Josh Andrews

Whales Cut Back as The Sharks Begin to Circle Bitcoin

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Bitcoin has yet again made the news as it always does with last Friday’s heartbreaking 30 percent price drop that saw it lose nearly a quarter of its price after reaching an all-time high last Monday. The 30 percent plunge that occurred in less than 24 hours does not leave a burning hole in anyone’s pocket especially if you have been stocking bitcoin for a long time – however, it is quite disappointing for bitcoin enthusiasts who have been rallying behind mainstream acceptance and real-world use of the decentralized digital currency.

As such, a number of high profile members of the cryptocurrency old guard have started to bail out of with some like Emil Oldenburg opting for spin-off bitcoin cryptocurrency Bitcoin Cash which is considered to be better for payment processing, unlike its rigid older counterpart. Other members like Litecoin founder Charlie Lee have been selling rival tokens as a means to supposedly steer away from conflicts of interest in the aggressively partisan crypto market.

Former Fortress Investment Group LLC and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. macro trader Michael Novogratz has shelved plans to launch a cryptocurrency hedge fund for fear of bitcoin extending its plunge to $8,000. Novogratz last week predicted that bitcoin would clock $40,000 in just a few months but his confidence has since diminished due to prevailing market conditions that have compelled him and company to re-evaluate their moves.

Bitcoin plunged to $10,776 before it recovered to $13,480 in New York – the last time it traded below $10,000 was in at the beginning of December after which it went on to double its price in preceding weeks up until the recent disastrous drop. The drop is a trying moment not just for bitcoin but also for the underlying blockchain technology that supports it. Even Coinbase which is one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges halted operations temporarily due to a significant jump of over 30 percent in the volume bitcoin transactions. Consequently, there were tremendous delays in processing wire transfers and verification of new customers in the past week.

The sharks are beginning to circle here, and the futures markets may give them a venue to strike. Bitcoin’s been heavily driven by retail investors, but there’ll be some aggressive funds looking for the right opportunity to hammer this thing lower. – Ross Norman, Sharps Pixley Ltd. CEO.

Fedor Holz Invests in eSports Company Envy Gaming Inc.

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Legendary poker pro, Fedor Holz, becomes the most recent public figure to jump onto the eSports train. According to ESPN, the German poker player acquired a minority stake in popular gaming company Envy Gaming. Inc. in the second quarter of 2017’s fiscal year. Envy Gaming is the parent company of the Dallas Fuel and the renowned Team Envy both of which Holz will be a minority owner.

The venture into the eSports world is certainly a bold move for the poker Phenom who has won nearly $27 million in live tournaments with the most recent being in the World Series of Poker (WSOP) $111,111 High Roller for One Drop where he cashed in nearly $5 million. During this event, Holz’s had left a few Easter eggs that hinted his intention to be an eSports entrepreneur – he donned a Team EnvyUS jersey at the final table which he won and then proceeded to announce that he would be spending less time playing poker so as to focus more on his entrepreneurial ventures.

Holz’s relationship with Envy was initially set off by his friendship with Nathan “NBK” Schmitt, a former Envy Gaming Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player who introduced him to Envy Gaming’s CEO Mike “Hastr0” Rufail. Holz expressed that his interest in joining the company was motivated by a number of reasons.

“I like to invest in things that I’m emotionally connected to because I feel that I contribute the most but I also get the most out of it,” Holz said in an interview with an ESPN reporter. “I like Envy, I like to watch, I like the way they build their infrastructure and team, take care of their players. And it was just a corporation I wanted to be a part of in some way.”

Envy Gaming which was founded in 2007 as a competitive Call of Duty team has already proven its success in the eSports industry – Team Envy bagged the 2016 eSports Team of the Year award at the NowTV ESports Industry Awards. Holz is confident that his input will come in handy especially in regards to mindset issues that may disrupt the performance of young players at the higher and more competitive levels.

“Talking to these players and seeing them myself, a lot of them still struggle with their mindset because they’re really young and the pressure starts really early,” Holz added. “I feel that the mindset or the way you approach the game has very low importance so far compared to more seen sports. I think we can bring some of that into the game, and I’d love to tackle more of that in the next year.”

