operator also sponsors Premier League’s Burnley F.C. Dafabet signed a £2.5-million sponsorship deal with the football club for the 2017-2018 football season which represents a £0.5 million increase from the previous soccer season.

UK’s Prevailing Storm Regulatory Atmosphere

The UK Gambling Commission recently discovered multiple violations by a number of its licensees and now, in conjunction with the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), it has begun a regulatory crackdown that targets the erring operators as well as their affiliate partners.

The nature of the violations that the UK Gambling Commission range from breaches of advertising codes to inadequate anti-money laundering controls among a few others. The CMA has taken action with the most recent being in the form of a written warning that was addressed to a number of online gambling operators. The writing specifically pointed out the terms and practices that the operators have put in place to obstruct their customers from accessing their funds. These included the unreasonably low withdrawal limits, the short deadlines for players to verify their identities in order to be allowed to withdraw their funds as well as the so-called “dormancy” terms that allow the operators to confiscate customer funds after a given period of time when the customer accounts have had no activity.

The UK Gambling Commission will be working with other regulators in changing the rules and ensuring that both new and existing operators are probed more stringently to ascertain that they truly are capable of fully complying with all the laid out regulatory laws, terms and conditions.

Alibaba Endorses Non- Violent Esports Titles for Olympics

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Alibaba Group Holding Limited has come out to publicly promote the inclusion of competitive video gaming among other Olympic games so long as the games do not feature elements of gore or violence. The company, which is the largest e-commerce company and also an Esports business operator in one of the sponsors of the Olympics Games through to 2018. The games that the e-commerce company is endorsing for the Olympics include soccer, car racing among many Olympic-friendly games.

This move will essentially ban some of Esports most beloved titles from the Olympics. For obvious reasons, League of Legends, as well as PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, will definitely not make the cut for Olympic inclusion. The two Esports titles are distributed by Tencent Holdings Limited in China, one of Alibaba’s competitors.

Esports has grown to become one of the biggest entertainment businesses, drawing in spectators to huge arenas where the video gamers compete for prizes and glory. Statistical projections see the business soaring to up to $5 billion in annual revenue from ticket sales, broadcast rights, advertising and merchandising.

“In our communication with the Olympics committee, we’ve come to have a better understanding of their values, which is to promote peace,” Alisports chief executive office Zhang Dazhong said in a telephone interview. “That’s why for the future development of esports, we will focus more on titles that are actually related to sports, instead of games that focus on violence and slaughter.”

Alibaba has been very serious about its venture into Esports – it is investing $47 million in Esports this year through to march. The company will also be hosting the World Electronic Sports Games this week and being a member of the International Olympic Committee, Alibaba officials will also be attending to observe.

According to Zhang, game producers will need to be open to the idea of having to share their intellectual property for free at events. Also, the titles need to have a considerably large fan base to be considered for the Olympics.

“We think as a third party Esports organizer we’re a better match for principles that the Olympics promotes, which is fairness,” Zhang said, adding that Alibaba will boost its investment in its Esports unit in 2018.

India Can’t Regulate Bitcoin, Says Former Indian Bureaucrat

Reading Time: 2 minutes

India has been struggling with regulating cryptocurrencies for quite some time now mostly because of the strong aversion the governments has towards digital currencies but they are yet to ban any. Now, a former Indian top finance ministry official insists that bitcoin, as well as other cryptocurrencies, should be completely banned in the country.

Shaktikanta Das, who is a former secretary of economic affairs, believes that regulating bitcoin is going to be quite tough and thus the only feasible alternative would be to outlaw their use. Das headed the Indian government’s first panel that was set up in April 2017 in a bid to understand and recommend necessary regulations pertaining to cryptocurrencies. Currently, Das is a member of the 15^th finance commission which has been tasked with reviewing the financial situation of the present government.

“Let us accept that it would not be possible to regulate it effectively. Because they will do transactions from their houses. You cannot enter every home to check what transactions are going on. So, I think this is a serious challenge, and this should not be allowed at all,” Das said.

The Indian government’s aversion to cryptocurrencies can be traced back to 2013 when the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) warned its customers against the potential security threats that were associated with digital currencies. Despite this, and multiple other warnings from the country’s ministry of finance and the RBI that followed since then, cryptocurrencies have grown in popularity even among people who were considered to be “conservative” Indian investors.

Why Das’ Opinion Matters

Shaktikanta Das has held a number of key positions in India’s ministry of finance including being the head of the departments of economic affairs and revenue. He has also served as a board member of the Indian market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India and the Reserve Bank of India – both institutions play a monumental role in the drafting of cryptocurrency regulations in India.

