Research and Markets: Research Report – Global Online Gambling & Betting Market 2014

In

Australia, which leads the world in terms of per person gambling, online

sports betting and gambling has been growing by over 30% annually, while

the growth of the total gambling market does not exceed 5%.

Regional variations in legislation and acceptance of online gambling and

betting

Product Information:

- The author’s international employees research and filter all sources

and translate relevant information into English. For example, a quarter of poker

players chose to bet on unregulated networks.

- William Hill Online

In North America, online gambling was legalized in three US states by

early 2014, with online gambling revenues surging to millions in the

first months of legal operation.

Europe has been a leader in adopting regulation regarding online

gambling, but as the activity spreads, new measures are being enacted.

.

Research and Markets is the world’s leading source for international

market research reports and market data. The global online gambling market has a current value

estimated at a medium double digit number in billions of Euros, with

growth expected between +7 and 10% annually in the next few years.

- Paddy Power

In the largest Latin American market, Brazil, gambling and betting is

forbidden except for horse racing. In North America and major Asian

countries online real-money games are yet awaiting progress in

regulation. As a result companies get a precise and unbiased impression of the

market situation.

The spread of online betting and gambling is forcing governments to act

to regulate. In

South Africa, online gambling awaits legalization in 2014.

Companies Mentioned

Online gambling and betting is spreading in the Asia-Pacific region. Progress in online betting regulation in Germany is

expected in 2014, as several operators have applied for the first online

sports betting licenses.

- These market reports inform top managers about recent market trends

and assist with strategic company decisions

- Bwin.Party

The regulatory landscape on online gambling and betting is varied. The first

regulated online gambling website in Kenya was launched in 2013. This ensures that the

content of the original studies is correctly interpreted.

- PokerStars

- Betfair Group

About Research and Markets

- The authors provide secondary market research: By using various

sources of information they ensure maximum objectivity for all obtained

data. We provide you with the latest

data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top

companies, new products and the latest trends.

- The analyses, statistical reports and forecasts are only based on

reliable sources including national and international statistical

offices, industry and trade associations, business reports, business and

company databases, journals, company registries and news portals.

- Ladbrokes

Trends in online gambling and betting.

Italy has one of the most advanced regulatory arrangements regarding

online gambling in Europe.

The authors observe: while land-based lottery and casinos still dominate

the gambling scene, online real-money gambling and betting are growing

rapidly.

Regulation of online gambling and betting in Germany and Russia lag some

of their neighbours. However, offshore gambling websites

are popular among Brazilian gamblers, who spend several hundreds of EUR

million annually on offshore sports betting sites.

DUBLIN–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/pwjr2j/global_online)

has announced the addition of the “Global

Online Gambling & Betting Market 2014″ report to their

offering.

Global Online Gambling and Betting Market 2014 depicts the latest trends

and developments in the field. In the USA, online gambling is legal only in three states

and in many Asian countries gambling and betting is allowed only in

casino resorts.

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/pwjr2j/global_online

In France, online gambling and betting has been legal since 2010, but

many gamblers turn to illegal sites. Mobile gambling is expected to grow at double-digit

rates and to reach over 40% of the total online gambling market by 2018,

as the number of mobile gambling users increases by a hundred million.

Online gambling is only starting to emerge in Africa. The

majority of Western European countries have some laws in place to

channel online gambling and betting. Among the findings of the reports

researchers is that the online gambling and betting segment is

increasing, enhanced by the spread of smartphones and tablet computers. Total online gambling revenue in Italy

recently reached a high number in hundreds of millions of Euros, with

poker constituting the largest segment.

- 888 Holdings

The leading online gambling and betting companies worldwide include

PokerStars, Bwin.Party, William Hill Online, each of which annually

generate online revenues of over EUR 0.5 billion.

