G'day punters, casino and gambling millionaires and billionaires, poker nuts, politicians, super whales, journalists, ... one and all. Today we have the run down from Crown Limited's annual general meeting that took place in Perth, West Australia. Media Man and Gambling911 report from beautiful Perth...
What a huge 24 hours its been for our friends at Crown Casino. Earlier today the Crown Limited AGM was held, Crown Casino remaining the Aussie crown in the jewel, and tonight Crown Casino hosts the Sports Performer Awards. Drinks have been flowing all around, and the pokies have been happily singing along. Cleopatra and Queen Of The Nile never sounded so good, and Shane Warne's positive impact and buzz has been bouncing off the walls and is on the tip of everyone tongue.
Crown powers that be tell us revenue from its Australian casino and hotel operations since the commencement of the financial year are up on the same period in 2009, so that's the good news. We'll give you the bad new later.
The combined gaming revenue from Crown Casino in Melbourne and and Burswood Entertainment Complex in Perth between July 1 and November 24 was up roughly 6%, chief executive Rowen Craigie told the gathering.
Craigie was speaking at the group's annual general meeting in Perth, Western Australia, earlier.
Non-gaming revenue in the same period was up by roughly 5% on the same period last year, not including the impact of the newly opened Crown Metropol hotel, pretty much next door to Crown Casino.
Including the Metropol, non-gaming revenue was up a modest 13% on the previous corresponding period, Craigie advised.
The Singapore Effect...
Ok, so overall Crown Limited is still one of the strongest gaming and gambling companies on the planet.
Crown has spent more than $1 billion over the past 4 years, and is to spend another $800 million to update and expand its facilities over the next few years.
Competitors, Tabcorp, is in the midst of its own redevelopment of Star City which, with the cost of the extra licence payment to the New South Wales government to make way for the work, represents about $1 billion of capital expenditures. That redevelopment is understood to be a key factor in the proposed de-merger of Tabcorp’s casino and other gambling interests. Getting ready for Packer in a few years maybe?
A key factor for both firms investing so much in their casinos was a goal to protect and expand their VIP customer bases, while they face stiff competition from the new casinos in Macau and, more recently, the 2 new "complexes"...Crown refers to them as "integrated resorts"...in Singapore. Star has wrestled to attract a reasonable share of VIP revenues, but maybe the tide will soon turn.
Crown had been pretty cool, no fussed about the 2 new Singapore resorts, based on its experience of the opening of the Macau casino resorts. Despite compound annual growth of 34.7% in Macau’s gaming revenues since the last quarter of 2005, Crown and Burswood have been pretty much unaffected, but who really knows what is around the corner.
It had initially appeared that the explosion of gambling capacity in Macau...there has been more than $17 billion spent on building the Macau complexes – was actually benefiting Crown by significantly expanding the pool of VIPs in the region. Crown was optimistic the opening of the Singapore resorts earlier this year would have a similar impact, but the jury is out for the moment.
It could well be too early for that sort of effect to show up...the Singapore casinos, which opened in January and April, would still be fresh an in their honeymoon period, like a new bride.
Packer and Craigie are understood to be concerned that those complexes are hurting Crown’s VIP visits and volumes.
Packer made noise of the government support the Macau and Singapore complexes receive, both the supporting infrastructure and promotional activities, because of their perceived capacity to help stimulate tourism. Tourism growth in Singapore is up 22% this year and Singapore has set a target of increasing tourism numbers from a modest 9 million visitors to 17 million by 2015, Crown says. Some segments of the Australian news media were keen to dismiss the tourism aspect of land based casinos, but now most newsrooms have come to their senses, despite the still odd media "beat up" on casinos, gambling and all that.
Crown is calling on the federal and state governments, the tourism industry and Asian-focused tourism operators to work more closely to lift Australia’s stagnating tourist numbers.
Despite Crown’s claimed status as the largest non-airline tourism operator, it is unlikely at this stage of the game it will get any direct government assistance in the current political climate, particularly given the anti-gambling stance taken by at least two of the independents in Canberra.
The strong Aussie dollar, the depressed state of the local industry and the increased regional competition for high net worth tourists, however, means there out to be an increased focus and spending on tourism generally.
Regaining its share of the international VIP market is critical to Crown Limited. So is increasing its 16% share of VIP revenues is crucial to Tabcorp’s casino strategy and massive investment. Crown estimates more than 35% of its revenue...more than $850 million a year...comes from international visitors. Don't even get us started on "funny money"... you know, the allegations of money laundering and "cleaning" of money via Crown (and pub) pokies.
Bad News...
Ok, the bad news. He said turnover from VIP high roller punters aka "whales" at the Melbourne and Burswood casinos in the first 21 weeks of the financial year was down 10% on the same period last year, which is enough to raise some concern, especially when one joins the dots and analyses the likely cause, and its not just the global financial crisis, or crunch, if your prefer.
"We are continuing to see an impact from the opening of the two new integrated resorts in Singapore and are yet to capitalise on the opportunity to capture the new business that Singapore potentially offers," Craigie said reading off his notes.
Good News...
The Metropol Hotel, which opened last April, was achieving better than expected occupancy rates and room rates were "firming'', he disclosed.
Melco Crown Entertainment, Crown holding a 33.5% stake, has disclosed a "broad-based improvement" in the performance of its champion resort City of Dreams, Macau, the meeting was made aware.
In some much needed good news, Melco reported improved revenue and earnings in the 3 months to September 30 compared with the same period last year, Craigie said.
Crown Limited shares finished off down 3 cents at $8.21.
Awards...
It's been a big month for casino awards.
PartyGaming's PartyCasino has also come back with seconds, picking up another Media Man 'Online Casino Of The Month Award' for November, and also the parent company, PartyGaming, picked up the prestigious EGR Slots Operator Of The Year Award ...Some other top picks of ours who picked up awards at the EGR night of nights were:
Virgin Games (Affiliate Programme)
Betfair (Innovation, Mobile Operator and UK Sports Betting Operator)
Bwin (European Sports Betting Operator
PKR (Poker Operator)
Australian Land Based Casino Of The Month: Crown Casino, Runner Up: Star City
Oh, we almost forgot...Media Man and Casino News Media 'Casino Babe Of The Month': Jenny Woo, 'Poker Babe': Kara Scott, 'Gambling Babe Personality': Pamela Anderson.
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Wrap Up...
Readers... er, punters, how did you like our report? Tell us in the forum.
If you have a bet, please bet with your head, not over it, and for God's sake, have fun.
*Greg Tingle is a special contributor for Gambling911
*Media Man http://www.mediamanint.com is primarily a media, publicity and internet portal development company. They cover a dozen industry sectors including gaming and offer political commentary and analysis.
*The writer owns shares in Crown Limited
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Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Monday, November 29, 2010
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Casino Cheat Gang In Court: Australia, Italy, UK, USA..., by Greg Tingle - 28th November 2010
G'day punters, casino and gambling millionaires and billionaires, poker nuts, politicians, super whales, journalists, politicians... (and cheats!) one and all. Two of the world's most successful casino cheats have been stopped in their tracks, sort of, having had their day in court. They hit Australia, Britain, China, Italy and god knows where else, cheating casinos across the globe out of millions of dollars. Media Man and Gambling911 play Pink Panther, and Cluedo and Heist with this special report...
Two of the world's most successful international casino cheats have had their day in court.
The rumour mill says the duo, understood to be part of a larger casino crime group, enjoyed time down under in Australia, having a soft spot for both Crown Casino in Melbourne and Star City Casino in 'Sin City' Sydney.
Last Friday they faced court and admitted they possessed hell of a lot of fake IDs, which they used in land based casinos they were banned from across the world. It's understood they didn't target online casinos.
Using a clever global strategy, the pro active gang upper ranked Francesco Baioni, 64, and Frank Camilleri, 61, travelled the world cheating casinos out of a bucket load of money.
Police and other law enforcement had described them as "notorious" and "professional". The crooks have served time in America after cheating their way to "vast" amounts of cash.
Baioni, of Rackstraw House, Primrose Hill, was handed down a 12-month sentence suspended for 18 months. Camilleri, of Derrick Road, Beckenham, was sentenced to nine months suspended for the same duration.
Both were also issued with an 18-month curfew between 11pm and 6am and were barred from all premises regulated by the Gambling Commission for 18 months.
Police would not discuss the tactics that landed the Italian duo so much money over the years but did reveal they had operated in countries including China, Australia America and Britain.
Roulette is understood to be a favorite of the duo, and industry talk is one of them would distract the dealer, and the other would move chips on the table into winning positions.
Both were busted on CCTV cameras at various central London casinos conducting reconnaissance visits, testing the water, and attempting to sign up for membership, using false identities. In one case, Baioni was filmed being refused membership at a casino after the false identity he was attempting to use was flagged up on the operator's computer system as "barred".
The daring pair were caught following an intelligence-led operation by officers from the Metropolitan Police Service's Human Exploitation and Organised Crime Command. On August 9 search warrants were executed at their homes and Baioni was arrested.
Detectives discovered "a large quantity" of fake Italian identity papers containing pictures of Baioni and Camilleri. All had false names.
There were also tons of false identities awaiting pictures and individual passport photographs of both fellas prepared to be attached to the documentation. On August 23 Camilleri was arrested at Gatwick Airport when he flew back from Malta.
Casino crooks and shady figures in the gambling industry have often come unstuck at airports, and this helps explain why some casino tycoons in the likes of Malta, Cyprus and Antigua do not travel on commercial airliner. Sometimes their private aircraft have also been intercepted.
Both crooks were charged and just last month Baioni admitted 9 counts of possessing false documents with intent, possessing articles for use in fraud, and making articles for use in fraud. Camilleri admitted 8 counts of possessing false ID documents with intent.
Remember, crime doesn't pay, unless you're very good at it. You're throw of the dice.
Awards...
It's been a big month for casino awards. Ok, as you read earlier, Macau's Altira Macau was awarded the prestigious Forbes Five Star Ratings for the second year in a row, so Packer and the Ho family continue to work their magic.
PartyGaming's PartyCasino has also come back with seconds, picking up another Media Man 'Online Casino Of The Month Award' for November, and also the parent company, PartyGaming, picked up the prestigious EGR Slots Operator Of The Year Award ...Some other top picks of ours who picked up awards at the EGR night of nights were:
Virgin Games (Affiliate Programme)
Betfair (Innovation, Mobile Operator and UK Sports Betting Operator)
Bwin (European Sports Betting Operator
PKR (Poker Operator)
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Wrap Up...
Readers... er, punters, how did you like our report? Did you enjoy learning all about the international casino fraudsters? Tell us in the forum.
If you have a bet, please bet with your head, not over it, and for God's sake, have fun.
*Greg Tingle is a special contributor for Gambling911
*Media Man http://www.mediamanint.com is primarily a media, publicity and internet portal development company. They cover a dozen industry sectors including gaming and offer political commentary and analysis.
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Two of the world's most successful international casino cheats have had their day in court.
The rumour mill says the duo, understood to be part of a larger casino crime group, enjoyed time down under in Australia, having a soft spot for both Crown Casino in Melbourne and Star City Casino in 'Sin City' Sydney.
Last Friday they faced court and admitted they possessed hell of a lot of fake IDs, which they used in land based casinos they were banned from across the world. It's understood they didn't target online casinos.
Using a clever global strategy, the pro active gang upper ranked Francesco Baioni, 64, and Frank Camilleri, 61, travelled the world cheating casinos out of a bucket load of money.
Police and other law enforcement had described them as "notorious" and "professional". The crooks have served time in America after cheating their way to "vast" amounts of cash.
Baioni, of Rackstraw House, Primrose Hill, was handed down a 12-month sentence suspended for 18 months. Camilleri, of Derrick Road, Beckenham, was sentenced to nine months suspended for the same duration.
Both were also issued with an 18-month curfew between 11pm and 6am and were barred from all premises regulated by the Gambling Commission for 18 months.
Police would not discuss the tactics that landed the Italian duo so much money over the years but did reveal they had operated in countries including China, Australia America and Britain.
Roulette is understood to be a favorite of the duo, and industry talk is one of them would distract the dealer, and the other would move chips on the table into winning positions.
Both were busted on CCTV cameras at various central London casinos conducting reconnaissance visits, testing the water, and attempting to sign up for membership, using false identities. In one case, Baioni was filmed being refused membership at a casino after the false identity he was attempting to use was flagged up on the operator's computer system as "barred".
The daring pair were caught following an intelligence-led operation by officers from the Metropolitan Police Service's Human Exploitation and Organised Crime Command. On August 9 search warrants were executed at their homes and Baioni was arrested.
Detectives discovered "a large quantity" of fake Italian identity papers containing pictures of Baioni and Camilleri. All had false names.
There were also tons of false identities awaiting pictures and individual passport photographs of both fellas prepared to be attached to the documentation. On August 23 Camilleri was arrested at Gatwick Airport when he flew back from Malta.
Casino crooks and shady figures in the gambling industry have often come unstuck at airports, and this helps explain why some casino tycoons in the likes of Malta, Cyprus and Antigua do not travel on commercial airliner. Sometimes their private aircraft have also been intercepted.
Both crooks were charged and just last month Baioni admitted 9 counts of possessing false documents with intent, possessing articles for use in fraud, and making articles for use in fraud. Camilleri admitted 8 counts of possessing false ID documents with intent.
Remember, crime doesn't pay, unless you're very good at it. You're throw of the dice.
Awards...
It's been a big month for casino awards. Ok, as you read earlier, Macau's Altira Macau was awarded the prestigious Forbes Five Star Ratings for the second year in a row, so Packer and the Ho family continue to work their magic.
PartyGaming's PartyCasino has also come back with seconds, picking up another Media Man 'Online Casino Of The Month Award' for November, and also the parent company, PartyGaming, picked up the prestigious EGR Slots Operator Of The Year Award ...Some other top picks of ours who picked up awards at the EGR night of nights were:
Virgin Games (Affiliate Programme)
Betfair (Innovation, Mobile Operator and UK Sports Betting Operator)
Bwin (European Sports Betting Operator
PKR (Poker Operator)
Media Man Profiles
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Australia Casinos
Cricket
Movies
Crown Casino
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News
Wrap Up...
Readers... er, punters, how did you like our report? Did you enjoy learning all about the international casino fraudsters? Tell us in the forum.
If you have a bet, please bet with your head, not over it, and for God's sake, have fun.
