Author: Josh Andrews

As an avid follower of the crypto world from the beginning since early 2010, Josh has experienced and covered every drop, turn and rise of Bitcoin from the first halving to the countless attempts of regulation. Over the years Josh has developed a keen interest in the different applications and uses of Bitcoin and its current movement within the gambling industry. It's safe to say very few can match Josh's passion for the growth and development of Bitcoin.

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.

Ellen DeGeneres Has Been Hosting High-Stakes Poker Games

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Turns out, Ellen DeGeneres is a poker freak. The talk show regularly hosts high-stakes poker games at the California home where she stays with wife Portia De Rossi, but only Hollywood’s top names are invited to play.

Wait, is it legal? Well, of course, the games are completely legal in California. Reportedly, Ellen’s poker games are pretty huge, sometimes racking up pots worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. However, the poker games have drawn so much attention since they show Ellen’s life outside her famous TV show – this is likened to her dark side.

According to Radar Online, the comedienne has a tendency of not holding anything back during the games – some of the participants of her poker games have described her as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde of sorts with poker being her medicine of choice. A recent invitee gave an account of how she was not able to keep up with the game and this earned her Ellen’s wrath and rage for supposedly ‘ruining the game.’ This frightened the guest and caused her so much grief that she eventually decided to fold her cards and get away from Ellen’s $18.6 million oceanfront property.

The invitee, whose identity remains undisclosed said that “The energy around the table was very tense. Ellen threw a tantrum, and her screams echoed through the halls as frightened guests looked on in sheer disbelief!”

Is Too Unbelievable?

Obviously, this is definitely not the image that DeGeneres has been portraying on TV ever since she began her stand-up comedy routines in the late 70s. It was about the same time that Ellen made an appearance on the Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in 1986. Since then, Ellen has appeared in a number of films including the massively successful Finding Nemo and Finding Dory animated film. She also starred in a self-titled show, Ellen, for 1994 to 1998 before jumping on to her talk show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show in 2003. Her Show has earned her 29 Daytime Emmy Awards alongside a Primetime Emmy Awards, two Grammy Award nominations as well as three more Golden Globes nominations.

Chelsea Handler, Melissa Etheridge, and Olivia Munn are some of the few Hollywood bigwigs who have been courageous enough to risk their pride by going against Ellen. All the attendees describe the games as tense and dark especially because they had to be careful not to step on the hosts, toes. Sometimes, she even throws objects in the room if things do not go her way.

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.

Zeroedge Is Offering Esports Betting With Zero Commission

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The past few years have seen online sports betting grow tremendously which has eventually led it to its current state of being the leading form of online gambling in many parts of the world. Esports, a rather new and interesting niche in the world online sports betting, has also been increasing in popularity over the past decade and sooner than later it might be just as mainstream as the other sports leagues – it is already a close competitor to the leagues.

The Rise of Crypto Casinos

Cryptocurrencies have undoubtedly grown on nearly everyone in the online gambling space. However, Esports betting at emerging or established online crypto-powered casinos may not be already as polished as gamblers may desire but in most cases, the pickings are just slim – this is because not many of them are dedicated Esports betting operations.

Zeroedge online casino offers the solution to this problem with its cryptocurrency-based operation that also includes the casino’s own in-house unique cryptocurrency known as ZeroCoin. Zeroedge is one of the few online casinos that are exclusively offering Esports betting opportunities to bettors. To sweeten the deal, the casino further offers an unheard of and an unprecedented zero commission for all the games offered on the site.

Why Is Zeroedge Such a Big Deal?

Well, it is essentially the world’s first online casino that offers two unique advantages to the general online gambling community – the first being the fact that it runs exclusively on a cryptocurrency (ZeroCoin) and the second being that it will be offering a true zero percent house edge to its players. Most casinos usually stack the odds in their favor which makes it very difficult for players to win. Zeroedge, on the other and, does not profit from the losses that its customers incur and instead it benefits from the increased value of ZeroCoin, which is apparently Zero Edge Casino networks’ main economy driver.

Being that the casino offers zero percent edge on casino games, there has been an increase in demand for ZeroCoin which in turn has resulted in an increase in its value. Players are still able to play zero percent games as the price of ZeroCoin rises and they are also not required to pay any fixed amount of money in order to place bets. To achieve this sort of “free” gaming, players are subjected to a closed loop economy where the only requirement is that they buy the casino’s token with fiat currencies or other cryptocurrencies and since the supply of ZeroCoin is limited, its value is directly proportional t demand.

This is further facilitated by Blockchain & Smart contract technology which allow for the creation of a fully transparent and truly fair gambling ecosystem where players not only have more opportunities to participate but they are also offered true chances of winning while at the same time being part of a much larger community where social inclusion and mutual values are fostered.

U.S. Senator Demands Government Oversight over Loot Boxes

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Many gambling addiction experts, psychologists and state lawmakers in the United States are of the opinion that loot boxes are essentially a form of gambling hiding in plain sight and targeting minors. Loot boxes refer to the random assortments of prizes purchased by video game players who hope to acquire certain desired – and virtual – powers. This can be likened to the way people play at slot machines with the hope of hitting the jackpot. It is perhaps because such a comparison can be drawn that various experts are calling for government oversight as far as loot boxes are concerned.

It, therefore, did not come as a surprise when New Hampshire Democrat, Senator Maggie Hassan, made the first move towards the proposed loot box initiative in the U.S. It begun with a letter that she wrote to Patricia Vance, the president of the Entertainment Software Ratings Board which is responsible for designing the warning labels for parents and guardians on video game products. In the letter, Senator Hassan asked Vance to not only consider having a warning on product packages pertaining to the presence of loot boxes in the video games but also to have an in-depth look at the practice.