How the Sports Industry is Being Disrupted by eSports

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It has been quite clear for a while now that the sports industry has been plagued by a plethora of issues – these include the drastic decline in live viewership as well as the possibility of the legalization of sports betting in all states which the leagues are not yet prepared for. The drastically declining live viewership has its roots deeply entrenched in the distribution model that has by all means been outdated. The dominant companies are to blame for this since they are responsible for the slow rollout and implementation of technological innovation in the industry – for instance, the NFL is still not allowing teams to post replay content on social media and FIFA snailed its way to the implementation of goal-line technology.

The sports industry has quite a lot to put up with and with the entry of eSports, the atmosphere is about to get even more competitive. eSports has been on a roll for a while now and as is stands, even people who are not avid gamers acknowledge its popularity. With the tremendous annual increase in viewership over the past couple of years, the eSports industry has bloomed rapidly thanks to the constant experimentation as well as the innovative ways it allows viewers to engage with online content.

Now, platforms like Twitch and even YouTube are facilitating the streaming of hundreds of games including popular eSports titles like League of Legends and Dota 2 both of which generate over 60 million viewed hours monthly. These numbers are significantly large and thus it is impossible to downplay the importance of game streaming especially after putting into consideration the current media landscape. eSports is breaking new grounds for content delivery and interactivity through a number of outstanding service models and this can be partially attributed to the inherently digital nature of eSports which makes the integration of new technologies rather easy and natural. On the same note, this presents new ways to cash in on revenues from different aspects of the eSports business models that are apparently way more efficient than those of regular sports. But why is there such a huge divide between the two?

As it turns out, eSports is more open to innovation, is very engaging and has the potential to grow into something much bigger. This does not necessarily mean that traditional sports completely lacks similar qualities – there are just a number of issues that are holding the industry back. One of the most significant being the dependence of large sports corporations like UEFA and FIFA on revenue streams from cable companies who in most cases buy rights to be the sole broadcasters of matches. It is rather obvious that this leaves regular sports in the stone age in terms of delivery as viewers are now migrating to streaming services. This is where the changes need to be initiated and many of them have already acknowledged the huge market shift and are already taking necessary steps towards regaining the lost glory. Meanwhile, eSports has never shown as much promise as it has now.

Mississippi Optimistic About Legalization of Sports Betting

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Of all the petitions in the United States Supreme court at the moment, the one involving the legalization of sports betting seems to be commanding a lot of attention especially among various stakeholders on both opposing and supporting sides. As it stands, legal experts, attorneys as well as states’ rights activists are very optimistic about the possibility that the Supreme Court will abolish the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 that effectively forbade sports betting in all the states save for Nevada.

On December 4^th, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments on whether sports betting should be legalized at New Jersey racetracks and casinos, and, Mississippi is one of the five states that officially backed New Jersey’s effort. In case the Supreme Court rules in favor of New Jersey Mississippi’s state officials and gaming operators are already prepared to offer sports betting services from the word go.

“Should the Supreme Court issue a favorable ruling, the Mississippi Gaming Commission will be ready to address sports gambling,” Allen Godfrey, executive director of the commission said. “The time would be determined more by how long it takes the operators to get ready to offer it as a regulated game.”

The ruling which is expected to come in the spring is already causing quite a stir in legal circles. While it is very difficult to accurately predict the outcome of the Supreme Court hearings, many court analysts have expressed their confidence in the ruling falling in favor of New Jersey.

State lawmakers in Mississippi have already tweaked the state’s laws pertaining to sports betting so as to create an opening for immediate implementation once a favorable ruling is made. In case this comes to pass, it will be the second big change in the state’s law after House Bill 967 that was passed by the Legislature in the 2017 session. Apparently, House Bill 967 holds the magic key to the immediate implementation of sports betting – the lawmakers managed to slip in some language that would effectively legalize sports betting in Mississippi once the ban is lifted. The lawmakers and legislative leaders, however, denied having prior knowledge of the loophole that they created when passing the fantasy sports gaming law.