*Greg Tingle is a special contributor for Gambling911
*Media Man http://www.mediamanint.com is primarily a media, publicity and internet portal development company. They cover a dozen industry sectors including gaming and offer political commentary and analysis.
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Saturday, November 27, 2010
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Online gaming companies in for huge 2011, by Greg Tingle - 23rd November 2010
Online gaming companies in for huge 2011
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Could online gaming firms be in the mix of the top stockmarket investments to make in 2011?
The listing of Betfair (BET) at the conclusion of October on a fancy multiple and the $3.3 billion megamerger between PartyGaming and Bwin (PRTY), due to complete in the first quarter of 2011, appears to have added spark to the industry of late.
Then there is the prospect, albeit slight, of the liberalisation of the US igaming market which has put the industry firmly on investors' watch list, including ours, for next year.
It is understandable, as even a snapshot look at the stockmarket gains of the world’s biggest online gaming companies between circa 2004-2006 reveals just how quickly fortunes were made and lost.
The iGaming Global Top 30 Index, an index of the stockmarket performance of the biggest 30 online gaming companies, surged 40% between July 2004 and August 2005. This was followed by 12 months of extreme volatility before sinking thanks to a controversial piece of legislation in the US.
Since 2006, online gaming’s real story has been dominated by America’s Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA).
The multibillion-pound global industry virtually collapsed in a heap after its biggest market - the US - was closed down overnight when Congress introduced a surprise clause to legislation in September 2006, in effect making internet betting illegal. Not only was that a blow for investors - it was a hugely expensive one.
British-based companies were among the biggest casualties.
As soon as the London Stock Exchange opened the following Monday morning, shares in PartyGaming - then a FTSE 100 member - dived by 58%, while rivals 888 Holdings (888) and Sportingbet saw their shares slide by 26% and 64% respectively, wiping an estimated £4 billion off the sector's value.
The companies were forced to focus on opportunities in other parts of the world, but the businesses have never fully recovered from the impact of losing their most lucrative market. Last year, online gambling was worth an estimated $5.4 billion (£3.5 billion) overall, a figure that could rise to $12-$16 billion if the market was opened up, analysts say.
Despite the recent loss of a sympathetic Democrat majority in Congress last month, there is renewed hope of floated gambling companies being dealt a good hand on both sides of the Pond.
The new Republican chairman of the House financial services committee is likely to be an old-style Alabaman named Spencer Bachus.
Yet he is likely to listen to the prospects of a reinvigorated gambling sector for the ailing US economy. The Federal government’s non-partisan accountants, the Joint Committee on Taxation, have estimated online gambling could generate between $10 billion and $42 billion in new revenue by 2019, depending on the number of states that opt into a federal regulatory programme.
Yet he is likely to listen to the prospects of a reinvigorated gambling sector for the ailing US economy.
The Federal government’s non-partisan accountants, the Joint Committee on Taxation, have estimated online gambling could generate between $10 billion and $42 billion in new revenue by 2019, depending on the number of states that opt into a Federal regulatory programme.
And you can see why if you glance at the forecast numbers.
With the US nationwide unemployment rate at 10%, 48 of 50 states facing budget shortfalls and a Federal deficit approaching $1.3 trillion, the economic backdrop against which to promote regulation and taxation of internet gambling has arguably never been more favourable.
Yet those companies poised to get a real boost should America legalise online gambling, such as the impressive PartyGaming/Bwin combine, are getting excited about the future.
"We are seeing things from a legislative perspective that are quite exciting for us," says Jim Ryan, chief executive of PartyGaming, whose comments undoubtedly reflect the mood of a growing contingent of gambling operators on both sides of the Atlantic.
There has been speculation that PartyGaming and Bwin have decided to merge at this time precisely because they will be better placed than any other operator to seize a huge market share should the US decide to legalise online gambling. You only have to look at the market share that Party was able to capture by becoming one of the first operators into the online poker market back in 2001.
Analysts agree the enlarged company is in a strong position to exploit the opening up of the US market.
In a note to investors recently, the Morgan Stanley leisure analyst Vaughan Lewis said: "The overall political tide is moving firmly in favour of regulation, rather than prohibition.
"With its expertise... market-leading technology, strong marketing capability and good brands, we think the combined entity of PartyGaming and Bwin would be extremely well positioned to benefit from any market opening in the US. We include nothing in our forecasts for the US, so any new market here is pure upside."
And in a recent Barclays Capital research note, the investment bank said: "In the event of Federal regulation, we believe PartyGaming would be the likely key beneficiary.
"Under this hypothetical scenario, we estimate the potential [underlying profits] uplift could be 94% for PartyGaming and 58% for Bwin and 888. On a state-by-state hypothetical scenario, we estimate the uplift for the group would be considerably lower, but still meaningful."
Meanwhile, at the end of October analysts at Numis published a note saying there is 50% upside potential at Party when the merger with Bwin completes in March 2011. With the shares trading at around 230p at the beginning of November Numis have put a price target of 400p on the stock.
The PartyGaming/Bwin merger has got the other big companies in the sector scurrying around to do similar deals. They don't want to be left behind in what will become a gold rush should the US legalise online gaming.
888 and Sportingbet are also possible future takeover targets as the industry consolidates, but only once their legal liabilities in the US market are cleared. Serious negotiations in the PartyGaming/Bwin merger were only concluded once Party had secured a $105 million settlement with US authorities.
Analysts say a resolution would clear the way for 888 and Sportingbet to re-enter the lucrative US market should moves to overturn the 2006 legislation succeed.
Sportingbet has already acted telling shareholders at its latest results meeting that it had made a £22.8 million settlement with the US Department of Justice over an investigation into illegal internet gambling. The agreement means the firm will avoid being prosecuted in the US for accepting online bets made by Americans between 1998 and 2006.
Sportingbet would hold the most appeal to potential bidders, analysts reckon, pointing to its very strong market positioning in Australia and commenting that Ladbrokes (LAD) and William Hill (WMH) could be interested in a takeover.
Liberum Capital analyst Richard Taylor recently highlighted the strength of Sportingbet’s sports betting business, which he said had one of the best gross margins in the sector at around 10%. In addition, he said Sportingbet’s management was open to a bid, having previously stated up to 55% of their cost base could be removed.
Another former giant of the sector, now somewhat depleted thanks to the UIGEA, is 888.
Analysts say 888's attraction would be the potential for cost savings in a tie-up with a rival online gaming operator, and that Party/Bwin might be a possible buyer. What would make it attractive is that both Party and Bwin use 888 as a supplier.
However, the Shaked family who founded the company, and who control over 50% of the shares, would be looking for a price significantly above the 40p at which the company currently trades.
There have been whispers among London traders in the last few weeks that a £262 million, or 76p a share, cash bid from a much bigger industry player, possibly US entertainment giant Harrah's, which already has close business links with 888 could be on the cards.
Certainly 888 chief executive Gigi Levy has said recently that he looks at consolidation as one of the possible routes to realising shareholder value.
Another giant of the industry looking to become bigger still is the mighty Betfair. Having listed on the LSE at the end of October at 1,300p, the shares soon touched 1,600p-plus, as tracker funds piled in confident it will canter into the FTSE 250 index at the December review with a market value above £1.6 billion.
If things are hotting up at the Federal level for the online gaming industry there are also some exciting developments at state level.
So far in 2010, four states have considered whether or not to legalise some combination of online poker, casino gaming and sports betting: Iowa, Florida, California and New Jersey.
The state making most headway is New Jersey, where internet gambling has been under consideration by lawmakers since 2001. It is finally receiving serious consideration in the state Senate where two bills, which would legalise internet sports betting and casino gaming respectively, have already passed the committee stage this year.
From California to New Jersey to Florida, more state and federal congressmen are taking the reality of a legal online gambling regime a lot more seriously.
Whoever wins the race, state or federal, one thing is clear: more and more stakeholders in the US are finally coming around to understand the risks and implication of a ‘do nothing’ strategy. This is an opportunity cost and gambling companies are getting their bets on regardless.
But ongoing political deadlock clearly poses a real threat to regulatory efforts at all levels of American government. But even as gambling industry stakeholders duke it out in the halls of legislatures around the country, as well as on Capitol Hill in Washington, the very fact that the conflict between them is intensifying signals that interest and investment in pushing for online gaming regulation is rising.
With billions of dollars out there to harvest and market share to win, the entire online gaming sector looks ripe for an upturn in coming months. Investing in online gaming companies has always been a white knuckle ride - and there looks to be every sign this particular circus is once again rolling back into town.
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Could online gaming firms be in the mix of the top stockmarket investments to make in 2011?
The listing of Betfair (BET) at the conclusion of October on a fancy multiple and the $3.3 billion megamerger between PartyGaming and Bwin (PRTY), due to complete in the first quarter of 2011, appears to have added spark to the industry of late.
Then there is the prospect, albeit slight, of the liberalisation of the US igaming market which has put the industry firmly on investors' watch list, including ours, for next year.
It is understandable, as even a snapshot look at the stockmarket gains of the world’s biggest online gaming companies between circa 2004-2006 reveals just how quickly fortunes were made and lost.
The iGaming Global Top 30 Index, an index of the stockmarket performance of the biggest 30 online gaming companies, surged 40% between July 2004 and August 2005. This was followed by 12 months of extreme volatility before sinking thanks to a controversial piece of legislation in the US.
Since 2006, online gaming’s real story has been dominated by America’s Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA).
The multibillion-pound global industry virtually collapsed in a heap after its biggest market - the US - was closed down overnight when Congress introduced a surprise clause to legislation in September 2006, in effect making internet betting illegal. Not only was that a blow for investors - it was a hugely expensive one.
British-based companies were among the biggest casualties.
As soon as the London Stock Exchange opened the following Monday morning, shares in PartyGaming - then a FTSE 100 member - dived by 58%, while rivals 888 Holdings (888) and Sportingbet saw their shares slide by 26% and 64% respectively, wiping an estimated £4 billion off the sector's value.
The companies were forced to focus on opportunities in other parts of the world, but the businesses have never fully recovered from the impact of losing their most lucrative market. Last year, online gambling was worth an estimated $5.4 billion (£3.5 billion) overall, a figure that could rise to $12-$16 billion if the market was opened up, analysts say.
Despite the recent loss of a sympathetic Democrat majority in Congress last month, there is renewed hope of floated gambling companies being dealt a good hand on both sides of the Pond.
The new Republican chairman of the House financial services committee is likely to be an old-style Alabaman named Spencer Bachus.
Yet he is likely to listen to the prospects of a reinvigorated gambling sector for the ailing US economy. The Federal government’s non-partisan accountants, the Joint Committee on Taxation, have estimated online gambling could generate between $10 billion and $42 billion in new revenue by 2019, depending on the number of states that opt into a federal regulatory programme.
Yet he is likely to listen to the prospects of a reinvigorated gambling sector for the ailing US economy.
The Federal government’s non-partisan accountants, the Joint Committee on Taxation, have estimated online gambling could generate between $10 billion and $42 billion in new revenue by 2019, depending on the number of states that opt into a Federal regulatory programme.
And you can see why if you glance at the forecast numbers.
With the US nationwide unemployment rate at 10%, 48 of 50 states facing budget shortfalls and a Federal deficit approaching $1.3 trillion, the economic backdrop against which to promote regulation and taxation of internet gambling has arguably never been more favourable.
Yet those companies poised to get a real boost should America legalise online gambling, such as the impressive PartyGaming/Bwin combine, are getting excited about the future.
"We are seeing things from a legislative perspective that are quite exciting for us," says Jim Ryan, chief executive of PartyGaming, whose comments undoubtedly reflect the mood of a growing contingent of gambling operators on both sides of the Atlantic.
There has been speculation that PartyGaming and Bwin have decided to merge at this time precisely because they will be better placed than any other operator to seize a huge market share should the US decide to legalise online gambling. You only have to look at the market share that Party was able to capture by becoming one of the first operators into the online poker market back in 2001.
Analysts agree the enlarged company is in a strong position to exploit the opening up of the US market.
In a note to investors recently, the Morgan Stanley leisure analyst Vaughan Lewis said: "The overall political tide is moving firmly in favour of regulation, rather than prohibition.
"With its expertise... market-leading technology, strong marketing capability and good brands, we think the combined entity of PartyGaming and Bwin would be extremely well positioned to benefit from any market opening in the US. We include nothing in our forecasts for the US, so any new market here is pure upside."
And in a recent Barclays Capital research note, the investment bank said: "In the event of Federal regulation, we believe PartyGaming would be the likely key beneficiary.
"Under this hypothetical scenario, we estimate the potential [underlying profits] uplift could be 94% for PartyGaming and 58% for Bwin and 888. On a state-by-state hypothetical scenario, we estimate the uplift for the group would be considerably lower, but still meaningful."
Meanwhile, at the end of October analysts at Numis published a note saying there is 50% upside potential at Party when the merger with Bwin completes in March 2011. With the shares trading at around 230p at the beginning of November Numis have put a price target of 400p on the stock.
The PartyGaming/Bwin merger has got the other big companies in the sector scurrying around to do similar deals. They don't want to be left behind in what will become a gold rush should the US legalise online gaming.
888 and Sportingbet are also possible future takeover targets as the industry consolidates, but only once their legal liabilities in the US market are cleared. Serious negotiations in the PartyGaming/Bwin merger were only concluded once Party had secured a $105 million settlement with US authorities.
Analysts say a resolution would clear the way for 888 and Sportingbet to re-enter the lucrative US market should moves to overturn the 2006 legislation succeed.
Sportingbet has already acted telling shareholders at its latest results meeting that it had made a £22.8 million settlement with the US Department of Justice over an investigation into illegal internet gambling. The agreement means the firm will avoid being prosecuted in the US for accepting online bets made by Americans between 1998 and 2006.
Sportingbet would hold the most appeal to potential bidders, analysts reckon, pointing to its very strong market positioning in Australia and commenting that Ladbrokes (LAD) and William Hill (WMH) could be interested in a takeover.
Liberum Capital analyst Richard Taylor recently highlighted the strength of Sportingbet’s sports betting business, which he said had one of the best gross margins in the sector at around 10%. In addition, he said Sportingbet’s management was open to a bid, having previously stated up to 55% of their cost base could be removed.
Another former giant of the sector, now somewhat depleted thanks to the UIGEA, is 888.
Analysts say 888's attraction would be the potential for cost savings in a tie-up with a rival online gaming operator, and that Party/Bwin might be a possible buyer. What would make it attractive is that both Party and Bwin use 888 as a supplier.
However, the Shaked family who founded the company, and who control over 50% of the shares, would be looking for a price significantly above the 40p at which the company currently trades.