Senator Hassan further took up the issue with four nominees to the Federal Trade Commission during a hearing at the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee.

“In the past, the FTC has looked at video games, specifically the impact of violence in games,” Hassan pointed out during the hearing. “Do you agree that children being addicted to gaming and activities like loot boxes that might make them more susceptible to addiction is a problem that merits our attention? And depending on how the ESRB responds to my inquiry, would the FTC be willing to look at loot boxes as an issue independently?”

All the Four Trade Commission nominees agreed to look into the possibility of examining federal oversight of loot boxes. This move has been hailed as a highly ethical and considerate one, especially by the gambling addiction community who have always considered loot boxes in video games to be dangerous predatory forms of gambling that target minors.

Here Is Why It Might Actually Go Through

Loot boxes came under the spotlight last holiday as a result of consumer outrage caused by Electronic Arts’ Star Wars Battlefront II players who complained about the way people who bought loot boxes had an upper edge over other gamers. The player backlash had such a huge impact on the sales and that it led the company to a damage control mode that saw it temporarily disable the loot box purchases.

However, both the ESRB and Electronic Arts have maintained that loot boxes cannot be likened to gambling since people who purchase them are not left empty-handed unlike in gambling where players are even given prizes that they are not interested in. Meanwhile, lawmakers in Hawaii have already begun to move legislation that will impact the way loot boxes are used. One of these legislations, if passed, will restrict the sale of video games with loot boxes only to person above the age of 21 and the other intends to make it necessary for special labeling to be included on the games that offer loot boxes.

UK MPs Launch Inquiry into Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain

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The United Kingdom Treasury yesterday announced that it would be launching an inquiry into bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as well as the underlying blockchain technology. The investigation will involve MPs who will be investigating whether bitcoin and altcoin technologies pose a risk to central banking – the investigation is largely considered to be a forewarning for an inevitable attempt to crackdown on cryptocurrencies. Whichever way this will play out is another story altogether.

The probe expects to draw out a distinct conclusion that outlines both the benefits and the risks that come with cryptocurrencies – this will be prerequisite to talks on how it should be regulated in the long run.

To put everything into perspective, the chair of the Treasury Committee, Nicky Morgan pointed out that “People are becoming increasingly aware of cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, but they may not be aware that they are currently unregulated in the UK, and there is no protection for individual investors.”

The Treasury Committee’s probe follows the great deal of attention that cryptocurrencies, especially bitcoin, have been attracting in the past year. The situation seems to have gotten out of hand with the increased volatility of some of the cryptocurrencies’ prices fluctuating wildly in very short periods of time and experts failing to agree on the causes or even on predictions for the future prices or value for said cryptocurrencies. The Treasury Committee, therefore, intends to study how overseas governments have gone about the issue and pick out a few points from them.

South Korea, for instance, recently introduced new regulations that restricted people from anonymous cryptocurrency trading in a bid to protect investors in the country from scams. This particular move seems to be the focal point of the Treasury Committee’s yet to be unveiled regulation-based effort with Ms. Morgan clarifying that ‘the inquiry will explore how to achieve a balance between regulating digital currencies to provide adequate protection for consumers and businesses whilst not stifling innovation.’

“We will also examine the potential benefits of cryptocurrencies and the technology underpinning them, how they can create innovative opportunities, and to what extent they could disrupt the economy and replace traditional means of payment,” Ms. Morgan continued.

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.

Looking For Inspiration? Five Great Gambling Movies for You

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Everybody loves a good Netflix and chill; a romantic comedy, or maybe an interesting documentary. But sometimes all we (gamblers) want to see is the thrill of the pleasant and disobedient air of outstanding gambling movies, whether it is the witty ones, the more gritty ones or just the plain old slick type.

So, from the vast library of Netflix, we have found a few interesting gambling themed movies that are probably the best that the streaming service has to offer. Well, yes, of course, everybody has been making a fuss about some new blockbusters but that will soon pass, but the movies we are recommending are definitely worth watching twice. And if cinema is your thing then we have some honorable mentions for you.

  1. Donnie Brasco

To kick things off we begin with this movie which many people consider to be an absolute classic. Having a star-studded cast that includes a young Al Pacino and an even younger Johnny Depp makes the movie ooze of great and captivating storytelling. The movie is a dark, gritty timeless classic brilliance that should be at the top of your watch, depending on how fast you can get to it.

  1. Hoodlum

Featuring Laurence Fishburne, Tim Roth, and Vanessa Williams, Hoodlum is based on real-life events. The story is based on the activities of black gangs who battled it out with the Italian mob for control over the Harlem numbers racket in the 1930s. This falls on the grittier end but it does give some valuable life lessons.

  1. The Gambler

The title tells it all for this one. Starring Jessica Lange, John Goodman and Mark Wahlberg, The Gambler tells the story of a professor with huge gambling debts who then plots to win big by plotting with one of his basketball star students to save shots during a game. This one delivers more than just a captivating story as it openly portrays the realities of the gambling world.

  1. Win It All

This will probably turn up in Netflix search for ‘gambling movies’ and it indeed deserves a top spot owing to the brilliance that it boasts of. It stars Jake Johnson and the ever-amazing Keegan-Michael Key in an action-packed drama that sees the lead character eventually come out on top.

  1. What Happens In Vegas

What Happens in Vegas boasts of a truly outstanding cast consisting of the ever-brilliant Cameron Diaz, the magnificent Ashton Kutcher as well as the great Rob Corddry. It tells the story of two strangers who awaken to find that they have gotten married after a night of intense partying and hitting the Vegas casino tables.

And there you go folks. Have a great movie break. Just make sure you pay attention to the details – you might actually learn a thing or two.

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.