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The UK is holding its breath as the overdue royal baby can be delivered any moment now. Early this month, estimations gave Princess Kate two and a half weeks max to deliver the baby, but now we could be looking at an announcement even in early May. What's certain is that you don't have to venture too far in order to learn about the upcoming birth: The birth will be announced on Twitter, a few minutes after a press release is sent to the media. Worry not: The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will carry on with the tradition of announcing on the easel in front of the palace. Betting Craze As with the birth of Prince George back in July 2013, online gambling bookies in the UK are experiencing a craze with a host of colorful betting markets on the upcoming delivery. It's not just a UK thing: The royal baby is attracting people from all over the world to bet on the world's most popular monarchy, and it's glorious. Specifically at top UK bookie William Hill Sports, the options include markets such as what dress Kate will be wearing when leaving the hospital, the baby's gender, weight and hair color, the date of birth and of course – the child's first name. Alice Still Favorite The name markets are the ones that attract most attention and punters. As we've reported earlier this month, Alice is still the leading female name with 6/4 odds for the baby although nobody is certain whether it will be a girl or a boy. Charlotte is up next with 11/2, followed by Elizabeth (6/1), Alexandra (10/1) and Victoria (12/1). And what if it's a boy? James has grown stronger since the beginning of April with 14/1 odds, leaving the favorite Arthur with 20/1, Alexander with 25/1 and Phillip with 25/1. Take Part As mentioned above, the royal baby could arrive any moment now. Get to William Hill Sports now and cast your vote for a royal prize, and don't forget to keep an eye on your Twitter feed!
While Pennsylvania has made large strides in the past few months towards regulating online gambling, a new bill is trying to reverse all that. State Representative Thomas Murt recently introduced a bill that would ban all on online poker in the state, as well as online gambling in general. Murt’s House Bill 1013 has been signed by seven sponsors, and if passed, it would prohibit the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board from passing any rules or regulations that would allow internet gambling. Penalties for Offenders House Bill 1013 also proposes that operators who violate the online poker ban should be fined between $300 and $600, with possible jail time for second-time offenders. Operators that break the law more than three times would be slapped with a third degree misdemeanor, and could be fined as much as $2,000 and receive a year-long prison sentence. Does the Bill Have a Chance? The House Gaming Oversight Committee will review the bill, but it is not expected to be received warmly. The majority of the committee is pro-online gambling legislation, especially the committee chairman, John Payne, who recently proposed his own bill in favor of regulating online gambling. His bill received a hearing last week in which experts from the iGaming industry and the geolocation technology company, GeoComply, presented compelling information, which received very positive feedback. Fellow-committee member Tina Davis also proposed a bill in favor of online gambling in the Keystone state, which means that the chances of Murt’s bill getting approved are slim to none. Taking on RAWAPennsylvania’s House Gaming Oversight Committee recently encouraged state representatives in Washington to vote against the Restoration of America’s Wire Act (RAWA), a bill which would ban online gambling at a federal level. With so many factors clearly against him, it is unclear why Murt decided to go ahead with his bill. Perhaps he did so to make a statement. Or perhaps he thinks he really has a chance.
Only one team will move on to the next round of the 2015 NHL Playoffs to face the Montreal Canadiens in the Eastern Conference. The Tampa Bay Lightning and the Detroit Red Wings have given fans an incredible first round so far and it will be decided in the most exciting way possible, as Game 7 gets underway tonight at 00:30 (UK). Game 6 was probably the best game for amazing hard-hitting NHL action so far and it was the Lightning that came out victorious 5-2. The Red Wings talk a lot about the fact that they love playing on-the-road, but they will soon be on the golf course if they can’t seal the deal tonight. The Wings were off their game, missing checks, missing passes and allowing the Lightning to take advantage of their obvious weaknesses on the ice. “We gave them two goals early and mistakes cost us. After that, we worked ourselves into the game, but it’s a tight game,” related Red Wings captain Henrik Zetterberg. Game 7 Spotlight The Wings come into Game 7 in Tampa, having already won two games in this series in therein. Game 7 on-the-road may be one of the hardest wins to achieve, but Detroit has done it on multiple occasions, including only two years ago at Anaheim. Neither team has won two straight games in this series, and Detroit hopes the trend will continue tonight in their favor. Hockey Online Gambling Props For punters looking for a way to increase their NHL Playoff viewing experience, online sportsbooks like famed UK-based bet365 Sports are offering Live In-Play betting throughout all 3 hard-hitting periods of hockey. Live In-Play lines will be posted as the game is played and gives many chances to make lucrative cash throughout. The Red Wings are slight underdogs tonight, but not too far behind the Lightning. It will be a very close game and one that should not be missed.