There have been whispers among London traders in the last few weeks that a £262 million, or 76p a share, cash bid from a much bigger industry player, possibly US entertainment giant Harrah's, which already has close business links with 888 could be on the cards.
Certainly 888 chief executive Gigi Levy has said recently that he looks at consolidation as one of the possible routes to realising shareholder value.
Another giant of the industry looking to become bigger still is the mighty Betfair. Having listed on the LSE at the end of October at 1,300p, the shares soon touched 1,600p-plus, as tracker funds piled in confident it will canter into the FTSE 250 index at the December review with a market value above £1.6 billion.
If things are hotting up at the Federal level for the online gaming industry there are also some exciting developments at state level.
So far in 2010, four states have considered whether or not to legalise some combination of online poker, casino gaming and sports betting: Iowa, Florida, California and New Jersey.
The state making most headway is New Jersey, where internet gambling has been under consideration by lawmakers since 2001. It is finally receiving serious consideration in the state Senate where two bills, which would legalise internet sports betting and casino gaming respectively, have already passed the committee stage this year.
From California to New Jersey to Florida, more state and federal congressmen are taking the reality of a legal online gambling regime a lot more seriously.
Whoever wins the race, state or federal, one thing is clear: more and more stakeholders in the US are finally coming around to understand the risks and implication of a ‘do nothing’ strategy. This is an opportunity cost and gambling companies are getting their bets on regardless.
But ongoing political deadlock clearly poses a real threat to regulatory efforts at all levels of American government. But even as gambling industry stakeholders duke it out in the halls of legislatures around the country, as well as on Capitol Hill in Washington, the very fact that the conflict between them is intensifying signals that interest and investment in pushing for online gaming regulation is rising.
With billions of dollars out there to harvest and market share to win, the entire online gaming sector looks ripe for an upturn in coming months. Investing in online gaming companies has always been a white knuckle ride - and there looks to be every sign this particular circus is once again rolling back into town.
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Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Crown Casino Forced To Defend Reputation In Press, by Greg Tingle - 23rd November 2010
Crown Casino, Australia's leading land based casino and prize jewel of gambling and media tycoon James Packer, is publicly fighting back against a number of serious allegations being thrown at them. Media Man and Gambling911 play devil's advocate as we bring you this special report on the cafe and pub talk about Crown...
In the past year or so most of the media reports on James Packer owned Crown Casino have been balanced, with a number of even positive reports, but now a new batch of negative stories, allegations and even a spot of "attack journalism" is starting to read its ugly head again.
Casino Casino bosses are not happy in the least about a bush tucker bag of allegations being leveled at their gambling and entertainment premises.
One of the more gross allegations is that Crown was accused of letting desperate gamblers urinate at machines during 24-hour pokie marathon sessions!
Other leaks say Crown throws fights into the street and tries to cover up crimes and other unwanted attention.
The hard hitting allegations are found in a report based on interviews with 225 current and former Crown casino staff who spoke out about their impressions of the level of violence, problem gambling and alcohol abuse inside Australia's biggest gambling venue.
A number of Australian media and gambling commentators believe the reports may have been geared to generate negative results for the casino, and that a large number of former staff and disgruntled current staff may have been tricked into focusing on negatives, and that somehow the Uni compiled report was designed to make Crown Limited look bad.
The so call "study" was conducted by Deakin University researchers, sphere headed by Associate Prof Linda Hancock. Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union staff agreed to participate in the industry-wide research.
The most disgusting allegation was that some one armed bandit players stood by the same pokies for up to 24 hours, with one respondent saying they "sit there and just wee, go to the toilet at the machine"
Crown Casino advises that allegation is not true.
Some staff also allege that Crown Casino is:
Permits patrons to gamble when drunk, even though it is against the law in Victoria
Calling taxis RSL cabs, Silver Service etc) for injured patrons and staff to avoid an ambulance incident report.
Permitting punters to stay on pokies for 24 hours plus marathon sessions or more.
Forcing drunks onto the street.
Covering up up 20 to 30 brawls per evening, with up to 40 punters a night being escorted out onto the street. This is mostly due to fighting, and sometimes patrons used knives and bottles.
Dr Hancock states her research showed a "systematic breakdown between Crown, government and regulators who don't enforce codes of practice".
The report that some say is bias, was rigged, and not accurate, also demonstrates poor awareness among staff of problem gambling, with half of those interviewed saying they wouldn't intervene if a gambler was in a distressed state.
A media spokesperson at Media Man said "The results of the report are not a total surprise. It's well known that there is an agenda from certain parts of the educational and political sector to get negative press on Crown Casino. Whispers are that the report was focusing on negatives and that they interviewed people who were not happy at Crown and has an axe to grind. They have used this report to try to create a media beat up, and also trying to generate attack journalism. University reports are often used to try to give certain agendas more credibility Do not believe everything you read, including from University reports. We know Crown Casino to do an excellent job of dealing with problems and are a very responsible employer. The report smells of a rat".
Crown casino spokesman Gary O'Neill said the comments in the report were all false and did not deserve to be described as "research: (a term also used to describe Japanese whaling).
"Crown absolutely denies that staff are encouraged or allowed to permit patrons to gamble while intoxicated," he said.
O'Neill said ambulances were regularly called to Crown and he denied claims that responsible gaming codes were being ignored.
At the time of press more media outlets are starting to go public saying there are flaws in the "research" and that Crown Casino haters are trying to create media beat-ups.
Crown Casino is understood to be considering some reality TV concepts and also is pursuing more national and international top line acts to add to its overall entertainment experience, as the famous Aussie casino wars continue with its main competitor being the embattled Tabcorp, owner - operator of Sydney's Star City, who are spending roughly 1 million dollars to try to play catch up to Crown - eventually wanting to become #1. Good luck Tabcorp, you will need it in spades.
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Readers... er, punters, how did you like our report? Is Crown Casino good or evil? Tell us in the forum.
If you have a bet, please bet with your head, not over it, and for God's sake, have fun.
*Greg Tingle is a special contributor for Gambling911
*Media Man http://www.mediamanint.com is primarily a media, publicity and internet portal development company. They cover a dozen industry sectors including gaming and offer political commentary and analysis.
*The writer owns shares in Crown Limited
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In the past year or so most of the media reports on James Packer owned Crown Casino have been balanced, with a number of even positive reports, but now a new batch of negative stories, allegations and even a spot of "attack journalism" is starting to read its ugly head again.
Casino Casino bosses are not happy in the least about a bush tucker bag of allegations being leveled at their gambling and entertainment premises.
One of the more gross allegations is that Crown was accused of letting desperate gamblers urinate at machines during 24-hour pokie marathon sessions!
Other leaks say Crown throws fights into the street and tries to cover up crimes and other unwanted attention.
The hard hitting allegations are found in a report based on interviews with 225 current and former Crown casino staff who spoke out about their impressions of the level of violence, problem gambling and alcohol abuse inside Australia's biggest gambling venue.
A number of Australian media and gambling commentators believe the reports may have been geared to generate negative results for the casino, and that a large number of former staff and disgruntled current staff may have been tricked into focusing on negatives, and that somehow the Uni compiled report was designed to make Crown Limited look bad.
The so call "study" was conducted by Deakin University researchers, sphere headed by Associate Prof Linda Hancock. Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union staff agreed to participate in the industry-wide research.
The most disgusting allegation was that some one armed bandit players stood by the same pokies for up to 24 hours, with one respondent saying they "sit there and just wee, go to the toilet at the machine"
Crown Casino advises that allegation is not true.
Some staff also allege that Crown Casino is:
Permits patrons to gamble when drunk, even though it is against the law in Victoria
Calling taxis RSL cabs, Silver Service etc) for injured patrons and staff to avoid an ambulance incident report.
Permitting punters to stay on pokies for 24 hours plus marathon sessions or more.
Forcing drunks onto the street.
Covering up up 20 to 30 brawls per evening, with up to 40 punters a night being escorted out onto the street. This is mostly due to fighting, and sometimes patrons used knives and bottles.
Dr Hancock states her research showed a "systematic breakdown between Crown, government and regulators who don't enforce codes of practice".
The report that some say is bias, was rigged, and not accurate, also demonstrates poor awareness among staff of problem gambling, with half of those interviewed saying they wouldn't intervene if a gambler was in a distressed state.
A media spokesperson at Media Man said "The results of the report are not a total surprise. It's well known that there is an agenda from certain parts of the educational and political sector to get negative press on Crown Casino. Whispers are that the report was focusing on negatives and that they interviewed people who were not happy at Crown and has an axe to grind. They have used this report to try to create a media beat up, and also trying to generate attack journalism. University reports are often used to try to give certain agendas more credibility Do not believe everything you read, including from University reports. We know Crown Casino to do an excellent job of dealing with problems and are a very responsible employer. The report smells of a rat".
Crown casino spokesman Gary O'Neill said the comments in the report were all false and did not deserve to be described as "research: (a term also used to describe Japanese whaling).
"Crown absolutely denies that staff are encouraged or allowed to permit patrons to gamble while intoxicated," he said.
O'Neill said ambulances were regularly called to Crown and he denied claims that responsible gaming codes were being ignored.
At the time of press more media outlets are starting to go public saying there are flaws in the "research" and that Crown Casino haters are trying to create media beat-ups.
Crown Casino is understood to be considering some reality TV concepts and also is pursuing more national and international top line acts to add to its overall entertainment experience, as the famous Aussie casino wars continue with its main competitor being the embattled Tabcorp, owner - operator of Sydney's Star City, who are spending roughly 1 million dollars to try to play catch up to Crown - eventually wanting to become #1. Good luck Tabcorp, you will need it in spades.
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Wrap Up...
Readers... er, punters, how did you like our report? Is Crown Casino good or evil? Tell us in the forum.
If you have a bet, please bet with your head, not over it, and for God's sake, have fun.
*Greg Tingle is a special contributor for Gambling911
*Media Man http://www.mediamanint.com is primarily a media, publicity and internet portal development company. They cover a dozen industry sectors including gaming and offer political commentary and analysis.
*The writer owns shares in Crown Limited
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Monday, November 22, 2010
Bondi Beach Lifeguards And Amanda Hinchcliffe Help Build Giant Mo Sandcastle!
Bondi Rescue Lifeguards And Amanda Hinchcliffe Help Build Giant Mo Sandcastle!
Bondi Beach grows a giant Mo!
This Tuesday morning, 23rd Movember, the Bondi Rescue Life Guards - famous icons of health and vitality in Sydney - will show their support for the betterment of men’s health by helping to build a giant sandcastle Mo, or Mo-Castle, at iconic Bondi Beach.
This will be the creation of award winning sand sculptor Jino van Bruinessen (one of only 5 sand sculptors operating in Australia), who will be joined by Bondi Rescue Lifeguards Hoppo and Kerbox, Movember Mo Sista ambassadors Amanda Hinchcliffe and Kate Hurst, and Movember spokesperson Rob Treharne.
The massive Mo-Castle will be a celebration of, and nod to, the vast numbers of Mo's being worn proudly on the lips of men around the country, and globe. And what better place to do it than Bondi - internationally famous for healthy living, sand, and the outdoors.
This week Movember hit their millionth registration and remain on course to beat all previous donations and registration records. With NSW numbers at over 37,000 registrations and over a third of all money raised so far (over 3 million dollars) we hope this will be all the encouragement Sydney-siders need to keep up the good fight for the remainder of the month.
Where:
Bondi Beach, Sydney from 07:00am on Tuesday 23rd Movember!
Visual opportunities:
7.30am - 1.00pm - Sandcastle in progress
12.30 - 1.00pm - Sandcastle to be completed
Interview opportunities:
7.00am - 1.00pm - Movember spokesperson Rob Treharne, Mo Sista ambassador Kate Hurst
8.00am - 1.30pm - Bondi Rescue stars and surf lifesavers Hoppo and Kerbox, Mo Sista ambassador Miss Hawaiian Tropic 2010 Amanda Hinchcliffe
Press enquiries please contact Josh Gardiner 0403 921 097
To speak to our official spokesperson please contact Robbie Treharne 0419 273 263
For assistance on the day, please contact event manager Anestis Mantzouranis 0438 250 565
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Bondi Beach grows a giant Mo!
This Tuesday morning, 23rd Movember, the Bondi Rescue Life Guards - famous icons of health and vitality in Sydney - will show their support for the betterment of men’s health by helping to build a giant sandcastle Mo, or Mo-Castle, at iconic Bondi Beach.
This will be the creation of award winning sand sculptor Jino van Bruinessen (one of only 5 sand sculptors operating in Australia), who will be joined by Bondi Rescue Lifeguards Hoppo and Kerbox, Movember Mo Sista ambassadors Amanda Hinchcliffe and Kate Hurst, and Movember spokesperson Rob Treharne.
The massive Mo-Castle will be a celebration of, and nod to, the vast numbers of Mo's being worn proudly on the lips of men around the country, and globe. And what better place to do it than Bondi - internationally famous for healthy living, sand, and the outdoors.
This week Movember hit their millionth registration and remain on course to beat all previous donations and registration records. With NSW numbers at over 37,000 registrations and over a third of all money raised so far (over 3 million dollars) we hope this will be all the encouragement Sydney-siders need to keep up the good fight for the remainder of the month.
Where:
Bondi Beach, Sydney from 07:00am on Tuesday 23rd Movember!
Visual opportunities:
7.30am - 1.00pm - Sandcastle in progress
12.30 - 1.00pm - Sandcastle to be completed
Interview opportunities:
7.00am - 1.00pm - Movember spokesperson Rob Treharne, Mo Sista ambassador Kate Hurst
8.00am - 1.30pm - Bondi Rescue stars and surf lifesavers Hoppo and Kerbox, Mo Sista ambassador Miss Hawaiian Tropic 2010 Amanda Hinchcliffe
Press enquiries please contact Josh Gardiner 0403 921 097
To speak to our official spokesperson please contact Robbie Treharne 0419 273 263
For assistance on the day, please contact event manager Anestis Mantzouranis 0438 250 565
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Sunday, November 21, 2010
Australian Ex Survivor Producer Up For Murder, by Greg Tingle - 21st November 2010
G'day punters, gamers, entertainment news junkies, casino and media millionaires and billionaires, journalists, politicians and one and all. Australian Bruce Beresford-Redman, former 'Survivor' Producer, and ex resident of Toongabie, Sydney, is up for murdering his wife. Media Man and Gambling911 play Cluedo, Columbo and real life Underbelly with this special report...