The major trends in online gambling and betting globally are mobile and

social gambling

Sports :: Basketballs | ArticleBiz.com

Size and weight are also important factors while choosing a basketball. But for playing outdoors on rough surfaces, rubber basketballs are the best. The core is made of rubber or sponge, or a mix of both.

Leather basketballs are suitable only for indoor play.

It is important to remember that one brand cannot fulfill all the above criteria and one has to choose from the many varieties available in the market. This is ensured by even pebbling and wide channels on the surface of the ball. Apart from these materials, basketballs for recreational games or children’s matches are made of materials as varied as plastic and foam. If used outdoors, they tend to crack easily. The outer shell maybe made of leather, composite leather, synthetic leather, or rubber. .

There are other factors to be kept in mind while selecting a basketball. The third most important factor is durability- does the basketball retain it’s bounce after regular use or goes flat after a few weeks play?

Then there is the question of price- it is important to remember that expensive brands may not always give value for money. If you choose expensive basketballs with snazzy designs, they may not be able to last the rigors of outdoor play. The basketball as we know it came about in 1934, with the official size 7, or 30″, being decided as the standard basketball size for men. Each type of basketball has its own advantages and disadvantages.

Basketballs were first manufactured around 1894 by Albert G Spalding. Basketballs have three parts, the outer shell, the inner core, and the innermost bladder. Does it afford a good grip? The Wilson Evolution series, for example, have a Dura fiber cover which helps the fingers grip the ball tightly.

Also, the bounce of the basketball must be smooth. The smaller women’s size was officially recognized much later. Composite leather basketballs, on the other hand, are good for both indoor and outdoors play. Almost all basketball retailers offer the NBA prescribed size chart that you can consult before purchasing a basketball. The bladder is generally made of butyl rubber

Sports betting vs. the stock market: Which is riskier?

They both believe they can predict the future, and they sometimes fall into the trap of making decisions with their hearts instead of their brains.

However, someone sinking $500 into Apple stock has little risk of losing that entire initial investment, especially in the short term.

“You can hold onto your betting tickets all your life, but you’re not going to get squat,” said Stovall.

Such hedging tools are not as readily or even feasible to sports gamblers, Fine said. And of course, they both hate to lose.

CNNMoney (New York) First published August 31, 2014: 8:14 AM ET

.

That’s the percentage of time that Stovall’s research shows the S&P 500 — the gold standard in the stock market — has increased in value during the years since 1926. Heck, even his commercials are funny.

Related: 4 reasons September could be good for stocks

The betting appeal: Americans bet an estimated $380 billion each year on sports.

In the long run, investors have the chance to make more money because there are fewer downside risks.

A stock can theoretically be held onto for an infinite amount of time, but a sports bet can end in the blink of an eye. People often invest in funds that buy dozens or even hundreds of stocks, which helps reduce the risk.

Related: Apple and 9 other stocks hit new records

Investors also have the ability to spread their money out among many stocks.

But take it from one person who has lots of experience in both worlds. For example, a stop-loss order instructs a broker to dump a stock when it tumbles below a specific price.

Manning is really, really good at what he does for a living.

The same can’t be said for those who bet big on the Denver Broncos last Super Bowl.

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But don’t let those similarities fool you. A bettor gambling on the Green Bay Packers will instantly lose his or her entire $500 bet if Aaron Rodgers and his teammates fail to win or cover the spread.

“A lot of people regard investing as gambling, but I frequently say no.

To put it another way, the stock market is a lot more forgiving than the MGM Grand (let alone your local sports bookie).

Those are pretty good odds. He asked for his identity to be withheld due to legal concerns. The stock might go up and down some, but it typically doesn’t go to zero.

“You’re making a wager based on some facts and some intuitions. Which casino in Atlantic City, Las Vegas or Macau pays the bettor 73% of the time?” said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at S&P Capital IQ.

All or nothing: Gambling on sports tends to be a zero-sum game.