Prominent Austrian gaming company NOVOMATIC is setting its sights on expansion in the Latin American market. Lawrence Levy, manager of the company's Peruvian Crown Gaming Peru subsidiary, was promoted to serve as senior vice president of Central and South America for the company. With 33 years of experience behind him, Lawrence Levy's regional responsibilities will now cover all LatAm countries from Mexico down to the Southern tip of South America. Mr. Levy's new role will see him overseeing operations, management systems, online gaming, lotteries and VLTs, as well as looking out for development opportunities in the region. Expanding LatAm Presence Already with a strong presence in LatAm, NOVOMATIC is set to open a new regional office at Panama soon; the company already has Novo Gaming subsidiaries in Honduras, Guatemala and Costa Rica. In issue 49 of NOVOMATIC's bi-monthly "world of gaming" magazine, Mr. Levy commented on how the company sees huge potential in LatAm: "NOVOMATIC clearly sees huge potential in Latin America with its diverse but developing economies that collectively show an impressive growth potential," Levy told the magazine. Mexico and Colombia Regulation According to Levy, NOVOMATIC is waiting for the formalization of changes in the Mexican gaming laws to fulfill the market's potential in the country with the subsidiary Crown Gaming Mexico. Colombia is also a prime target for the company, which is expecting the implementation of full connectivity regulation by 2016 which will expand growth possibilities for the AGI Gaming Colombia subsidiary. Plan for the Future Levy says that the company is also planning to increase operations in Peru and Chile, where the DOMINATOR slots will soon be introduced. The Argentinian subsidiary Octavian de Argentina is working hard to introduce new NOVOMATIC products amidst political restrictions, and at the same time it is expanding to new territories such as Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Colombia and the USA. Novomatic games can be found at casinos like Bet Victor Casino, MyBet Casino, and Sky Vegas Casino.
NetEnt has once again teamed up with Universal Pictures for another collaboration that will see the Scandinavian igaming developer release a video slot based on a monster movie. Players can now access NetEnt’s Dracula slot from April 2014 onwards, joining slots based on Frankenstein and Creature from the Black Lagoon. A Chilling 3D Intro From a visual standpoint, NetEnt has dramatically raised its 3D video standards. A terrified young girl is chased through darkness along cobbled streets, desperately trying to outrun a swarm of bats. The camera then switches to Dracula’s viewpoint as he closes in on his prey. NetEnt has focused strongly on story to set the scene for this horror-themed slot. Play Desktop or Mobile Dracula has been designed for a simultaneous release across NetEnt casinos available on desktop and mobile devices like No Bonus Casino, BETAT Casino, and Casino Cruise. The larger sizes of mobile screens has allowed for NetEnt to build Dracula with five reels and four rows, allowing for 20 symbols to appear on screen instead of the typical 15. Win Across 40 Paylines To make use of the higher number of symbols, NetEnt has assigned 40 paylines. Comparatively, most online slot games incorporate 15 to 25 paylines instead. Having more opportunities to win is going to prove enticing for players, who should already be drawn to Dracula for its spine-tingling visuals. Transforming Bats The inclusion of free spins, stacked symbols, and stacked wilds are to be expected. However, NetEnt has attempted to shake up the special features by adding the Bat feature. This result in Dracula transforming into a swarm of bats that lands on the reels and changes into a symbol completely at random. NetEnt chief product officer Simon Hammon considers Dracula to be “another truly standout slot game”, while the Bat feature “showcases NetEnt’s commitment to innovation”. Hammon is “without a doubt that players will love this gothic slot”.
