The Week that Was 5/04 – 5/09

As the Western world leaves behind those April showers and prepares itself for the coming summer, the poker world is gearing up for the May 30 start to this year’s WSOP. Here’s what happened in poker news for the week of May 4, 2008 to May 9, 2008.

 

• The ongoing drama for Swedish gaming monopoly Svenska Spel has taken a number of recent twists and turns. Following the departure of CEO Jesper Kärrbrink two more high level executives have left the company citing differences with the direction that company is headed. Remember that if the European Commission has its way, that direction might be right into bankruptcy. As Svenska Spel’s future becomes cloudier, international gaming entities have begun to challenge its monopoly on Swedish gaming. Ladbrokes has targeted Sweden with a new ad campaign designed to directly confront Svensak Spel, and for its part, Svenska Spel has issued a warning to Ladbrokes – either drop the ad campaign or face litigation.
• Infamous online poker cheat Justin “ZeeJustin” Bonomo has been hired by Bodog to join their pro player team. This comes as a bit of a shock as ZeeJustin has been banned from several high profile rooms, including Party Poker and Poker Stars, for multi-accounting. Not to mention that the nearly $100,000 in his Party Poker account were confiscated. However, following his recent successes in live tournaments, Bodog, now without its founder and chief Calvin Ayres, decided to take Justin Bonomo on board.
• The ongoing study on remote gambling in UK adults conducted by ICM and the European Commission has released its latest findings. Remote gambling rates in the UK have remained relatively constant at about 6.3% over the past 15 months. Males between the ages of 18 and 34 remain the most likely segment of the population to gamble remotely at nearly 9% (remote gambling is defined as wagering through the internet, through SMS/text and/or through interactive television.) The study is ongoing and results are released quarterly.
• Multiple gaming entities are reporting significant financial woes for early 2008:

1. World Poker Tour Enterprises (WPTE) has reported a net loss of about $2.8 million for the first fiscal quarter of 2008. WPTE spokesmen and executives have cited the delivery of Season VI episodes and increased international and sponsorship revenues as promising signs for shareholders who saw a $0.14 loss per diluted share over the past 3 months.
2. Youbet.com has suffered a 51.2% decrease in net first quarter income from last year. Overall, the online horse racing giant saw a 14.3% drop in its total revenue to fall to $24.5 million. This has sparked a tumble in the NASDAQ stock listing to $1.16. Should the price fall below $1.00, Youbet.com will be removed from the NASDAQ listing altogether. These declines are reported to be in part due to a dispute between Churchill Downs (the site of the recent Kentucky Derby) and the Kentucky Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association as well as system malfunctions in the United Tote subsidiary.
3. Magna Entertainment, another online sportsbook rooted largely in horse racing, has posted a $46.5 million deficit for Q1. This comes as the latest bad news for the company which has posted consecutive annual losses of $105.3 million, $87.4 million and $113.8 million for the 2005, 2006 and 2007 fiscal years respectively. The NASDAQ listing has fallen to $0.40 and should that listing remain below $1 after August 11, Magna Entertainment will be removed from the New York list altogether.
4. In its first annual report, Betbrokers is announcing losses of £2.74 million for 2007. However, since acquiring competing company Winning Edge in September of 2007, Betbrokers is actually reporting an operating profit of £14,165. Additionally, a £495,000 Loan Note put into effect in mid-March 2008 has provided the fledgling sports book with the capital to begin accepting much bigger bets.

• The three mystery tournaments for Full Tilt’s Online Poker Series VIII have been announced. They are:

1. May 8 at 21:00 ET - $535 buy-in, no-limit Hold’em triple shootout with a $300K guaranteed prize pool hosted by David “The Dragon” Pham.
2. May 11 at 14:00 ET - $535 buy-in, no-limit Hold’em shootout with a $250K guaranteed prize pool hosted by Paul Wasicka.
3. May 15 at 14:00 ET - $216 buy-in, no-limit Hold’em six-max quadruple shootout hosted by Markus Golser.

• Online player dhc2lovr has won two bad beat jackpots on UltimateBet.com in the past 2 months alone. On March 25, dhc2lovr won a $171,000 jackpot and then again on May 6 won a $146,000 prize. The astronomical odds against the same player winning the jackpot twice have coupled with UB’s ongoing “super user”  scandal to bring more unwanted attention to the sister company of Absolute Poker (the home of infamous super-user “potripper” who was ultimately outed as Absolute Poker part-owner Scott Tom.)

And that’s what’s happening in poker.