And investors have greater access to tools that can minimize the risk of losing money. While many stocks offer steady returns, investors sometimes hit the jackpot (think: buying Apple back in early 2009 or Tesla in 2012). It’s easy to see why fans may be tempted to gamble on their favorite teams and athletes. Gambling on sports may be more fun, but it’s definitely a more risky use of money than putting it in the stock market.

Related: How $2 billion Clippers bet could pay off

Gamblers and investors also have far different time horizons.

Even the unlucky investors who jumped into the market at its peak in October 2007 eventually made their money back when stocks reclaimed their pre-recession levels in 2013.

“A large, steady company has a low chance of plummeting and causing you to lose all your money, but even Peyton Manning doesn’t cover the spread sometimes,” he said.

“Betting is more difficult and riskier,” said one resident of Hoboken, New Jersey, who bets on illegal gambling sites and also invests in stocks.

At the same time, investing in stocks actually carries higher upside potential. Gambling on football star Peyton Manning to win might seem like a safe bet, especially compared with picking winners in the stock market. And in neither instance can you be guaranteed to be correct,” said Randall Fine, managing director of The Fine Point Group, one of the casino industry’s largest consulting firms

Offshore Sports Betting – Online Gambling Sportsbook

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NJ lawmakers OK sports betting; Fed fight ahead

Racing industry executives blame the uncertainty surrounding their sport in New Jersey, including ongoing efforts to find a private operator for Monmouth Park, and the end of annual casino subsidies to the tracks.

Channeling his inner Rex Ryan, the prediction-prone coach of the New York Jets, Lesniak said, “I guarantee a victory in the federal courts for New Jersey to be able to enjoy the same benefits from sports betting Congress has given to Nevada.”

“These votes, by both houses of the legislature and the voters of New Jersey, mark the beginning of the end of the inequitable federal ban on sports betting,” said state Sen. Raymond Lesniak, a northern New Jersey Democrat who has been the measure’s strongest proponent. They will be able to go to an Atlantic City casino, Monmouth Racetrack or The Meadowlands.”

They also passed laws allowing horse racing fans to place bets at bars and restaurants, and pressured businesses planning to build off-track betting parlors to get it done within a year or get out of the business.

The Atlantic City casinos welcomed passage of the bill, saying it would help them compete with gambling houses in neighboring states, and offer one more attraction to customers who now have more gambling options than ever before.

But that was the easy part.

Lesniak had to drop a provision that would have let residents bet from their home computers or cellphones in order to improve the odds that Christie will sign the bill. “This time next year our residents won’t have to fly to Las Vegas or visit their local bookie to bet on the Giants, Jets or Eagles to win the Super Bowl. – Twenty years after missing a deadline to let its residents bet on professional or collegiate sporting events, New Jersey legislators passed a law Monday night that would make it legal.

. Bets could not be placed on games involving New Jersey collegiate teams.

Lesniak, who sued the federal government in an effort to overturn the ban, only to see his lawsuit dismissed, predicted the state will have better luck in court, particularly given that New Jersey residents indicated by a 2-to-1 margin in a non-binding referendum in last November’s election that they favor legalized sports betting.

The legislature also passed a law Monday requiring holders of permits to build off-track betting parlors who have not yet built them to do so within a year, or forfeit a $1 million bond and lose the right to build such a facility. The Republican governor endorsed the referendum before the vote was held.

“Let’s face it — sports gaming is already taking place, but the only people taking advantage of it are the bookies and criminal enterprises,” said Assemblyman John Burzichelli, a southern New Jersey Democrat.

The legislature also approved a measure allowing horse racing fans to place bets from in to 12 bars or restaurants in northern and central New Jersey.

Sports betting proponents want to help the state’s struggling casinos and horse racing tracks, where bets would be taken, and provide a new source of tax revenue from a huge pool of money flowing untaxed to illegal bookmakers often allied with organized crime, or to unlicensed offshore Internet sites.