888 Poker Spain has increased its market share dramatically over the past year. New Totals PokerScout tabulations as reported by Pokerfuse have 888poker Spain showing a 65 gain from 18% last year to 24% market share for 2015. Tabulated from a seven-day rolling average of ring-game players, the new figures solidify 888poker Spain's status as the second largest online poker room in the country, trailing only traditional industry powerhouse PokerStars Spain. The gains by 888poker Spain actually are in direct contrast to the performance of PokerStars Spain over the same period. The fact is last year PokerStars Spain led the Spanish poker marketplace at a 74-percent market share clip; however, this 2015 rolling seven day tabulations show that market-share has now been pared down to 68 percent. High Speed Games Compete This does not necessarily mean that 888poker's growth is eating into PokerStars Spain's revenues. This is more a reflection of the new player trend towards a preferred format of faster-paced games with progressive larger jackpots and lower buy-ins. There is a sense among analysts that this is what happened when PokerStars Spain introduced its ambitious lottery-style Spin & Gos in July of 2014. As a cash game introduced to the poker network, expectations were not met in large part due to the fact that typical cash card game players had already been lured to faster games that had larger payouts. When games like these are introduced to a poker network, many players that were typically playing cash games are now playing these faster-paced games with hopes for a huge payday. New Trend Impacts Market The result of higher speed games reflected a reduction in the level of ring-game traffic available to play the Spin and Gos, as opposed to necessarily a migration to 888poker Spain rooms. There are simply less poker players in the Spanish market because of the popularity of faster-paced games featuring progressive jackpots.
The mid-week action in the Premier League is live today as the bottom scraping Leicester City takes on the undisputed leader Chelsea at King Power Stadium (19:45 UK time). The last five Premier League games between these teams ended in favor of Chelsea including this season's reverse fixture at Stamford Bridge which Chelsea won 2-0. Leicester's Winning Streak At the 17th position, Leicester sits on 31 points just one point away from Sunderland that is inside the relegation zone. After a rough patch, Leicester seems to have picked itself up from the dirt as it is currently going on a four match winning streak. What Leicester wants is to extend the gap between them and Sunderland and to distance themselves from any relegation worries. Going up against the Premier's best team this season does not help Leicester's odds, but giant killings are a thing that you can never out rule. Leicester is facing injuries going into this game with David Nugnet and Jeffrey Schlupp out and Jamie Vardy also in doubt. Chelsea's Title Race Sunday's goalless draw against Arsenal at the Emirates was a breather for Chelsea seeing that the team that could have threatened the team's confident hold on the Premier's top failed to do that at home. Chelsea now has 77 points, opposed to the 67 Manchester City and Arsenal have. Mathematically, all Chelsea needs right now is two more wins to complete cementing the pavement to this season's title. But the Blues cannot afford to be too cocky; Leicester is an improving team that is still fighting to get away from the relegation zone, with skilled players such as Esteban Cambiasso, Wes Morgan and Kasper Schmeichel at the goal. Betting Odds Winner Sports is covering this fixture live with pre-match and in-play betting markets. In full time result, Chelsea was favorite to win with 3/4 opposed to 15/4 given to Leicester and 14/5 for a draw. Log-in Winner for over 112 markets on this game and take part in Chelsea's final stride to the top.