A former reality television producer is up for murder for allegedly murdering his wife.
Australian Bruce Beresford-Redman, ex 'Survivor' producer, is the prime suspect.
Why would a husband murder his wife? Will the accused survive a trial? Beresford-Redman appears to be gambling on there not being enough evidence linking him to the grizzly crime, but with new evidence and such coming to the surface he may need to change his tactics, if he is to cheat time in the big house can (jail).
Media Man representatives last September were present at Sydney's 'The Basement' celebrating Australian actor Jack Thompson's 70th birthday when an announcement was made over the microphone that "Producer Bruce Beresford-Redman is sorry he can't make it in person tonight as he's shooting in Mexico", or something to that effect. A silence hit the rumor, raised eyebrows, and a light chuckle or two, as some of the audience were clearly in on the (non funny) joke. Most audience members were pissed... that's Aussie for had drank a lot of beer or wine.
The Latest...
The lovely sisters of Monica Burgos Beresford-Redman want a judge to keep her husband away from Monica's assets as they are understood to be afraid Bruce Beresford-Redman will basically raid the bank accounts to pay lawyers who will defend him on murder charges. Lovely stuff hey punters.
The sisters are understood to be worried BBR will strip Monica's estate to post a hefty bail. In legal papers filed earlier, Monica's sisters claim BBR is already under "severe financial stress".
The move comes just days after Beresford-Redman was arrested in connection with Monica's murder.
A Bit Of History...
BBR was arrested by cops his house in Rancho Palos Verdes, outside Los Angeles on the 16th November. U.S. Marshals and the FBI conducted the arrest. The arrest is for extradition to Mexico says various news wires.
Mexican authorities issued an arrest warrant in May for the former "Survivor" producer, in connection with the murder of his wife, Monica Burgos Beresford-Redman.
The feds complaint alleges a forensic expert examined Bruce's hotel room and found blood stains on a pillar in the room, on the sheets and on a railing! Yep, red all over the shop.
And the complaint goes onto say 2 teens in the hotel room below Bruce's were awakened by "screams, crying for help and extremely loud banging from the room above ... it sounded like a woman in extreme distress."
It was on April 9th 2010, The Los Angeles Times reported that Monica had been strangled and her body dumped in a sewer near where the couple was staying. She was born Monica Burgos on April 8, 1969 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The couple had two children, Alex and Camilla. On May 31, 2010, Mexico issued an arrest warrant on Beresford-Redman for the supposed murder of his wife while Mexican prosecutors initiate extradition proceedings to return Beresford-Redman back to Mexico to be "tried."
According to the complaint, "The fact of Beresford's affair was confirmed through a series of emails obtained by the Mexican authorities in which BBR admitted to his wife that he had been unfaithful." The complaint is also claiming an employee at the hotel witnessed Bruce "attempt to physically assault the woman," whom he later identified as Monica. And after Monica disappeared, authorities observed scratches/abrasions on BBR's hands, behind his ear, on his left shin and his right ankle.
We're expecting news from BBR's court room affairs in downtown LA.
From Bondi Beach - Sydney - Vegas - Mexico - LA and beyond, the BBR "Survivor" alleged murderer case remains the talk of the town.
BBR had lived in his Rancho Palos Verdes home with his children since May, although his parents have temporary legal custody of the children, ages 3 and 5. He built his career as a Hollywood reality television show producer. He worked for several seasons on the popular CBS show "Survivor," in which contestants compete against each other in a variety of extreme outdoor scenarios. He was nominated for three Emmy Awards as a producer on the show and was last credited as a producer in 2004. He also worked on NBC's "The Contender" and "The Restaurant," as well as MTV's "Pimp My Ride," according to entertainment media company IMG. Monica Beresford-Redman, a native of Brazil, owned a restaurant in Los Angeles.
Will he survive? Should bookies take odds on the chance of his imprisonment, charged with murder?
The current "Survivor" producer is Brit Mark Burnett. Burnett is frequently referred to as a media and entertainment genius. Burnett has a loose connection to the gambling and casino sector, having produced "The Casino" reality TV show in 2004. It was an American program broadcast on the Fox network that followed two dot-com millionaires, Thomas Breitling and Tim Poster, as they managed the Golden Nugget Hotel & Casino, located in downtown Las Vegas instead of the more popular Las Vegas Strip. The show was cancelled shortly before the last 3 episodes of the series could be broadcast due to crap ratings. However sister station Fox Reality Channel picked up "The Casino" and broadcast the unaired episodes and then ran the series in reruns until its cancellation from that network.
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Wrap Up...
Readers... er, punters, how did you like our report? What's next for "The Survivor"? Does he have the eye of the tiger, or is he dead meat? Tell us in the forum.
If you have a bet, please bet with your head, not over it, and for God's sake, have fun.
*Greg Tingle is a special contributor for Gambling911
*Media Man http://www.mediamanint.com is primarily a media, publicity and internet portal development company. They cover a dozen industry sectors including gaming and offer political commentary and analysis.
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A former reality television producer is up for murder for allegedly murdering his wife.
Australian Bruce Beresford-Redman, ex 'Survivor' producer, is the prime suspect.
Why would a husband murder his wife? Will the accused survive a trial? Beresford-Redman appears to be gambling on there not being enough evidence linking him to the grizzly crime, but with new evidence and such coming to the surface he may need to change his tactics, if he is to cheat time in the big house can (jail).
Media Man representatives last September were present at Sydney's 'The Basement' celebrating Australian actor Jack Thompson's 70th birthday when an announcement was made over the microphone that "Producer Bruce Beresford-Redman is sorry he can't make it in person tonight as he's shooting in Mexico", or something to that effect. A silence hit the rumor, raised eyebrows, and a light chuckle or two, as some of the audience were clearly in on the (non funny) joke. Most audience members were pissed... that's Aussie for had drank a lot of beer or wine.
The Latest...
The lovely sisters of Monica Burgos Beresford-Redman want a judge to keep her husband away from Monica's assets as they are understood to be afraid Bruce Beresford-Redman will basically raid the bank accounts to pay lawyers who will defend him on murder charges. Lovely stuff hey punters.
The sisters are understood to be worried BBR will strip Monica's estate to post a hefty bail. In legal papers filed earlier, Monica's sisters claim BBR is already under "severe financial stress".
The move comes just days after Beresford-Redman was arrested in connection with Monica's murder.
A Bit Of History...
BBR was arrested by cops his house in Rancho Palos Verdes, outside Los Angeles on the 16th November. U.S. Marshals and the FBI conducted the arrest. The arrest is for extradition to Mexico says various news wires.
Mexican authorities issued an arrest warrant in May for the former "Survivor" producer, in connection with the murder of his wife, Monica Burgos Beresford-Redman.
The feds complaint alleges a forensic expert examined Bruce's hotel room and found blood stains on a pillar in the room, on the sheets and on a railing! Yep, red all over the shop.
And the complaint goes onto say 2 teens in the hotel room below Bruce's were awakened by "screams, crying for help and extremely loud banging from the room above ... it sounded like a woman in extreme distress."
It was on April 9th 2010, The Los Angeles Times reported that Monica had been strangled and her body dumped in a sewer near where the couple was staying. She was born Monica Burgos on April 8, 1969 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The couple had two children, Alex and Camilla. On May 31, 2010, Mexico issued an arrest warrant on Beresford-Redman for the supposed murder of his wife while Mexican prosecutors initiate extradition proceedings to return Beresford-Redman back to Mexico to be "tried."
According to the complaint, "The fact of Beresford's affair was confirmed through a series of emails obtained by the Mexican authorities in which BBR admitted to his wife that he had been unfaithful." The complaint is also claiming an employee at the hotel witnessed Bruce "attempt to physically assault the woman," whom he later identified as Monica. And after Monica disappeared, authorities observed scratches/abrasions on BBR's hands, behind his ear, on his left shin and his right ankle.
We're expecting news from BBR's court room affairs in downtown LA.
From Bondi Beach - Sydney - Vegas - Mexico - LA and beyond, the BBR "Survivor" alleged murderer case remains the talk of the town.
BBR had lived in his Rancho Palos Verdes home with his children since May, although his parents have temporary legal custody of the children, ages 3 and 5. He built his career as a Hollywood reality television show producer. He worked for several seasons on the popular CBS show "Survivor," in which contestants compete against each other in a variety of extreme outdoor scenarios. He was nominated for three Emmy Awards as a producer on the show and was last credited as a producer in 2004. He also worked on NBC's "The Contender" and "The Restaurant," as well as MTV's "Pimp My Ride," according to entertainment media company IMG. Monica Beresford-Redman, a native of Brazil, owned a restaurant in Los Angeles.
Will he survive? Should bookies take odds on the chance of his imprisonment, charged with murder?
The current "Survivor" producer is Brit Mark Burnett. Burnett is frequently referred to as a media and entertainment genius. Burnett has a loose connection to the gambling and casino sector, having produced "The Casino" reality TV show in 2004. It was an American program broadcast on the Fox network that followed two dot-com millionaires, Thomas Breitling and Tim Poster, as they managed the Golden Nugget Hotel & Casino, located in downtown Las Vegas instead of the more popular Las Vegas Strip. The show was cancelled shortly before the last 3 episodes of the series could be broadcast due to crap ratings. However sister station Fox Reality Channel picked up "The Casino" and broadcast the unaired episodes and then ran the series in reruns until its cancellation from that network.
Media Man Profiles
Australia
Australia Casinos
Reality TV
Survivor
Sydney
News
Casino News
Entertainment News
News
Wrap Up...
Readers... er, punters, how did you like our report? What's next for "The Survivor"? Does he have the eye of the tiger, or is he dead meat? Tell us in the forum.
If you have a bet, please bet with your head, not over it, and for God's sake, have fun.
*Greg Tingle is a special contributor for Gambling911
*Media Man http://www.mediamanint.com is primarily a media, publicity and internet portal development company. They cover a dozen industry sectors including gaming and offer political commentary and analysis.
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Saturday, November 20, 2010
Woolworths: The Fast Cash People?, by Greg Tingle - 19th November 2010
Gambling and especially potential harm re "problem gambling" continues to get a strong news run in Australia. Today we explore the business relationship that retailer Woolworths (slogan - 'The Fast Food People') aka 'The Fast Cash People' (satire) enjoys in the Australian gaming and gambling industry. Media Man and Gambling911 take a ride on the shopping trolley jackpot with this special report...
Woolworths on Thursday found itself defending its significant business involvement in Australian pokies, as the echoes that they are causing social harm continues.
What's the one armed bandit link we hear you ask. Woolworths, via its majority holding in the ALH Group venture with Melbourne businessman and Aussie pokies king Bruce Mathieson, is Australia's largest poker machine operator and is likely to face more negative press and noise over "problem gambling" due to the anti-pokies stance of some key federal Independent MPs and senators. It's mainly a small but vocal minority, but it gives they a platform to get noticed.
A Media Man insider said 'For some MP's the pokies thing is gold. Some of them see pokies as the new thing to jump upon. Rather like pokies is the new porn to jump up an down about. For the past few years in Australia porn and also the environment were big issues for polies, then mining, not pokies gets a lot of heat. Next year it will be something else".
Woolies Chief executive Michael Luscombe, speaking after the company's annual shareholder meeting in Brisbane said it had no plans at all to exit the poker machines business.
Luscombe advised the firm was planning to introduce a policy to help reduce problem gambling, but he could not or would not immediately name the specific nature.
A communications assistant type then went on to describe the voluntary precommitment policy, under which punters can choose to set limits for wager amounts.
Stephen Maybe, political and media commentator, and anti pokies activist quizzed if Woolworths had decided to pursue court action to prevent councils from such a move or had agreed to a deal with the Victorian Labor Party to use legislation to prevent council action if the Brumby Government was re-elected. Luscombe said he was not aware of any agreement with Labor.
Mayne also said nationwide more than $10 billion was lost on pokies each year. He said Manningham council was investigating the possibility of increasing the rate bill of Woolworths' gaming venues from $100,000 to $400,000.
Woolworths' hotels business enjoyed about $176.7 million in fiscal 2010 pretax earnings and added 6 properties, taking its total number of hotels and clubs to 284.
Woolworths issued a special report on its social, environmental and governance policies, however the report's one-page summary of key 2010 challenges did not mention action to address "problem gambling".
The company noted it adhered to gambling-related laws and planned voluntary measures.
Woolworths also came under fire over its approach to executive pay, with the Australian Shareholders Association citing concern over lack of transparency as the reason for rejecting the remuneration report.
The outfit had good news on its latest trading, with Luscombe stating there had been no direct impact on its business from the latest official rate rise. He expected Christmas trading this year would be "reasonably good".
The company continued to expect 8-11% growth in fiscal 2011 net profit.
He said the company was likely to open more than the 150 home-improvement stores targeted. It has secured 90 sites and planned to open the first stores in Victoria from about July..
Chairman James Strong said the company was keeping its eye out for takeover opportunities.
"The board remains open and alert to a wide range of possibilities that could add value for our shareholders," he said.
Woolies shares rose 24 cents to $27.74 yesterday.
By all accounts Woolworths is making a killing with its current links to the Australian pokies business, and shows no sign of slowing down.
Christmas jackpots are on the way, as the pokies lovers vs pokies haters war down under continues.
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Readers... er, punters, how did you like our report? What do you think about Woolworths being involved in gambling? Tell us in the forum.
If you have a bet, please bet with your head, not over it, and for God's sake, have fun.
*Greg Tingle is a special contributor for Gambling911
*Media Man http://www.mediamanint.com is primarily a media, publicity and internet portal development company. They cover a dozen industry sectors including gaming and offer political commentary and analysis.
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Woolworths on Thursday found itself defending its significant business involvement in Australian pokies, as the echoes that they are causing social harm continues.
What's the one armed bandit link we hear you ask. Woolworths, via its majority holding in the ALH Group venture with Melbourne businessman and Aussie pokies king Bruce Mathieson, is Australia's largest poker machine operator and is likely to face more negative press and noise over "problem gambling" due to the anti-pokies stance of some key federal Independent MPs and senators. It's mainly a small but vocal minority, but it gives they a platform to get noticed.
A Media Man insider said 'For some MP's the pokies thing is gold. Some of them see pokies as the new thing to jump upon. Rather like pokies is the new porn to jump up an down about. For the past few years in Australia porn and also the environment were big issues for polies, then mining, not pokies gets a lot of heat. Next year it will be something else".
