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The Trump Taj Mahal has been closed for three months, a black hole on the uptown end of the Atlantic City Boardwalk. Its owner, Carl Icahn, shows little serious desire to do anything to revive it. Last Wednesday, Atlantic City Mayor Don Guardian spoke with reporters after his State of Atlantic City speech at the… Read more »
I still don’t exactly get why daily fantasy sports is so much more acceptable to lawmakers than online poker (well, I do, but I am going to remain indignant about it), but hey, at least daily fantasy sports is gaining legal traction in the U.S. Some form of online gambling might as well. On Tuesday,… Read more »
Nervous about potential online gambling-ending legislation, internet gaming operators are making plans to bolt the Australian market. In the past week, the first domino fell, Vera&John, a site that sounds more like a place to order chocolate-dipped fruit than an online casino, told its Australian customers that their accounts will have to be closed. In… Read more »
According to the New York Post, Carl Icahn, whose Icahn Enterprises owns the Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City, is in discussions with other casino operators to sell the property. The former center of east coast poker closed on October 10th. Aside from making money, one of the reasons Icahn is looking to make… Read more »
Former Amaya, Inc. CEO David Baazov has ended his bid to purchase his former company and take it private. His offer was for CAD $24 per share, a 30 percent premium over Amaya’s stock price on November 11th, the date the offer was made. The total deal would have been worth nearly CAD $3.5 billion.… Read more »
Another daily fantasy sports (DFS) site – or should we say sites, plural – bites the dust. The iTEAM Network announced yesterday that it is shutting down. Customers of the network’s sites should not have anything to fear, though, as a network representative confirmed to LegalSportsReport.com that player funds were kept separate from operating funds… Read more »
Merger talks between GVC Holdings and Ladbrokes Coral Group have broken down, according to a Tuesday report by The Financial Times. Shares in Ladbrokes Coral dropped 9 percent on the news Monday, and though they have bumped up slightly since, they have yet to get back to where they were when the markets were excited… Read more »
Ohio State Senators Dave Burke and Cliff Hite introduced a bill last week that would authorize the Ohio Casino Control Commission to regulate daily fantasy sports (DFS), making the games explicitly legal in the state. DFS operators such as DraftKings and FanDuel are currently active the state and happily accept Ohio customers, but legal gray… Read more »
Playtech PLC’s co-founder Teddy Sagi, the company’s largest shareholder, has sold off a sizable chunk of his stock in the company. The sale was made through his trust, Brickington Trading Limited. It was known that Sagi was going to sell some of his stock, but he decided to increase the amount from 10 percent to… Read more »
We all knew it was coming, but on Friday morning, DraftKings and FanDuel announced that they have agreed to a merger, a deal which will create a company that will have a virtual monopoly on the daily fantasy sports industry. Per the press release, DraftKings CEO Jason Robbins will be the new company’s Chief Executive… Read more »
Amaya Inc., parent company of PokerStars, announced on Monday that it has received an offer from former CEO David Baazov to purchase the entire company. The offer price is CAD $24 per share, making the total deal valued at approximately CAD $3.48 billion. Amaya’s stock price closed at CAD $18.34 on Friday, so Baazov’s offer… Read more »
In 2012, poker pro Phil Ivey and his friend, Cheung Yin Sun, won £7.7 million playing punto banco at London’s Crockfords Casino. After a delay because of a bank holiday, though, the casino refused to pay them, claiming that they cheated. In 2014, a High Court ruled in the casino’s favor and now, a three-judge… Read more »
The World Poker Tour (WPT) announced today that it helped raised more than three-quarters of a million dollars for the Cardiac Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) via the “All In” for Kids Poker Tournament held about two weeks ago. The event, which took place on October 27th at the Mandarin Oriental New York… Read more »
Less than two weeks ago, William Hill and Amaya Gaming confirmed rumors that they were discussing a potential merger. A so-called “merger of equals” would have actually been classified as a reverse takeover, as the smaller company, William Hill, would technically acquire the larger, Amaya. On Tuesday, both companies announced that the talks have ended… Read more »
The state of Georgia is bereft of any sort of legalized gambling aside from the lottery, but over the last few years, support for a new gaming industry – land-based casinos specifically – has slowly built. Last week, the Chairman and CEO of MGM Resorts spoke in front of the Rotary Club of Atlanta, pitching… Read more »
The Trump Taj Mahal Hotel & Casino in Atlantic City closed yesterday after 26 years. Once the poker hub of the east coast, the Taj is no longer owned by the groping Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, but rather by billionaire investor Carl Icahn’s Icahn Enterprises and is operated by Tropicana Entertainment. The Taj Mahal… Read more »
In August, 888 Holdings and The Rank Group were unable to convince William Hill to join forces with them to form a new mega-gaming firm. Now, 888’s Chief Executive is insistent that his company and Rank are not about to merge sans Will Hill. The week after the second of two proposals from 888 and… Read more »
Following DraftKings’ launch of a new daily/season-long hybrid game, rivals FanDuel and Yahoo! have introduced their own versions of DFS with a season-long flavor. FanDuel’s is called “Friends Mode” while Yahoo’s is the “Yahoo Cup.” We’ll start with FanDuel’s Friends Mode, as it most closely mirror’s DraftKing’s Leagues. Really, it is just about the same… Read more »
As former President George W. Bush once so confidently said, “There’s an old saying in Tennessee — I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again.” Or something like that. After two futile attempts to acquire… Read more »
Love daily fantasy sports but aren’t thrilled with the “daily” part of it? Well DraftKings has just the thing for you. Kind of. It is still “daily” fantasy sports, but DraftKings’ new “Leagues” injects the added twist of being able to play all season long with your buddies! Traditional fantasy sports are great fun. You… Read more »
On Monday, 888 Holdings and The Rank Group announced that they made a second proposal to acquire William Hill. William Hill announced, in turn, that it has rejected the offer. The “Revised Proposal” comes just six days after the initial proposal from 888 and Rank. Both bids had two pieces: cash and stock. The new… Read more »
About two weeks ago, gambling firms 888 Holdings and Rank Group confirmed rumors that they were teaming up to put in a bid for rival William Hill, the largest gambling concern in the United Kingdom. On Tuesday, it was announced that they not only had, in fact, put in a formal offer, but that William… Read more »
Sunday’s Hall of Fame Game between the Green Bay Packers and Indianapolis Colts may have been canceled, but the daily fantasy sports (DFS) football season for New Yorkers has not. New York DFS fans can breathe a sigh of relief, as Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a bill on Wednesday that legalizes the games in the… Read more »
Caesars Acquisition Corp. and Shanghai Giant Network Technology Co., Ltd. announced Saturday that a consortium of Chinese firms has acquired Playtika, the social and mobile gaming division of Caesars Interactive Entertainment, Inc. (CIE). The deal, which was rumored to be in the works less than two weeks ago, is worth $4.4 billion. According to a… Read more »
UK-based Rank Group and Gibraltar-based 888 Holdings confirmed rumors this weekend that they have teamed up in talks to acquire competitor William Hill, the largest gambling company in the UK. No financial numbers have been made public. Both 888 and Rank issued a statement today, which reads, in part: 888 Holdings plc (“888”) and The… Read more »