Playtech, arguably the biggest name in online gaming software, has become the first such company to launch a wearable sports betting app for the new Apple Watch, which launched on April 24. Coral Connect Omni-Channel will be the first Playtech licensee to offer the ‘iWatch’ app, and it is meant to appeal to its vast UK and European player base. Playtech had dedicated a team of senior mobile developers who were working on the new app, which is built on the company’s previous Android Wear sports betting release. Mor Weizer, CEO of Playtech, said: “Innovation is part of our DNA at Playtech, an area we take very seriously and invest in heavily year-on-year. We are well ahead of any of our competitors on not just this development, but also the entire Omni-Channel offering as we have shown with Coral and as we are about to embark on with a number of other significant licensees.” He added, “The Apple Watch is a natural extension to this and no other supplier has the technology, global expertise, resource, and support to offer such an all-encompassing solution.” App Capabilities Playtech’s app allows first adopters of the Apple Watch to place bets, browse live and upcoming sports events, monitor promotions and receive personal alerts via technology linked to their iOS mobile apps. One of the especially unique aspects of the app is that once a bet has been made, Coral players will have access to Cash Out functionality; in other words, they will be able to instantly take in profit in real-time. How it Works When a player touches the Coral app on the Apple Watch, he or she will be given immediate access to a grid of eight initial sports, including football and tennis. Once the player chooses a sport, he or she will be able to see a list of ongoing and upcoming games, along with a series of betting options and the option of accessing ‘My Bets,’ which shows the player’s current bet status and betting history.
Genesis Gaming Inc, a popular supplier of real-money game content, has launched its first selection of free social casino content. Expanding Content Portfolio This marks the first entry of Genesis Gaming into the free-to-play content arena. Genesis explains that it is expanding its content catalog into the free-to-play category in order to provide the opportunity to social gambling operators to diversify their gaming portfolio. Genesis is providing up to 20 video slots available for integration. Genesis Managing Director Geoffrey Hansen pointed out that his company has been providing video slots for different casino sites for quite some time now, with the new corporate goal being to make the most popular real-money games available to social casino operators via a basic plug and play solution. Genesis Offerings Genesis is already robust, offering both HTML5 and Flash games as options for Android and iOS devices already. Genesis' new content will be launched in a packaged bundle with an option for a ‘per game’ subscription. The per-game subscription is a key component in avoiding the complex revenue sharing formulas that have until now served to dilute profits for social casino partner clients. Strategy Genesis Director of Social Casino Business Development further explained the move to free-to-play can ease the expansion of portfolios of all current and future partners, with the new games serving to establish themselves as “proven content” that makes the company more robust and attractive to an expanding client base. Real-money gaming content in the packages optimizes the potential for partners to increase revenue and profits.
Progress towards online gambling regulation is on the radar in the states of California and Alabama, but there is still a long way to go. Stepping Forward Still, a step in the right direction has been taken in both places. In California, a huge policy accession was secured when the first ever committee vote on online poker legislation passed unanimously. While nothing was legalized, Assemblyman Adam Gray’s AB 431 ‘shell’ bill was ensured of consideration in greater detail. Future hearings were secured in an all or nothing vote, as AB 431 did not carry the “urgency” designation that characterized other poker bills in the state. The implication of this classification was that the bill would receive an immediate premature death if not approved by the committee by the first of May, as the deadline for eligibility of bill to be considered in the current state legislative session. The only substantive opposition at the hearing came from California Coalition Against Gambling Expansion leader James Butler, leery of the gambling proponents who he claims traditionally “over-promise and under-deliver the benefits to the state.” This concern over private interests manipulating gambling regulation for their own interest remains the leading obstacle to passage. Hearings Scheduled Two further hearings have already been scheduled: the “Overview of Gambling in California; Legality, Authorization and Regulation" is set for May 20 at 1:30pm; "The Legality of Internet Poker: How Prepared Is California to Regulate It?" is set for June 24 at 1:30pm. Two for Alabama Too Two is also the key number in the Alabama state vote, as the number of bills sponsored by Rep. Craig Ford and introduced to the Alabama state legislature in favor of regulating of online gambling to supplement the state budget. HB471 proposes an amendment to Section 65 of the Constitution of Alabama of 1901 in favor of an Alabama Lottery. The amendment would specifically divert funds towards state programs within the Alabama Medicaid Agency. HB472 proposes an amendment to Section 65 of the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, calling for the creation of an Alabama Lottery to fund scholarships.
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