“We did not see (House Bill 967) in the same light as sports betting. We knew there was a federal law that prohibited sports betting but allowed fantasy sports gaming,” Senator Sean Tindell said. “We weren’t concerned with sports betting then because we knew federal law would trump anything we could pass.”

A lot of people have been watching the Supreme Court case very closely and the results will have rather broad implications according to Jonathan Wood, an attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation, a Washington-based legal firm.

“If New Jersey wins, it means states have a lot of power to experiment on a lot of issues. If the leagues win, the federal government would effectively be telling states what laws their voters can or can’t pass,” he pointed out.

Bitcoin Will Hit $300,000 – $400,000 Says Research Analyst

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Ronnie Moas, the independent research analyst who in June predicted with a surprising degree of accuracy the surge in the price of bitcoin now has a new prediction for the decentralized digital currency. He believes that what the world of cryptocurrency has witnessed so far is just the beginning of bitcoin’s controversial journey that has a new end-game of about $300,000 to $400,000. Moas’ prediction in the summer stated that bitcoin would surpass $5,000 mark before the end of the year – which now seems to have been a very conservative prediction as the cryptocurrency soars towards the $20,000 mark. At the time, though, his predictions were considered to be wildly optimistic.

Moas, who is also the founder of Standpoint Research is betting his predictions on the hard limit on supply that will drive the demand for bitcoin to much higher than it is right now.

“I don’t know how much gold there is in the ground, but I know how much bitcoin there is, and in two years there will be 30 million people in the world trying to get their hands on a few million bitcoins,” he said in an interview with CNBC’s The Rundown. “This mind-boggling supply and demand imbalance is what is going to drive the price higher.”

“The end-game on bitcoin is that it will hit $300,000 to $400,000 in my opinion, and it will be the most valuable currency in the world.”

However, Moas’ aggressively bullish call does not go down well with other analysts who believe that it is only a matter of time before the bitcoin bubble bursts. Many believe that it is not only risky but also lacks the strong fundamental drivers to make it sustainable in the long run. Still, Moas is quite convinced that his predictions are rather conservative just like his prediction in the summer.

“I look at bitcoin the same way I look at Amazon,” he said. “The way to play Amazon for the last 15 years was to buy it, hold it, and add on the dips. That’s exactly the way I think people should be playing bitcoin.”

PokerStars Announces 2019 PokerStars Player’s Championship

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PokerStars live events are coming back with a bang after the site staggered through the past couple of years with their live tournament series. Stiff competition from rival sites that upped their game in the same period was bound to cause a bit of a stir in the industry and they have indeed given PokerStars a run for its money when it comes live poker festivals.

In response to the growing competition, Daniel Negreanu on behalf of PokerStars announced the PokerStars Players No-Limit Hold’em Championship (PSPC). The announcement that was made in Prague highlighted the juiciest $25,000 buy-in event that is set to be held in the Bahamas and is anticipated to be the best event come 2019.

There are, of course, a plethora of $25,000 buy-in events around, but PokerStars will be giving out 300 free Platinum Passes or PSPC packages each worth $30,000 in preparation for 2019 – this will be done all through 2018 and will also include hotel and travel expenses. As such, by the end of 2018, PokerStars will have pumped about $8 million into the championship’s prize pool with an additional $1 million to be added to the first-place prize as soon as the event kicks off on January 6^th, 2019.

“We expect the PokerStars Players No Limit Hold’em Championship will set the new global standard for live poker tournaments,” said Rafi Ashkenazi, the Chief Executive Officer of The Stars Group. “We want to demonstrate and reinforce our commitment to the game, and give something back to the players by investing in our live events in a meaningful way. Our objective is to create an event that brings professionals and amateurs together, creating many winning moments and unforgettable stories.”

Thanks to this new initiative, 300 ordinary or upcoming poker players will have a shot at playing alongside poker bigwigs for the mind-boggling prize money without having to battle through fields of thousands of players before they get to the final table. The next batch of Platinum Passes are to be awarded in the online Winter Series event that will take place from December 25^th to January 7^th – so be sure to add that to your calendar especially if you are not within U.S borders. More Platinum passes will be handed to poker players during the PSL Macau, IPO in Italy, PokerStars Festival London and all through 2018 till all the 300 Platinum Passes are in the hands of the lucky poker dreamers. Also, look out for the Platinum Passes at the PokerStars signature online series WCOOP, SCOOP as well as Sunday Million and Sunday Storm events.