Woolies Chief executive Michael Luscombe, speaking after the company's annual shareholder meeting in Brisbane said it had no plans at all to exit the poker machines business.
Luscombe advised the firm was planning to introduce a policy to help reduce problem gambling, but he could not or would not immediately name the specific nature.
A communications assistant type then went on to describe the voluntary precommitment policy, under which punters can choose to set limits for wager amounts.
Stephen Maybe, political and media commentator, and anti pokies activist quizzed if Woolworths had decided to pursue court action to prevent councils from such a move or had agreed to a deal with the Victorian Labor Party to use legislation to prevent council action if the Brumby Government was re-elected. Luscombe said he was not aware of any agreement with Labor.
Mayne also said nationwide more than $10 billion was lost on pokies each year. He said Manningham council was investigating the possibility of increasing the rate bill of Woolworths' gaming venues from $100,000 to $400,000.
Woolworths' hotels business enjoyed about $176.7 million in fiscal 2010 pretax earnings and added 6 properties, taking its total number of hotels and clubs to 284.
Woolworths issued a special report on its social, environmental and governance policies, however the report's one-page summary of key 2010 challenges did not mention action to address "problem gambling".
The company noted it adhered to gambling-related laws and planned voluntary measures.
Woolworths also came under fire over its approach to executive pay, with the Australian Shareholders Association citing concern over lack of transparency as the reason for rejecting the remuneration report.
The outfit had good news on its latest trading, with Luscombe stating there had been no direct impact on its business from the latest official rate rise. He expected Christmas trading this year would be "reasonably good".
The company continued to expect 8-11% growth in fiscal 2011 net profit.
He said the company was likely to open more than the 150 home-improvement stores targeted. It has secured 90 sites and planned to open the first stores in Victoria from about July..
Chairman James Strong said the company was keeping its eye out for takeover opportunities.
"The board remains open and alert to a wide range of possibilities that could add value for our shareholders," he said.
Woolies shares rose 24 cents to $27.74 yesterday.
By all accounts Woolworths is making a killing with its current links to the Australian pokies business, and shows no sign of slowing down.
Christmas jackpots are on the way, as the pokies lovers vs pokies haters war down under continues.
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Readers... er, punters, how did you like our report? What do you think about Woolworths being involved in gambling? Tell us in the forum.
If you have a bet, please bet with your head, not over it, and for God's sake, have fun.
*Greg Tingle is a special contributor for Gambling911
*Media Man http://www.mediamanint.com is primarily a media, publicity and internet portal development company. They cover a dozen industry sectors including gaming and offer political commentary and analysis.
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Thursday, November 18, 2010
James Packer And Shane Warne Casino Deal; Tiger Gossip, by Greg Tingle - 18th November 2010
What sort of business deals might an Aussie cricket legend and Australian casino king James Packer get up to? How about a Warnie branded poker room, and opening a bar or two, and plenty more win - wins in the works say those in the know. Warnie and Packer have also taken a liking to Tiger Woods, and some more good business is understood to be on the horizon for the daily double, soon to become a trio. Media Man and Gambling911 take a swing with the bats and balls and sink a cold one with this special report...
Shane Warne Expands Business Empire...
Aussie cricket living legend Shane Warne is further expanding his business.
He's the face of a poker brand, might have a poker room named after him, has a hair care endorsement, a venue music deal with Media Man mate Kym Illman, and now word leaks of both a Warnie talk show coming up on Network Nine, and perhaps a drinking bar - watering hole at Crown too. What a party animal, (with brains, and friends in all of the right places).
The champion spinner is coming back from more business deals offered to him from good mate and self appointed mentor, James Packer. Get this, the Crown Casino rooftop bar might also offer cigars and be smoker friendly, but details are a tad sketchy at the moment.
Warne was happy to confirm he and Packer were looking at a joint venture deal but wasn't able to, or willing, to discuss details at this stage of the game.
"Myself and James Packer are going into business and doing something at Crown," he said. "There might be something happening at Crown in the next 12 months."
Quizzed if it would be on the rooftop, cheeky Warne replied with "It should be very good views."
Both Packer and Warnie are smokers and the former cricketer is known to enjoy a good cigar. Warnie new mate, golfer, Tiger Woods, is understood to be keen to spend more time with the spinner, but if he will brave the night air and a ciggy on the roof at Crown Casino is unclear.
A Crown spokesperson yesterday said Crown had "no comment on this matter at this stage".
Warne is also strongly rumoured to have a hamburger business deal in the worlds. We got a report he was seen eating a McDonald's burger, that might have been branded as his own. How hot or not the burger might be is the talk of cafes and bars in Melbourne. On the burger he's understood to have said "I don't do spicy stuff. Too many years in India."
He also said he had no problem endorsing Maccas, noting they offered many healthy options.
"We did a bit of due diligence on McDonalds," he said.
Warne event went as far to say his three kids don't mind a bit of Maccas.
"Once a week I say, 'What would you like to have?' ... eight out of 10 times, it's McDonald's."
Shane Warne Talk Show; May Mention Poker, Gambling...
It's going to be called Warne’s World, the chat show is scheduled to air on Thursdays at 9.30pm once the Ashes series kicks off next month. "We’ve secured two or three big-name guests at this stage so things are going well," Warne said. The hunt is on for potential co-hosts. It will also feature a slew of international mates. A production source said, "Warnie knows so many people – there are many closet cricket fans out there – so we’re expecting anyone who’s in town, whether it be a superstar singer or a Hollywood actor, to be called on by Shane." Maybe it possibly work as a summer cricketing counterpart to The Footy Show? Warne also recently appeared Top Gear Australia, the show he was heavily rumoured to be hosting, but the host gig didn't come off, of course. Warne's World sounds like a better fit for the former spinner.
Warnie Mate Tiger Woods Also Likes His Twitter...
Tiger Woods is now on Twitter. In his first tweet , the world's former No.1 golfer said, "What’s up everyone. Finally decided to try out twitter!" In a second tweet, TigerWoods said, "Yep, it’s me. I think I like this twitter thing. You guys are awesome. Thanks for all the love." Woods' public image has taken a beating since last November, when a car accident outside his Florida home triggered reports of numerous extramarital affairs. Woods and ex-wife Elin Nordegren finalised their divorce in August. Woods has also struggled on the golf course in 2010, failing to win a tournament for the first time in his professional career. He lost the world No.1 ranking to Lee Westwood on October 31. Woods, currently "down under" in Australia, is understood to have a chance of winning the Australian Masters, and insiders reckon his time with Aussie cricket legend and lady lover, Shane Warne, are helping the Tiger mindset. At the Masters - Crown Casino press conference their similar nocturnal habits were brought up, which got a smile and laugh from the "dream team". Granted, with the ladies or the press, Tiger is no Shane Warne, but he doesn't need to be. Go get 'em Tiger.
Warnie Did Not Have Facelift; Hair Treatment Works!...
Warne has denied having plastic surgery after a spat of rumours and innuendo about his appearance. The famous cricketer was finally forced to use his Twitter account to set the record straight after a picture of him at an event in Melbourne sparked a whirl of speculation. "No have not had facelift or any work done to face, training hard and lost 5kg. Yes have had teeth whitened," he tweeted. He later added: "NO have not had hair transplant, have re-grown my own hair with laser therapy!! It works and happy with results!!"
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Readers... er, punters, how did you like our report? How's things looking for a Packer - Warnie, and maybe Tiger Woods deal? Tell us in the forum.
If you have a bet, please bet with your head, not over it, and for God's sake, have fun.
*Greg Tingle is a special contributor for Gambling911
*Media Man http://www.mediamanint.com is primarily a media, publicity and internet portal development company. They cover a dozen industry sectors including gaming and offer political commentary and analysis.
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Shane Warne Expands Business Empire...
Aussie cricket living legend Shane Warne is further expanding his business.
He's the face of a poker brand, might have a poker room named after him, has a hair care endorsement, a venue music deal with Media Man mate Kym Illman, and now word leaks of both a Warnie talk show coming up on Network Nine, and perhaps a drinking bar - watering hole at Crown too. What a party animal, (with brains, and friends in all of the right places).
The champion spinner is coming back from more business deals offered to him from good mate and self appointed mentor, James Packer. Get this, the Crown Casino rooftop bar might also offer cigars and be smoker friendly, but details are a tad sketchy at the moment.
Warne was happy to confirm he and Packer were looking at a joint venture deal but wasn't able to, or willing, to discuss details at this stage of the game.
"Myself and James Packer are going into business and doing something at Crown," he said. "There might be something happening at Crown in the next 12 months."
Quizzed if it would be on the rooftop, cheeky Warne replied with "It should be very good views."
Both Packer and Warnie are smokers and the former cricketer is known to enjoy a good cigar. Warnie new mate, golfer, Tiger Woods, is understood to be keen to spend more time with the spinner, but if he will brave the night air and a ciggy on the roof at Crown Casino is unclear.
A Crown spokesperson yesterday said Crown had "no comment on this matter at this stage".
Warne is also strongly rumoured to have a hamburger business deal in the worlds. We got a report he was seen eating a McDonald's burger, that might have been branded as his own. How hot or not the burger might be is the talk of cafes and bars in Melbourne. On the burger he's understood to have said "I don't do spicy stuff. Too many years in India."
He also said he had no problem endorsing Maccas, noting they offered many healthy options.
"We did a bit of due diligence on McDonalds," he said.
Warne event went as far to say his three kids don't mind a bit of Maccas.
"Once a week I say, 'What would you like to have?' ... eight out of 10 times, it's McDonald's."
Shane Warne Talk Show; May Mention Poker, Gambling...
It's going to be called Warne’s World, the chat show is scheduled to air on Thursdays at 9.30pm once the Ashes series kicks off next month. "We’ve secured two or three big-name guests at this stage so things are going well," Warne said. The hunt is on for potential co-hosts. It will also feature a slew of international mates. A production source said, "Warnie knows so many people – there are many closet cricket fans out there – so we’re expecting anyone who’s in town, whether it be a superstar singer or a Hollywood actor, to be called on by Shane." Maybe it possibly work as a summer cricketing counterpart to The Footy Show? Warne also recently appeared Top Gear Australia, the show he was heavily rumoured to be hosting, but the host gig didn't come off, of course. Warne's World sounds like a better fit for the former spinner.
Warnie Mate Tiger Woods Also Likes His Twitter...
Tiger Woods is now on Twitter. In his first tweet , the world's former No.1 golfer said, "What’s up everyone. Finally decided to try out twitter!" In a second tweet, TigerWoods said, "Yep, it’s me. I think I like this twitter thing. You guys are awesome. Thanks for all the love." Woods' public image has taken a beating since last November, when a car accident outside his Florida home triggered reports of numerous extramarital affairs. Woods and ex-wife Elin Nordegren finalised their divorce in August. Woods has also struggled on the golf course in 2010, failing to win a tournament for the first time in his professional career. He lost the world No.1 ranking to Lee Westwood on October 31. Woods, currently "down under" in Australia, is understood to have a chance of winning the Australian Masters, and insiders reckon his time with Aussie cricket legend and lady lover, Shane Warne, are helping the Tiger mindset. At the Masters - Crown Casino press conference their similar nocturnal habits were brought up, which got a smile and laugh from the "dream team". Granted, with the ladies or the press, Tiger is no Shane Warne, but he doesn't need to be. Go get 'em Tiger.
Warnie Did Not Have Facelift; Hair Treatment Works!...
Warne has denied having plastic surgery after a spat of rumours and innuendo about his appearance. The famous cricketer was finally forced to use his Twitter account to set the record straight after a picture of him at an event in Melbourne sparked a whirl of speculation. "No have not had facelift or any work done to face, training hard and lost 5kg. Yes have had teeth whitened," he tweeted. He later added: "NO have not had hair transplant, have re-grown my own hair with laser therapy!! It works and happy with results!!"
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Wrap Up...
Readers... er, punters, how did you like our report? How's things looking for a Packer - Warnie, and maybe Tiger Woods deal? Tell us in the forum.
If you have a bet, please bet with your head, not over it, and for God's sake, have fun.
*Greg Tingle is a special contributor for Gambling911
*Media Man http://www.mediamanint.com is primarily a media, publicity and internet portal development company. They cover a dozen industry sectors including gaming and offer political commentary and analysis.
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Netflix finally reveals how much it makes from Australians - 1st June 2023
Netflix made more than $1 billion from Australians last year, a figure the company reported for the first time after deciding no longer to funnel revenues through a Netherlands-based subsidiary.
Accounts lodged by the streaming giant show Netflix Australia made $1.06 billion in 2022, up from $30.7 million the year before.
The increase in reported revenue came after the company’s local subsidiary changed how it bills. It now describes itself as a “distributor of access” to Netflix Service as opposed to a provider of services for its parent company.
It was previously estimated that Netflix made between $790 million and $1.4 billion from Australians, but customers were billed by Netflix International BV. But from January 1 last year, customers were billed by Netflix Australia, meaning subscription revenue was recognised and taxed locally.
The accounts, filed with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, show Netflix Australia paid $966 million to the Netflix Group in distribution fees and other costs, meaning it made just $22.7 million from total revenues of $1.06 billion.
After paying $6.9 million in income tax, it reported $15.8 million profit for the year.
“As Netflix continues to grow and invest in Australia, we want our corporate structure to reflect our business activities here,” a spokesman for Netflix said last year when The Australian Financial Review reported the structural change.
In 2021, Netflix Australia reported $30.7 million in revenue, $2.4 million in profit pre-tax, and $1.5 million in profit after its $868,000 income tax bill.
Netflix does not disclose subscriber numbers for Australia, but the revenue figures included in its latest accounts implies the service has around five million customers locally, if its standard plan, $16.99 per month, is used as a guide. It has four monthly price tiers including a new, cheaper one that now adds some advertising.
According to the Australian Communications and Media Authority, streaming services made a combined $2.49 billion in Australia in 2021.
The disclosure of Netflix’s true Australian revenue comes as the federal government considers introducing quotas that would force streaming companies to spend a certain amount making shows locally.
Some suggestions have been forcing them to spend between 10 and 20 per cent of local revenue on Australian shows, meaning Netflix would be required to spend, depending on the rate, between $100 million to $200 million.
ACMA estimates streaming providers spend $335.1 million on Australian content in the 12 months to the end of June last year, up from $178.9 million the year before.
Netflix has been contacted for comment.
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Mistakes and miscalculations: How the Murdochs and Fox got it so wrong - 30th May 2023
In August 2021, the Fox Corp. board of directors gathered in Los Angeles. Among the topics on the agenda: Dominion Voting Systems’ $US1.6 billion ($2.5 billion) defamation lawsuit against its cable news network, Fox News.
