ShareBitcoin, Bally’s, and the WPT/partypoker partnership top the industry news charts this week and we’re going to kick off with a crypto/poker story involving the Winning Poker Network…
WPN sees massive surge in crypto demand
Phil Nagy, the boss behind the Costa Rican-based Winning Poker Network that includes Americas CardRoom, has revealed that 95% of their withdrawal demands are for Bitcoin.The US-facing site has had cryptocurrency as a deposit and withdrawal method for several years now, and even hit the Guinness Book of Records last year when Brazilian online poker player Rafael TheBigKid Moraes’ $1,050,000 ACR Venom win was paid out in Bitcoin.
The recent surge in the price of Bitcoin close to $18,000 is the highest in almost three years, and has seen it approach its all-time highest price of $19,763 from December 2017.
Nagy recently told Bloomberg: “We are constantly having to go out and buy Bitcoin – lots,” admitting that WPN were paying out more than $100million of the cryptocurrency each month. That number may well rise to more than $150million if the current upwards trend continues.
partypoker and WPT release 2021 plans
Russia tops the bill of the recently-revealed WPT and partypoker partnership plans for next year, with the popular resort of Sochi playing host to three out of the four events arranged so far.The red diamond site’s MD, Tom Waters, stated in a press release this month: “Despite ongoing [uncertainty] with regards to live events, we can promise players a schedule packed full of WPT festivals in 2021.”
That will include two live WPT festivals, as well as a partypoker MILLIONS Super High Roller, all in Russia, with plans for the Caribbean Poker Party to be held in late 2021.
Casino Sochi’s director of poker, Artur Voskanyan, stated: “Casino Sochi is delighted to host the WPT Russia festival again after its success in 2020.”
He added: “The casino has been thriving in the last few months, setting multiple poker records in the process, and we are sure hosting this WPT event during the winter snow season will be a roaring success.”
“We are looking forward to working with the WPT team to produce schedules of the highest quality, both live and online,” said Waters, with an online WPT Montreal kicking things off in January.
Further online events are February’s MILLIONS Online, which is a non-WPT event, as well as still-to-be-announced dates for the WPT Online and WPT World Online Championships.
Bally’s and Fox Sports in $85million sports betting deal
Casino and racetrack owners Bally’s Corporation have struck a massive 10-year deal with Fox Sports Midwest that will allow sports fans to bet interactively during broadcasts.The $85million deal “represents an opportunity to revolutionize the U.S. sports betting, gaming and media industries,” said Bally’s chairman Soo Kim, adding that it will position Bally’s “to become one of the top U.S. sports betting and iGaming operators.”
The previous owners of Bally’s Las Vegas casino, Caesars Entertainment, sold the brand earlier this year, but the new owners Twin Rovers Holdings will likely use the Bally’s brand in the new venture’s name.
The plan is to allow viewers to bet in-game via integrated mobile and TV software, and there is reported to also be a “wide array” of prop bets available to punters.