Pennsylvanian Municipalities Act to Prohibit Casinos

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A recently passed legislation in Pennsylvania paves the way for the expansion of the state’s gambling by allowing up to 10 new casinos to be established within its jurisdiction. However, this endeavor has not been welcomed by some of Pennsylvania’s municipalities in the Centre County who are not for the idea of having a casino business operating in the area.

Just a couple of months ago on October 30^th, Democrat Governor Tom Wolf signed House Bill 271 into law – the law which backed by the concurring General Assembly authorized gambling expansion opportunities in every part of Pennsylvania. This expansion would, for instance, create up to 10 category 4 slot machine licenses in addition to Pennsylvania’s 12 currently operational commercial casinos. About 300 to 700 slot machines and 50 table games can be operated by each of the Category 4 casinos though, according to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, none of these casinos can be operated within 25 miles of the state’s existing Category 1, 2 or 3 casinos. The only exception would be in the case of an operator opening a category 4 casino that is within 25 linear miles of its own Category 1, 2 or 3 facility.

As it stands, the municipalities have the power to either prohibit or even opt out of a casino that is located within its borders. To do this, the municipality’s governing body is required to send a resolution to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board before the 1^st of January. A number of Centre County municipalities have already sent resolutions to prohibit the establishment of a casino.

The move by the municipalities is mostly driven by the long-term implications of gambling – the town’s residents believe that the casino would be a bad idea since most of the money that will be gambled and eventually lost will come from the town’s ordinary occupants. On the same note, they also did not see any benefits coming to the town as the mini-casinos would not be offering any ‘high-profile’ jobs to the county’s residents.

Any municipality that prohibits the location of a casino within its borders is allowed to revoke the prohibition, according to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board – however, upon revoking the prohibition, the municipality loses the right to prohibit the location of the casino again.

‘Entourage’ Star Jerry Ferrara to Scout Knicks eSports Team

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The New York Knicks has managed to recruit ‘Entourage’ actor Jerry Ferrara as the head scout for the entry into the upcoming NBA 2K eSports League.

“It came together naturally,” Ferrara said in an interview with ESPN on Thursday. “I’m an avid Knicks fan, and I love gaming. I currently have seven games that I love playing and following. But 2K is my Number 1.”

The 38-year-old actor also mentioned how his love for NBA started off after in the early 90s after he played some basketball video games such as the NBA Playoffs and Lakers versus Celtics on Sega Genesis. Ferrara, a Brooklyn native will be part of a team that will analyze games at a combine set to be held in February next year – the combine is intended to assist in team drafting in March in preparation for the new eSports league. Other than analyzing gamers, Ferrara will also serve as a creative consultant for the eSports team. He is very excited about analyzing the gamers at the combine to which he pointed out that he could not wait to “sit in the war room during the draft.” As far as his acting career is concerned, he says the Knicks will definitely understand that he may need to leave town every once in a while for an acting job – he, however, hopes that the current situation will allow him to spend at least a couple of days every week on the job.

“I’m hoping I can help with team chemistry,” Ferrara said. “And given my background, we’re going to do some cool things with digital so that fans can learn who our players are.”
“I’m convinced if I were born 10 years later, I’d be doing something in eSports. Maybe not a pro gamer but something in this industry.”

To qualify for the NBA eSports combine, the gamers will need to win 50 games in the pro-am mode of NBA 2K18 in January. Each of the 17 NBA teams that are expected to participate in the league will be required to draft a team in March before the 16-week season begins later in May.

Charlie Lee’s Thoughts on the Future of Bitcoin and Litecoin

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While nearly everyone has been glued to the Bitcoin price charts as it draws closer to the $20,000 mark after the launch of CBOE futures last Sunday, litecoin, which is considered to be the silver to bitcoin’s gold has not been left behind. The budding cryptocurrency just recently surpassed the $100 mark and with its current momentum, the price should continue rising despite warnings by its creator, Charlie Lee.