The suit posed a threat to the company’s finances and reputation. But Fox’s chief legal officer, Viet Dinh, reassured the board: Even if the company lost at trial, it would ultimately prevail. The First Amendment was on Fox’s side, he explained, even if proving so could require going to the Supreme Court.
That determination informed a series of missteps and miscalculations over the next 20 months, according to a New York Times review of court and business records, and interviews with roughly a dozen people directly involved in or briefed on the company’s decision-making.
The case resulted in one of the biggest legal and business debacles in the history of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire: an avalanche of embarrassing disclosures from internal messages released in court filings; the largest known settlement in a defamation suit, $US787.5 million; two shareholder lawsuits; and the benching of Fox’s top prime-time star, Tucker Carlson.
And for all of that, Fox still faces a lawsuit seeking even more in damages, $US2.7 billion, filed by another subject of the stolen election theory, voting software company Smartmatic.
Caught flat-footed
Repeatedly, Fox executives overlooked warning signs about the damage they and their network would sustain, the Times found. They also failed to recognise how far their cable news networks, Fox News and Fox Business, had strayed into defamatory territory by promoting President Donald Trump’s election conspiracy theories — the central issue in the case. (Fox maintains it did not defame Dominion.)
When pretrial rulings went against the company, Fox did not pursue a settlement in any real way. Executives were then caught flat-footed as Dominion’s court filings included internal Fox messages that made clear how the company chased a Trump-loving audience that preferred his election lies to the truth.
It was only in February that Murdoch and his son with whom he runs the company, Lachlan Murdoch, began seriously considering settling. Yet they made no major attempt to do so until the eve of the trial in April, after still more damaging public disclosures.
At the centre of the action was Dinh and his overly rosy scenario.
Dinh, a high-level Justice Department official under President George W. Bush, declined several requests for comment, and the company declined to respond to questions about his performance or his legal decisions. “Discussions of specific legal strategy are privileged and confidential,” a company representative said in a statement.
The second half of 2020 brought Fox News to a crisis point. The Fox audience had come to expect favourable news about Trump. But Fox could not provide that on election night, when its decision desk team was first to declare that Trump had lost the critical state of Arizona.
In the days after, Trump’s fans switched off in droves.
The Fox host who was the first to find a way to draw the audience back was Maria Bartiromo. Five days after the election, she invited a guest, Trump-aligned lawyer Sidney Powell, to share details about the false accusations that Dominion, an elections technology company, had switched votes from Trump to Joe Biden.
Soon, wild claims about Dominion appeared elsewhere on Fox, including references to the election company’s supposed (but imagined) ties to the Smartmatic election software company; Hugo Chávez, the Venezuelan dictator who died in 2013; George Soros, the billionaire investor and Democratic donor; and China.
‘Fox News did its job, and this is what the First Amendment protects. I’m not at all concerned about such lawsuits, real or imagined.’
Fox’s chief legal officer Viet Dinh
On November 12, a Dominion spokesperson complained to Fox News Media chief executive Suzanne Scott and Fox News Media executive editor Jay Wallace, begging them to make it stop. “We really weren’t thinking about building a litigation record as much as we were trying to stop the bleeding,” said Thomas A. Clare, one of Dominion’s lawyers.
As Fox noted in its court papers, its hosts did begin including company denials. But as they continued to give oxygen to the false allegations, Dominion sent a letter to Fox News general counsel Lily Fu Claffee, demanding that Fox cease and correct the record. “Dominion is prepared to do what is necessary to protect its reputation and the safety of its employees,” the letter warned.
Fox, however, did not respond to the Dominion letter or comply with its requests — now a key issue in a shareholder suit filed in April, which maintains that doing so would have “materially mitigated” Fox’s legal exposure.
Three months after the election, another voting technology company tied to the Dominion conspiracy, Smartmatic, filed its own defamation suit against Fox, seeking $US2.7 billion in damages. Dominion told reporters that it was preparing to file one, too.
Dinh was publicly dismissive.
“The newsworthy nature of the contested presidential election deserved full and fair coverage from all journalists. Fox News did its job, and this is what the First Amendment protects,” Dinh said at the time. “I’m not at all concerned about such lawsuits, real or imagined.”
The Fox legal team based much of the defence on a doctrine known as the neutral reportage privilege. It holds that news organisations cannot be held financially liable for damages when reporting on false allegations made by major public figures as long as they don’t embrace or endorse them.
An early warning came in late 2021. The judge in the case, Eric M. Davis, rejected Fox’s attempt to use the neutral reportage defence to get the suit thrown out, determining that it was not recognised under New York law, which he was applying to the case. Even if it was recognised, Fox would have to show it reported on the allegations “accurately and dispassionately”, and Dominion had made a strong argument that Fox’s reporting was neither, the judge wrote in a ruling.
That ruling meant that Dominion could have access to Fox’s internal communications in discovery.
That was a natural time to settle. But Fox stuck with its defence and its plan.
Treasure trove
At nearly every step, the court overruled Fox’s attempts to limit Dominion’s access to private communications exchanged among hosts, producers and executives. The biggest blow came mid-last year, after a ruling stating that Dominion could review messages from the personal phones of Fox employees, including both Murdochs.
The result was a treasure trove of evidence for Dominion: text messages and emails that revealed the doubts that Rupert Murdoch had about the coverage airing on his network, and assertions by many inside Fox, including Carlson, that fraud could not have made a material difference in the election.
The messages led to even more damaging revelations during depositions. After Dominion’s lawyers confronted Rupert Murdoch with his own messages showing he knew Trump’s stolen election claims were false, he admitted that some Fox hosts appeared to have endorsed stolen election claims.
During Carlson’s deposition last year, Dominion’s lawyers asked about his use of a crude word to describe women — including a ranking Fox executive. They also mentioned a text in which he discussed watching a group of men, who he said were Trump supporters, attack “an Antifa kid”. He lamented in the text, “It’s not how white men fight,” and shared a momentary wish that the group would kill the person. He then said he regretted that instinct.
There is no indication that Carlson’s texts tripped alarms at the top of Fox at that point.
The alarms rang in February, when reams of other internal Fox communications became public. The public’s reaction was so negative that some people at the company believed that a jury could award Dominion more than $US1 billion. Yet the company made no serious bid to settle.
All along, the Fox board had been taking a wait-and-see approach.
But the judge’s pretrial decisions began to change the board’s thinking. Also, in those final days before the trial, Fox was hit with new lawsuits. One, from former Fox producer Abby Grossberg, accused Carlson of promoting a hostile work environment. Another, filed by a shareholder, accused the Murdochs and several directors of failing to stop the practices that made Fox vulnerable to legal claims.
The weekend before the trial was to begin, the board asked Fox to see the internal Fox communications that were not yet public but that could still come out in the courtroom.
The board learned for the first time of the Carlson text that referred to “how white men fight”. Dinh did not know about the message until that weekend, according to two people familiar with the matter.
By the time the board learned of the message, the Murdochs had already determined that a trial loss could be far more damaging than they were initially told to expect. A substantial jury award could weigh on the company’s stock for years as the appeals process played out.
“The distraction to our company, the distraction to our growth plans — our management — would have been extraordinarily costly, which is why we decided to settle,” Lachlan Murdoch said at an investment conference this month.
The text also helped lead to the Murdochs’ decision to abruptly pull Carlson off the air. Their view had hardened that their top-rated star wasn’t worth all the downsides he brought with him.
Still pending is the Smartmatic suit. In April, Fox agreed to hand over additional internal documents relating to several executives, including the Murdochs and Dinh. In a statement reminiscent of Dinh’s early view of the Dominion case, the network said that Fox was protected by the First Amendment.
“We will be ready to defend this case surrounding extremely newsworthy events when it goes to trial, likely in 2025,” the statement said.
News
Lachlan Murdoch explains $1.2b settlement, says Fox News won’t change ‘successful strategy’ - 10th May 2023
Fox News paid $US787 million ($1.16 billion) to settle a recent lawsuit on its reporting after the 2020 election to avoid a divisive trial and lengthy appeals process, its parent company’s chief executive said.
Lachlan Murdoch, executive chairman and CEO of Fox Corp., also noted that a Delaware judge “severely limited” Fox’s defences against Dominion Voting Systems, which said the network defamed it by airing bogus charges of election fraud that it knew was untrue.
Fox Corp announced that it had lost $US50 million the previous three months, which it attributed to the lawsuit settlement. Murdoch, who answered questions from financial analysts, was speaking in public for the first time since the case ended and Fox fired its most popular anchor, Tucker Carlson. Carlson has just announced he is launching a new show on Twitter.
Murdoch said viewers, and investors, should expect no change in direction from Fox News.
“We made the business decision to resolve this dispute and avoid the acrimony of a divisive trial and multi-year appeal process, a decision clearly in the best interests of the company and its shareholders,” he said.
Fox still believes it was properly exercising its First Amendment rights to report on newsworthy fraud allegations made by former President Donald Trump, even though that defence was shot down in a pre-trial court ruling in the Dominion case, Murdoch said.
That’s important, since Murdoch said Fox intends to use the same defence against a similar lawsuit by another elections technology company, Smartmatic. That case is not expected to go to trial until at least 2025, he said.
Despite being asked directly about Carlson’s exit, Murdoch didn’t mention the former prime-time host’s name and referred to his reign obliquely. Fox has not explained why it cut ties with Carlson.
“There’s no change in programming strategy at Fox News,” he said. “It’s obviously a successful strategy. As always, we are adjusting our programming and our lineup and that’s what we continue to do.”
Although hurt by the Carlson exit, Fox News remains the leading cable news network.
Fox has lost viewers following Carlson’s firing. Last week’s substitute host, Lawrence Jones, reached between 1.28 million and 1.7 million last week in a time slot where Carlson usually drew around 3 million, the Nielsen company said.
Yet Fox has gained more than 40 new advertisers in that hour, the network said, confirming a report in Variety. Advertisers like Gillette, Scott’s Miracle Gro and Secret deodorant that had considered Carlson’s show a toxic environment have signed on.
(AP)
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Jesse Armstrong on the roots of Succession: ‘Would it have landed the same way without the mad bum-rush of Trump’s presidency?’ - 27th May 2023
It has been the TV drama of our time – a brutal, hilarious unpicking of how power works. As the series comes to an end, its creator looks back at its origin and the unholy trinity of men who helped inspire Logan Roy
My first vivid memory of the project that would develop into Succession was trying to get out of it. It was about 2008 and I was on location for the filming of Peep Show, the UK sitcom my longtime writing partner Sam Bain and I wrote together. Between that show and my work on The Thick of It and In the Loop, and a bunch of other things, I was feeling overcommitted. That particular day we were pretending a very normal field in Hertfordshire was a safari park. I sloped off from set and, hiding from imaginary lions, tried to elegantly step away from the project.
I failed. And in the following months as I wrote, slowly, I became certain the script was a dud. It was stodgy and odd. The original idea, a faux-documentary laying out Rupert Murdoch’s business secrets, with them delivered straight to camera, evolved as I worked into a sort of TV play, set at the media owner’s 80th birthday party. Channel 4 were supportive, but it was an odd form, this docudrama/TV-play, and difficult to make happen. Around 2011, after a read-through in London where John Hurt played Rupert, the project essentially died.
My US agent was the first person I recall suggesting a totally different approach. A fictional family, a multi-series US show. For five years or so, I dismissed the idea, certain that a portrayal of a fictional family would never have the power of a real one. Four works changed my mind: HBO’s excellent Robert Durst documentary, The Jinx; Sumner Redstone’s grimly business-focused autobiography, A Passion to Win; James B Stewart’s propulsive DisneyWar; and Tom Bower’s fascinating Robert Maxwell biography Maxwell: The Final Verdict. These turned the idea of doing a media-family drama without a singular real-life model from a terrible betrayal of reality into a tantalising chance to harvest all the best stories. Here was an opportunity to explore all the most fascinating family dynamics within a propitiously balanced fictional hybrid media conglomerate. I took a long, deep dive into rich-family and media-business research.
I talked about this, as-yet-unwritten, idea in half-ironised terms as ‘Festen-meets-Dallas’
When Sam and I decided to bring things to a close on Peep Show, I flew out to pitch this media show around LA. I had a clear idea of where I wanted to develop it, but my agent persuaded me appetites would be whetted if we had a number of potential homes. So I spent three days doing a round of pitch meetings where I talked about this as-yet-unwritten idea in half-ironised terms as “Festen-meets-Dallas”. No stars, Dogme 95 camerawork. Scared of driving on the five-lane highways, I bumped around town in the back of a Honda Civic while a nice young man from my US agent’s mailroom ferried me between rooms stocked with identical tiny bottles of water and executives of vastly varying degrees of interest.
Eventually, I got to HBO, the place I most wanted the show to land, home to The Sopranos and Six Feet Under. I knew they might be receptive. Frank Rich – once known as the “Butcher of Broadway” for his theatre criticism, but now an in-house consigliere – had championed my work there to the boss, Richard Plepler, and I’d previously developed a show with them. So, out the back of a French-style bistro on a three-cappuccino high, I pitched it to their head of drama and comedy, Casey Bloys.
Sometimes a pitch stretches thin and threadbare, the fabric renting as you go, the other party peeping grimly through the holes. Other times, the air thickens, and you can feel the atmosphere in the room turn oxygen-rich as the enthusiasm you are trying to project transforms into an enthusiasm you are actually feeling.
By the time I left LA, HBO had made an offer and Adam McKay, fresh from The Big Short, had said he would be interested in directing. I’d written another Succession forerunner, a script about the US political strategist Lee Atwater, for Adam and his producing partner Kevin Messick. It had been one of the few LA experiences I’d had where the excitement expressed at the start of the project sustained through the writing and attempts to get it made.
This was 2016 and, once back in the UK, I wrote the pilot through the spring and summer in a one-room flat I rented on Brixton Hill, south London, walking across Brockwell Park each morning, listening to podcasts and reading news about the Brexit referendum. Scotland had recently voted by a narrow majority to stay inside the UK and the abiding sense right before the Brexit vote was, yeah, change looms, it glistens, menacingly, promisingly, but it doesn’t happen. Not really. Really, everything stays the same.
But then it did happen. And across the Atlantic, the Trump campaign was igniting – even if initially his candidacy felt like a slightly amusing, slightly too-vivid flash in the pan. Into early autumn, in fact, all serious people were still explaining to one another that Trump couldn’t happen. Although I suppose, looking back, there was a notable lack of detail in terms of the mechanism by which he would be stopped.