Das argues that since the Reserve Bank of India is the only institution allowed to issue currency in India, cryptocurrencies are essentially illegal. He further pointed out that cryptocurrencies are paralleling present financial frameworks without any backing from legal provisions.

“There is the danger of cryptocurrencies leading to money laundering, terror financing, and unaccounted transactions. It will pose a serious threat to the financial stability not only of India, and in fact more, in the case of the developed world,” he added. “It’s a serious challenge and threat to global financial stability.”

MARVEL’s Heather Antos Leaves for Editor-in-Chief Role

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Marvel Comics’ assistant editor Heather Antos is leaving the comic book publisher to become the Editor-in-Chief of Esports betting platform Unikrn – the position was previously held by Ryan Jurado, who has now been reassigned to be the betting platform’s Head of Global Content.

Antos, who previously worked as a comic’s editor on Unlawful Good: An Anthology of Crime, produce on a number web series such as Lagged Out and a journalist for sites like Geek Legacy, has been an Assistant Editor at Marvel Comics since 2015. Her work as an editor at Marvel Comics, principally for the Stars Wars and Deadpool franchises saw to the tremendous growth of both lines of comic books which has earned them very strong critical and commercial success over the past couple of years. Also, this made the star editor herself a public face for Marvel Comics both on social platforms as well as every popular comic convention we can think of.

In 2017, Heather Antos also became the focus of online harassment that led to the #MarvelMilkShakes solidarity hashtag from across the comic book industry. Apparently, Antos will be leaving Marvel Comics simply because she has been presented the opportunity of a lifetime at Unikrn, and not because of any issues that may have come up between her and her former employer.

“Plot twist! In today’s chapter of the Heather Antos Chronicles, I’m making a leap from Marvel comics to video games & Esports as editor-in-chief of Unikrn,” Antos tweeted. “It’s been a long-time goal of mine to branch out into the video game & competitive Esports world. To do so under the guidance & leadership of Rahul Sood and Ryan Jurado is something I never would’ve thought possible. I absolutely cannot wait to dig my heels in & get running!”

Antos will be tasked with managing and overseeing all the editorial content, tournament coverage, podcasts as well as video content.

A Little Insight into Unikrn

The Las Vegas, Nevada-based Unikrn is considered to be the world’s best Esports betting platform – its success can be attested by the many offices they have across some of the world’s most popular cities such as Berlin, Germany and Sydney, Australia.

The Esports betting platform primarily offers real money wagering as well as token-based betting on nearly all the available competitive video gaming tournaments from across the world. Unikrn essentially creates betting markets on Esports in a manner that can be likened to the way traditional sports betting is operated. The platform’s users are allowed to bet legally free from any part of the world using Unikrn’s own cryptocurrency that is referred to as Unikoin. Players from the United Kingdom and a few other areas are even allowed to place bets using real money but this number is likely to grow in the near future.

Sands Exits Pennsylvania Casino Market as Online Poker Nears

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Last fall, Pennsylvania legalized online casino despite strong opposition from billionaire casino boss Sheldon Adelson who owns and operates Las Vegas Sands Corp. The company has been operating a casino-resort, Sands Bethlehem, for years now but the establishment is being sold off before the United States Supreme Court delivers a ruling that will bring legal online gambling in the state.

Sands officially announced on Friday that the company had entered into an agreement to sell the Sands Bethlehem casino-resort for a whopping $1.3 billion to a group known as Wind Creek Hospitality which is an affiliate of the Poarch Band of Creek Indians of Alabama. The $1.3 billion itself is not a bad return for Las Vegas Sands Corp., per se, since the property was built for $743 million before it was launched in 2009. Since then, Sands Bethlehem was among the most successful casino businesses in Pennsylvania’s $3 billion-a-year casino gambling market.

As mentioned earlier, since Sheldon’s the company is not really pro-online gambling, the sale is sort of a reaction to the legalization of online poker to Pennsylvania even though it came months after the state made the ruling. However, Sands Bethlehem is not the only gambling establishment that has felt the pinch – a good number of the other Pennsylvanian casinos have been forced to go back to the drawing board and find out how they can compete in the online space.

“Sands Bethlehem has become one of the leading regional entertainment and gaming destinations in the United States and we are extremely proud of the positive contributions the property has made for Bethlehem and eastern Pennsylvania,” Sheldon Adelson said in a statement about the sale.

Sands Bethlehem has maintained a great track record of success in Pennsylvania especially due to its 36-table poker room that is considered to be among the best places in the state. Fortunately for the casino’s customers, the casino’s management has assured players that the sale will not affect its operations and they can continue enjoying everything that the casino-resort has to offer.