The warning that he wrote on twitter apparently came as a response to the near 300 percent rise of litecoin’s price in a little over 48 hours. It read: “Sorry to the spoil the party, but I need to reign in the excitement a bit… Buying LTC is extremely risky. I expect us to have a multi-year bear market like the one we just had where LTC dropped 90% in value ($48 to $4). So if you can’t handle LTC dropping to $20, don’t buy!”

Litecoin is now the fifth-largest cryptocurrency with over $15 billion worth of market capitalization having rallied nearly 8,000 percent this year. While this should come as no surprise especially considering the price trends of other decentralized digital currencies, more so bitcoin, Charlie Lee is really surprised by its growth this year. In a phone interview with CNBC’s Squawk Box, Lee pointed out that the frantic growth in the prices of various cryptocurrencies was an impeding factor to the wider adoption as well as mainstream acceptance since most cryptocurrency users are using them as speculative assets instead of the real-world transactions they were intended for. Due to this, he believes that it will be five more years before people finally start to use bitcoin and litecoin as a currency to make real-world transactions.

“Bitcoin is very volatile, and litecoin is even more volatile that bitcoin,” he said. “I just want to warn people that they should invest responsibly. Don’t spend all of your life savings to buy a cryptocurrency in case it drops 80 percent.”

With cryptocurrencies gaining more popularity by the day, the buzz has attracted a lot of scrutiny and a fair share of criticism from policymakers with a considerable number of them having huge doubts about the overall appeal of decentralized digital currencies as mediums of exchange and stores of value. In fact, some others have openly dismissed the need for investing in bitcoin and have warned investors not to do so either. Unlike many cryptocurrency purists who have expressed their concern over government interference, Lee has been quite welcoming to the prospects of more regulation for cryptocurrencies – and this might compel the doubtful lot to change their minds and be a little optimistic about cryptocurrency.

“I think increased regulation will help to reduce the volatility of the coin. A lot of the recent gains have had a lot to do with countries like (South) Korea and Japan really getting into the cryptocurrency space,” Lee pointed out.
“Ever since China banned the bitcoin exchanges, (South) Korea has really taken up the mantle. There is a lot of frenzy in (South) Korea right now and I think that’s driving up the price.”

Revel, Former Atlantic City Casino Headed for Sale

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With all the buzz that has been going on around the state of New Jersey between the tribal casino owners and MGM Resorts International, it seems that more parties are beginning to show an interest in getting a piece of the Atlantic City pie. Now, a Colorado company has filed for the license for former Atlantic City casino, Revel. The report which was issued by Moody’s Investors Service on Monday 11^th December 2017 details the plans of a Colorado firm to buy the now shuttered Revel casino for $200 million – the Colorado company which is known as AC Ocean Walk LLC also had to put up $100,000 as a non-refundable application fee. Moody’s Investor Service also went further and issued another report for the company’s plans for the casino once it is acquired. These plans included a projected May 2018 launch date – if everything goes as planned, that is. In the report, Mood’s Investor Service outlined that AC Ocean Walk LLC had also briefed the ratings agency on the financing and subsequent plans.

According to the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, AC Ocean Walk LLC which also happens to be controlled by Bruce Deifik applied for this license back in October and this application is the latest indication that it is only a matter of time before a deal for the sale of Revel casino is reached. Glenn Straub, the Florida developer who bought Revel casino out of bankruptcy about two years ago has however repeatedly denied claims of a deal to sell it off. Despite Straub’s consistent denials of the claims, the buyers are now in possession of mortgage details from a court proceeding that is set to determine whether he needs a casino license to reopen Revel under a different moniker, Ten.

Prior to its closure in September 2014, Revel had only been operational for only a little over two years within which it did not make any profit and also went bankrupt, not once, but twice. Regardless, AC Ocean Walk LLC believes that they could turn the tide on Revel’s ill luck thanks to the newness and the overall good condition of the property as well as the company’s ‘good liquidity.’