I think a lot of the better films and TV shows I’ve been involved with have at their heart a quite simple impulse around which the more subtle layers are spun. In the Loop’s spark was anger at the Iraq war. Chris Morris’s Four Lions I think was driven by his gut feeling that something was very wrong with the way we understood jihadi terrorism in the UK. Peep Show was about oddball male friendship, perhaps even “masculinity”.
I guess the simple things at the heart of Succession ended up being Brexit and Trump. The way the UK press had primed the EU debate for decades. The way the US media’s conservative outriders prepared the way for Trump, hovered at the brink of support and then dived in. The British press of Rothermere, Maxwell, Murdoch and the Barclay brothers, and the US news environment of Fox and Breitbart.
The Sun doesn’t run the UK, nor does Fox entirely set the media agenda in the US, but it was hard not to feel, at the time the show was coming together, the particular impact of one man, of one family, on the lives of so many. Rightwing populism was on the march across the globe. But in the fine margins of the Brexit vote and Trump’s eventual electoral college victory, one couldn’t help but think about the influence of the years of anti-EU stories and comment in the UK press, the years of Fox dancing with its audience, sometimes leading, sometimes following, as the wine got stronger, the music madder. It was politically alarming and creatively appealing: to imagine the mixture of business imperatives and political instinct that exist within a media operation; to consider what happens when something as important as the flow of information in a democracy hits the reductive brutality of the profit calculation inside such a company. How those elements might rebound emotionally and psychologically inside a family as it considered the question of corporate succession.
For Logan Roy, Murdoch, Redstone and Maxwell were my holy trinity of models. But Conrad Black, Brian L Roberts of Comcast, Robert Mercer of Breitbart, Julian Sinclair Smith of Sinclair, Tiny Rowland, Rothermere, Beaverbrook and Hearst all fed in. The three central models were wildly different, of course: the self-made refugee Maxwell and the already-rich Murdoch, a scion of Australian journalistic royalty, both so different from the tough Boston lawyer Redstone who started with a couple of his father’s drive-in cinemas.
But they were connected by a strong interest in a few things: a refusal to think about mortality (Redstone and Murdoch both used to make the same joke about their succession plan: not dying); desire for control; manic deal-making energy; love of gossip and power-connection; a certain ruthlessness about hirings and firings. And most of all, an instinct for forward motion, with a notable lack of introspection.
Perhaps the best part of Redstone’s autobiography for a casual reader is the opening, where he recounts clinging by one hand to a hotel balcony through a fire. Despite suffering third-degree burns over half his body, years of rehabilitation, excruciatingly painful skin grafts, he says this event, after which he made all his biggest business plays, had no impact whatsoever on the trajectory of his life.
Whether due to all this grist, or the aligning of the political planets (in)auspiciously, the pilot came unnervingly easily. Getting names in a script to feel real can be hard for me – they’re a tell-tale sign of whether I’m living inside it. Kendall, Shiv, Roman, Connor. They all felt right straight off the bat. Their inspirations, I suppose, were the children of these magnates: three of the Maxwell kids, the ones closest to the business (the boys, Ian and Kevin) and to their father (Ghislaine). Brent and Shari Redstone, with whom Sumner played a tough and complicated game of bait-and-switch over CBS-Paramount succession. And the Murdoch children, Prudence, Lachlan, James, Elisabeth, Chloe and Grace.
But getting those names for the Roy children made them feel like their own individuals to me. It allowed me to pour in just what I wanted from the real world, fill each with all the faults they might have inherited, while giving me room to add some extra, just for them.
Greg and Tom came fast, too. Tom from two roots. One was thinking about the sort of lunks I’ve occasionally seen powerful women choose as partners. Plausible, manly men with big watches and a soothing affable manner. That mixed with the deadly courtier, a more 18th-century figure, minutely attuned to shifts in power and influence, an invisible deadly gas that occurs in certain confined places and rises to kill anyone unwise enough not to take precautions. A hanger-on sustained by some Fitzgeraldian illusions about the world, a sense that perhaps the rich really are different from us and a romantic ambition to make it in New York City.
Greg, I guess, was a distant relative of the sort of political adviser I had myself briefly been. Gormless, clueless, out of place and gauche. But not without an eye for a deal. And, I hope, a little more wheedling and insinuating than I ever was.
The scenes flowed. I put all research aside and followed my nose and wrote pretty much exactly what I wanted
The charge between these two semi-outsiders struck me from the start as toxic and comic. Tom, the interloper, is like an organism that has found a precarious but rewarding perch above some deep oceanic vent and adapted itself to conditions perfectly. He is not pleased at all to see a similar creature scuttling along hoping to share the same cramped evolutionary niche. That first half-bullying, half-provocative exchange they share in the outfield at a softball game in the pilot landed them right in the middle of a stew they’ve been cooking in ever since.
The scenes flowed. I had eaten a very large amount of research, but once I was writing I put it all aside and followed my nose and wrote pretty much exactly what I wanted. It felt funny but odd and broken-ended, fragmentary, abrupt, oblique and slightly brutal. When I emailed it off, I had the familiar feeling that Adam, Frank and HBO might email back to say not only was it not good, it wasn’t even actually, technically, a script. But their response was frighteningly positive. Almost as though the script was finished, after what was, I thought, a quick first draft. I think every other episode of Succession has gone to at least 30 drafts – usually 50. The pilot barely hit 15.
We had our read-through in New York on US election day 2016. Before we started, I made the sort of joke lots of people made that day, assuming the polls were right and Hillary Clinton was going to squeeze it. That night we gathered in Adam McKay’s apartment to watch the results roll in. Much later, I walked a long walk back from Soho to where I was staying near the United Nations looking at the electoral college numbers projected on to the Empire State Building.
We started filming the next day.
I still wonder whether Succession would have landed in the same way without the mad bum-rush of news and sensation Trump’s chaotic presidency provided. Trump wasn’t the firebombing of German civilians, and nor is Succession Slaughterhouse-Five, but I do sometimes think about Vonnegut saying no one in the world profited from the firebombing of Dresden, except himself.
This is an edited extract from Succession: The Complete Scripts – Seasons One, Two and Three (Faber & Faber), out now at £20 each. To support the Guardian and Observer, order your copies for £17.60 each from guardianbookshop.com.
The final episode of Succession airs in the UK on Sky Atlantic/Now on Monday. Jesse Armstrong donated the fee for this article to the Writers Guild of America strike assistance fund.
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LIV Golf announces new pay-per-view option - 26th May 2023
"The hope for LIV is to grow off the success first seen on YouTube in 2022, where the league attracted tournament audiences of several hundred-thousand views in the U.S. and abroad."
Going forward, LIV Golf Series events will be available via a pay-per-view option on YouTube.
The new deal was detailed by James Colgan of Golf.com.
“Less than six months after signing a media rights agreement with the CW, LIV announced Friday that it has created a new, pay-per-view broadcast option to run on YouTube,” Colgan reported. “The PPV broadcast will cost $3 per tournament day, LIV said in a release announcing the decision, and will run in addition to the league’s agreement with the CW.”
Colgan also detailed that “A LIV source indicated that the CW is aware of the decision to introduce a pay-per-view model, and that the decision does not violate any of the league’s preexisting broadcast agreements.”
“The hope for LIV is to grow off the success first seen on YouTube in 2022, where the league attracted tournament audiences of several hundred-thousand views in the U.S. and abroad. The league already has its own direct-to-consumer subscription platform, LIV Golf Plus, which the PPV channel will run counter to. LIV broadcasts will continue to be streamed for free on the CW app.”
This announcement comes less than two weeks after a rather embarrassing moment for the tour. One week before LIV’s Brooks Koepka triumphed at the PGA Championship, the Saudi-backed golf series was in Tulsa.
On one hand, it was a perfect showcase event for LIV. Two of its most high-profile players, Dustin Johnson and Cam Smith, went to a three-way playoff (along with Branden Grace). But most of the people watching did not get to see Johnson’s eventual triumph.
The CW, the league’s primary broadcast partner, went away from coverage in the vast majority of its markets, showing “regularly scheduled programming.” Jim Nantz was quick to make a joke at LIV’s expense on the matter at the PGA Championship. The CW also announced a change, saying that all events will be shown to their conclusions going forward.
[Golf.com]
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WWE Night Of Champions Reportedly Earned Highest Viewership Of Any Saudi Arabia Show - 31st May 2023
According to a report from Fightful Select, Saturday's Night of Champions PLE scored WWE the highest viewership out of any of the company's Saudi Arabia events since the partnership between the two began in 2013. The report states that Night of Champions brought in an 18% increase in viewership compared to last year's Crown Jewel event, and the company is reportedly quite happy with its holiday weekend results.
Night of Champions was headlined by Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn successfully defending the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship against Roman Reigns and Solo Sikoa of The Bloodline, with a major angle taking place on the show that saw The Usos turn on Reigns after more than a year of build-up and tension.This marks the second time a tag team match has served as the main event of a major WWE show in recent months. Additional matches on the show included Seth Rollins vs. AJ Styles to decide the first WWE World Heavyweight Champion, a singles match between Becky Lynch and Trish Stratus, and a Backlash rematch pitting Brock Lesnar against Cody Rhodes, among others.
To date, WWE has held nine PPVs and PLEs in Saudi Arabia, along with three house shows. Back in 2019, WWE announced that they had "expanded their partnership" with Saudi Arabia, and that they would be hosting two major events per year in the Middle Eastern nation through at least 2027. Though it hasn't been announced yet, WWE will likely return to Saudi Arabia for another Crown Jewel event later this year.
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Pat McAfee Comments On Empty Seats At AEW Double Or Nothing - 31st May 2023
All Elite Wrestling's Double or Nothing pay-per-view took place this past weekend at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. During the event, Wrestlenomics' Brandon Thurston tweeted images of empty seats inside the venue. Wrestling Observer's Bryan Alvarez also posted a photo from his ringside position, which showed many unoccupied places behind Orange Cassidy after he retained the AEW International Championship in a Blackjack Battle Royal. Former "WWE SmackDown" commentator Pat McAfee has weighed in with his thoughts.
"Anytime you get a shot away from hard cam, you know what I mean, you can really see a lot of things," McAfee said on "The Pat McAfee Show." "AEW found out this weekend or whatever at one of their events, it's like three quarters of an arena completely empty. They don't want that photo out anywhere."
Ahead of the pay-per-view going live on Sunday night, WrestleTix revealed 10,229 tickets had been distributed for an 11,641 setup inside the T-Mobile Arena, leaving 1,412 tickets available. An Anarchy in the Arena match headlined the show, with Blackpool Combat Club's Bryan Danielson, Jon Moxley, reigning ROH World Champion Claudio Castagnoli, and Wheeler Yuta picking up the win in that bout against The Elite's Kenny Omega, Matt Jackson, Nick Jackson, and "Hangman" Adam Page.
AEW's next major standalone show, All In, which will take place on August 27 at Wembley Stadium in London, England, has currently sold over 65,000 tickets and has a gate of over $8 million. No matches have been announced for AEW's first event across the pond as of this writing. Ticket sales for All In have slowed following an initial surge.
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WWE-UFC merged company to be called ‘TKO Group Holdings’ - 16th May 2023
A name has emerged for the group.
Coming out of WrestleMania, it was announced by Endeavor that an agreement had been reached with WWE and the company would be merging with UFC to form a new sports and entertainment company.
The deal has not been formally finalized but a name for the merged group has been revealed. CNBC’s Alex Sherman and Mike Calia published a story and an Endeavor spokesperson confirmed to the outlet that the new group is going to be called ‘TKO Group Holdings’.
It will trade under the New York Stock Exchange as ‘TKO’.
The merger between WWE and UFC is being valued at $20 billion. Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel will be the CEO of TKO Group and Vince McMahon is going to serve as Executive Chairman.
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Nick Khan Says WWE In Talks With International Cities For 2024 PLEs
It sounds as though WWE will continue expanding its PLEs into international markets next year. Speaking at the JP Morgan Global Technology, Media & Communications Conference, WWE CEO Nick Khan stated that the company was discussing the potential for additional overseas shows in 2024.
"We're in conversations now with a lot of international cities about doing 2024 shows there," Khan said. "Also, part of the intent is to match those up with our media rights, even if they're not up to over-deliver for incumbent partners who can then invite their partners in the international city to the event, and host them. It's good for our overall business." Khan's comments came as part of a conversation about countries offering subsidies to WWE for bringing shows there, as the company brings a great deal of revenue to the city for major events. Khan cited recent events in Puerto Rico as well as the Dallas, Texas area as examples.
Previous rumors pointed toward Australia as a potential location for a future international WWE PLE. However, it's unknown if negotiations with the country have progressed in the months since.
WWE has steadily ramped up its major international shows over the last five years, with the company holding several yearly events in Saudi Arabia, as well as last year's Clash at the Castle and the upcoming Money in the Bank both being held in the United Kingdom. It seems fans around the world should stay on the lookout for upcoming announcements regarding WWE's international schedule in 2024.
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“We Let People Go”: Months After $21.4 Billion UFC-WWE Deal, Endeavor CEO Recalls “Horrible” Time for Organization - 2nd June 2023
The year 2020 brought unprecedented challenges for individuals and organizations alike, and the UFC was no exception. The promotional frontman Dana White has reflected on those uncertain times and shared the struggles the organization faced in keeping things going. Despite the pandemic, White was determined to keep the show running and provide entertainment for fight fans worldwide. While the rest of the world was shut down, the UFC managed to organize consistent events, albeit on a smaller scale. However, this arduous journey was not without its fair share of hardships.
Ari Emanuel, the CEO of Endeavor, the parent company of the UFC and William Morris Endeavor talent agency, revealed the significant challenges they encountered during the COVID-19 pandemic. Even though Endeavor recently secured a massive $21.4 billion deal to acquire the WWE, during the COVID-19 days, the company found itself at rock bottom struggling to stay afloat.
When Covid-19 posed a threat to the UFC
In an interview on the “Freakonomics Radio” podcast, Emanuel shared how the pandemic affected the company financially. During the interview, podcast host Stephen Dubner asked Emanuel, “Did you think COVID might kill Endeavor?”. Reflecting on this, the 62-year-old CEO replied, “It was bad,” He continued, “I’d never had to fire that many people.”
Emanuel mentioned that the continuation of UFC fights during the pandemic played a crucial role in saving the company, accounting for approximately 70% of their revenue that year. Further talking about the struggles to keep the organization alive during the pandemic, the Endeavor CEO stated, “We had our ESPN deal. We then started making deals for writers. So we stored all the cash. We didn’t let anything out. We let people go, which was horrible, or furloughed them.”
Through the storm, Endeavor’s leadership team, led by Emanuel, proved to be the lighthouse that guided them to safer shores. The UFC’s resilience and the implementation of innovative strategies, such as the ‘Fight Island’ events, not only salvaged the company but also became a beacon of hope for other professional sports leagues.
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“Very, Very Easy for Jon Jones”: Ex-UFC Star Ruthlessly Shuts Down Tyson Fury Days After Boxer’s Callout of UFC Champ in Ugly Public Feud - 1st June 2023
The claim made by Joe Rogan that Tyson Fury would stand no chance against Jon Jones has sparked an intense and never-ending debate. Recently, another prominent figure from the UFC, the world of mixed martial arts, has jumped into this heated discussion. However, ‘The Gypsy King’ himself strongly opposed the take of the UFC commentator and didn’t hold back in expressing his views. In fact, he went as far as bashing Rogan and proudly proclaimed himself to be ‘the baddest man on the planet’.
As the back and forth continued between Fury and Rogan, UFC president Dana White has stepped in, proposing a potential fight between Fury and Jones. However, the WBC heavyweight champion firmly refused to step into the octagon, dismissing the idea altogether. This decision faced an immediate backlash from fans who had eagerly anticipated the materialization of this debate inside the fighting arena.
Despite the disappointment felt by fans, it becomes evident that the 34-year-old boxer has no intention of venturing into the octagon. On the contrary, a former UFC welterweight challenger believes that Fury would fare well in the realm of mixed martial arts. However, he warns that there may be unforeseen challenges along the way.
Tyson Fury will have a Jon Jones threat in MMA
During a recent interview, the former UFC fighter Dan Hardy shared his reflections on the latest happenings in the combat sports world, ranging from boxing to MMA. However, it was the Tyson Fury-Jon Jones debate that took center stage.
The 41-year-old Hardy began by heaping praise on ‘The Gypsy King’ for his potential in MMA, stating, “Tyson Fury doesn’t come from a boxing background. He comes from a fighting man background. Tyson Fury sees himself as a fighter first that boxes, and I think he looks at mixed martial arts and sees lots of ways he can capitalize on the changing of the rules.”
Continuing his analysis, Hardy mentioned Fury’s collaboration with Tom Aspinall and how he has showcased proficient elbows and knees in the videos shared with him. ‘The Outlaw’ confidently stated, “I feel like Tyson Fury would be really good if he crossed over to mixed martial arts. Of course, there’d be a lot for him to learn. The main issue would be, he’d be very, very easy for Jon Jones to take down. And I think that’s something that Tyson has not experienced and has not and has not really quite comprehended.”
Meanwhile, Jon Jones recently made a strong statement in his heavyweight debut, securing a first-round victory against Ciryl Gane at UFC 285 after returning from a three-year-long hiatus.
This certainly explains Dan Hardy’s warning to Tyson Fury. How do you think ‘The Gypsy King’ would fare in MMA?
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Dwayne Johnson to Return as Luke Hobbs in New ‘Fast and Furious’ Standalone Film - 7th June 2023
Dwayne Johnson is returning to the “Fast and Furious” universe with a new standalone film, reprising his franchise role as Luke Hobbs.
Universal Pictures announced the project on Thursday. Longtime “Fast and Furious” collaborator Chris Morgan wrote the untitled film’s script. Plot details were not available, though individuals familiar with the deal said the new movie will bridge between the events of the just-released “Fast X” and the upcoming “Fast X: Part II,” which is expected in 2025. Johnson just appeared as Hobbs, a diplomatic security service agent, in a credits scene for “Fast X.”
Johnson will produce the film with Dany Garcia and Hiram Garcia for their Seven Bucks Productions, along with Vin Diesel and Samantha Vincent via their One Race Films. Additional producers include Chris Morgan for his Chris Morgan Productions, Jeff Kirschenbaum for Roth/Kirschenbaum Films and Neal Moritz for Original Film.
Screenwriter Morgan wrote and produced “Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw” and “The Fate of the Furious.” He’s also scripted and executive produced the fifth, sixth and seventh entries in the franchise. Directed by Louis Leterrier, “Fast X” opened at No. 1 around the world in May with $320 million and became the second-biggest global opening of 2023.
Johnson announced Hobbs’ return with a video posted to social media with the caption: “Your reactions around the world to Hobbs’ return in ‘Fast X’ have blown us away. The next ‘Fast & Furious’ film you’ll see the legendary lawman in will be the Hobbs movie that will serve as a fresh, new chapter & set up for ‘Fast X: Part II.'”
“Last summer Vin Diesel and I put all the past behind us,” Johnson added. “We’ll lead with brotherhood and resolve – and always take care of the franchise, characters & fans that we love. I’ve built my career on an ‘audience first’ mentality and that will always serve as my north star.”
Johnson is repped by WME, lawyers Gang, Tyre, Ramer, Brown & Passman, Inc. and The Lede Company.
Seven Bucks has co-produced films like Disney’s “Jungle Cruise” and the DC Studios entires “Black Adam” and “DC League of Super-Pets.” Original series include NBC’s “Young Rock” and “The Titan Games.” Johnson will next produce and star in “Red One” at Amazon Studios and Disney’s live-action “Moana.”
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13 States Comment On Possibility Of Allowing Gambling On WWE Matches
In March 2023, CNBC reported that WWE was working toward legalizing gambling on wrestling matches, enlisting the services of accounting firm Ernst & Young, with Michigan, Colorado, and Indiana mentioned as the initial targets. As of now, betting on WWE matches is only available at offshore sportsbooks like BetOnline.ag, based out of Antigua, and Bovada, based out of Latvia. Betting on matches in America would open up new streams of revenue for WWE and add some mainstream legitimacy to the sports entertainment powerhouse.
Since that report broke, however, it's been nothing bad news for WWE in the gambling department. Dave Meltzer has reported that WWE's efforts aren't going well — Colorado denied talking to WWE and said that "By statute, wagers on events with fixed or predicted outcomes ... are strictly prohibited in Colorado." Indiana told Casino.org that it had "no interest in approving wagering on scripted events," and Michigan also denied any recent talks with WWE, while New Hampshire Lottery Commission executive director Charlie McIntyre deemed it "very unlikely" betting on WWE gets approved in New Hampshire.
In light of this, Wrestling Inc. reached out to multiple states about the possibility of legalized betting on WWE matches. Each gambling commission was asked 1) how likely WWE would be to succeed if they pitched gambling on matches to them, and 2) if there were any regulations, laws, or statutes that barred betting on something with predetermined outcomes. 13 states -– Arizona, Connecticut, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, Ohio, Oregon, South Dakota, and Washington -– responded. While their responses varied slightly, overall, they paint a picture of increasingly fewer opportunities, and increasingly more obstacles, for legal gambling on WWE matches to get approved.
At least three states say they wouldn't allow gambling on WWE as a matter of policy, even if there are no explicit laws against it.
Kerry Hemphill, Manager of Sports Betting Product at the Oregon Lottery, made it clear that gambling on WWE wouldn't be allowed as a matter of policy in the Beaver State: "Although there is no law or statute that forbids it, Oregon Lottery sports betting policy is to not accept wagers on scripted events with predicted outcomes."
Seth Elkin, Assistant Director of Communications for Public Affairs for Maryland Lottery and Gaming, also told us his state had made a determination on the matter. "Maryland's sports wagering law and regulations prohibit forms of wagering that are contrary to public policy or unfair to bettors," he said. "We've determined that it is unfair to bettors, and therefore not in the public's interest, to accept wagers on sports entertainment events that have predetermined outcomes, like professional wrestling."
Meanwhile, a representative from the South Dakota Department of Revenue simply said, "WWE wrestling matches would not be eligible for sports wagering in South Dakota."
Iowa and Ohio say no to betting on predetermined events
Two more states said that predetermined events weren't permitted, but made a point to highlight policy and procedure. Brian J. Ohorilko, Administrator of the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission, also shot down gambling on wrestling for the time being.
"Predetermined events are not permitted in the State of Iowa," he told Wrestling Inc. "Iowa law defines and permits professional sporting events and sports-related events; however, fixed or predetermined outcomes are not explicitly permitted. As such, and for other integrity concerns, the commission has not permitted predetermined events in any of the approved wagering markets."
Ohorilko also brought up the process that would be required for any kind of legalization: "From a practical standpoint, any request would need to come with a legal opinion as to how this would be permitted under Iowa law," he said. "It would need to go through legal review with consultation from the AG office. If legal review passes, the commission would still need to review policy and integrity concerns with respect to the activity having predetermined outcomes. Approval would be needed before this type of wagering activity could take place."
Ohio tells a similar story. Jessica Franks, Director of Communications for the Ohio Casino Control Commission, pointed us towards Rule 3775-11-01 of the Ohio Administrative Code — the process for adding to Ohio's catalog of wagers and events. She said the Commission's review of such requests includes, but is not limited to, the following criteria:
The quality of the governing body's documented integrity program.
The general availability of information related to the governing body.
The professional or skill level status of athletes.
The history of integrity related to events sanctioned by the governing body.
This already puts the WWE in shaky territory, but it's seemingly locked out for good with the following consideration: "Please note that the Commission will not approve requests for wagers/events involving 'Events which are pre-recorded or in which the outcome has been otherwise previously determined.'"
Arizona and Connecticut have laws against betting on fixed outcomes
At least two states have laws in place that would ban gambling on WWE matches.
Max Hartgraves, Public Information Officer at the Arizona Department of Gaming, provided a straightforward statement: "Arizona statute prohibits gambling on fixed events."
Meanwhile, when asked how likely WWE would be to garner approval for gambling on matches, Kaitlyn Krasselt, Communications Director at Connecticut Department of Consumer Protections, said "I cannot speculate on that." That said, she did inform Wrestling Inc. about state regulations on gambling: "Connecticut law only allows wagering on sporting or athletic events. WWE is sports entertainment. The 'matches' are predetermined by the company and are scripted. There is no regulation body for professional wrestling, and WWE is one of several companies that offers this type of entertainment. With a predetermined outcome, this would not be considered a sport. It is considered entertainment. Wagering on the Oscars, for example, is also not permitted in Connecticut."
That last part is significant, since CNBC's report mentioned that WWE executives were using Oscar betting as an example for regulators.
Maine and Montana agree with most of their colleagues
Two states specifically cited the statements from Colorado, Indiana, Michigan, and New Hampshire in their responses. After hearing that four other states had expressed skepticism over betting on WWE, Maine Gambling Control Unit Executive Director Milton Champion said, "On the surface, without looking into the matter, I would concur with my colleagues. Operators will submit with their application events that they want to take wagers on, and I shall approve them."
Daniel Iverson, Content Manager for the Montana Lottery, said something similar. "Montana does not intend to add WWE markets, for the same reasons our counterparts cited," he advised, before directing any questions on state law to the Montana Department of Justice Gambling Control Division.
New Jersey and Massachusetts punted, for now
Two states we contacted declined to comment on the matter, not wanting to address issues that haven't come before them yet. Thomas Mills, Communications Division Chief of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission, said, "I appreciate your question, but am unable to speculate on a hypothetical action the Commission may or may not take."
Dan Prochilo, Public Information Officer at the New Jersey Attorney General's Office, responded that "The Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) cannot comment on any hypothetical discussion with an operator or league about future sports betting opportunities." He added that "In New Jersey, an entity seeking permission for a contest to be authorized for wagering on a sports event is required to submit its proposal to DGE for evaluation and approval pursuant to state law and regulations."
Prochilo also provided the state's legal definition of a "sports event" for the purposes of gambling. Notably, it includes the phrase "A 'sports event' shall include any live competition or talent contest, including awards competitions[.]"
New Jersey and Massachusetts are two of the only states that allow betting on the Oscars, with New Jersey okaying it in 2019 (the first state to do so) and Massachusetts greenlighting it in 2023. It's unknown if WWE will approach either state or how each state would respond, but at bare minimum, WWE's argument to treat wrestling like the Oscars for betting purposes might carry some weight.
Washington and New Mexico illustrate the challenges of Tribal gaming
Washington is unique among the states who responded to us, in that sports wagering is only available on Tribal lands yet still regulated by the state. Sports wagering was legalized, subject to terms of Tribal/State Compacts, on Tribal lands in 2020. All wagering, even online betting, must take place on Tribal lands, and each casino decides bets within certain limitations. The Angel of the Winds Casino and Resort and the ilani Casino Resort, for example, don't 100% overlap on sports offered for betting.
But WWE, or any wrestling, won't be joining those offering under current rules and regulations. Dan Wegenast, Agent In Charge for the Tribal Gaming Unit of the Washington State Gambling Commission, pointed Wrestling Inc. towards the Tribal/State Compacts for sports wagering. He also stated that "Washington State law and the Tribal/State Compacts for sports wagering ... prohibit wagers on events with known outcomes."
To further illustrate the complications of garnering approval for gaming on Tribal lands, a representative from the New Mexican Gaming Control Board told Wrestling Inc. that sports betting is illegal in their state, but legal with some Tribes. That said, New Mexico does not regulate Tribal gaming, meaning that approval would likely have to be worked out with each Tribe individually.
There are other obstacles, too
It's worth noting that gambling laws are constantly changing. Many states without gambling –- such as North Carolina -– have spent years hammering out legislation that would approve gambling off Tribal lands. Additionally, for states with legalized gambling, internal policies are not inherently laws, and can be subject to change under the right circumstances.
That said, even if WWE manages to get gambling on matches approved anywhere, that's only one part of the battle: They still need casinos and/or sportsbooks to be willing to accept wagers at all, and there's resistance in this field, as well, as demonstrated in subsequent coverage from CNBC. FanDuel deems it unlikely that they'd ever accept bets on WWE, noting that the Academy Awards –- which held once per year -– are vastly different than dealing with WWE's weekly programming. Additionally, when BetCEO Adam Greenblatt was asked if he had any interesting in accepting bets on WWE, he responded "NFW."
Between the overwhelming majority opinions of the 13 states who responded to Wrestling Inc., the states that have already responded, and the reluctance of sportsbooks to include anything that looks less than credible, WWE faces an increasingly uphill battle if they want to make betting on wrestling matches legal anywhere in the United States.
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