New Jersey missed a 1991 federal deadline to legalize sports betting, and was left out of the 1992 law that allowed it in Nevada, Delaware, Oregon and Montana. Chris Christie has signed the measure, as is expected, the state faces an uphill battle in federal court to try to overturn a law banning sports betting in all but four states.

“If and when the federal ban is overturned, this law would permit casinos to accept wagers on sporting events, adding another amenity to enhance our ability to compete and grow as a destination resort,” the Casino Association of New Jersey said in a statement released Monday. Once Gov. “Legalized sports betting would provide an economic boost for Atlantic City and the entire state of New Jersey, as it would attract more tourists to our city and its world-class entertainment, thriving restaurants, brand-name retail shopping and world-famous Boardwalk.”

TRENTON, N.J. Nevada is the only state taking legal bets on individual games.

The state Senate and Assembly adopted a bill that would let New Jerseyans place bets at the 11 Atlantic City casinos and the state’s four horse racing tracks on football, baseball, basketball and other professional or college sports games.

New Jersey has authorized 15 off-track betting locations, but only three have been built

The 7 Deadly Sins of Gambling Addiction

With gambling disorder, lust is not intimate in nature; it’s a thirst for power.

When a gambler spends more than is allowed, they also fall victim to this deadly sin.

Gradually your approach becomes more subdued, and that’s when you begin to lose control of yourself and your actions.

They spiral out of control because their actions create deeper losses that scream of desperation.

At this point the money is almost gone. Crimes like fraud are common during the latter stages of the disorder with the worst cases leading to homelessness or prison.

They have an inordinate desire to gain a lot of cash, wealth, and luxury despite precedence that says it’s unlikely for them to do so. A few drinks is okay, but once someone exceeds a certain amount, they slip into gluttony.

Sloth is what people would call laziness, but it’s much more than that. To addicts it’s the feeling of carelessness, tapping out emotionally, and the wasting away of their life.

Seeing other people’s successes breeds an intense feeling of envy because you want what they have and will do what it takes to have it.

Despite several losses, their mind lights up with every win due to strong psychological reaction that’s present as is with most addictions.

Greed along with gluttony represent the middle stages of gambling disorder. The rough ride through addiction is very clear and each sin serves as a pit stop.

Surprisingly wrath is the first stage of the disorder because you still have a strong reactionary response to the situation.

Are You a Gambling Addict?

A gambling addiction or disorder is when an individual has lost the willpower to control their gambling behavior.

Sneaky behavior regarding your gambling habits

Desperation to recoup your losses

Stealing or borrowing money from others (also fraud)

Betting higher amounts after each loss

Regarding gambling, wrath comes from every loss a person has on the slots, blackjack, the races, and more. Mind you the struggles of gambling locales goes beyond the games themselves (location, violence, loss of income).

We’ve sadly seen or heard the stories of the drunken mother/father beating and berating their spouse or child.

In the beginning stages of gambling disorder, the loses are low but gradually begin to climb until the person loses everything including cars and/or their home.

Deadly Sin: Sloth

The last sin and the final stage in gambling disorder is sloth.

It’s an extremely sad and unpleasant chapter that could have been prevented. It’s often correlated with things like prostitution that’s also outlawed in numerous countries.

As the individual falls deeper, they begin to care less and less about what they’re losing and no longer care about their actions.

Deadly Sin: Lust

One may wonder how lust and gambling go together, but there’s a potent connection.

The answer is easy…

The lust for power and control becomes so much that the person will throw all sense out the window and only think about regaining everything they’ve lost.

That small gain will trigger an emotional response where the idea of winning something bigger stirs your internals.

The grandiose of fictional wealth is also thrown into the mix, which leads towards the next deadly sin and eventual downfall.. Each loss feels like someone is stabbing them resulting in a painful and angry reaction.

It must be stopped otherwise you’ll go through each of the seven deadly sins and arrive at nothing but a wasted life.

However this thirst reaches the point where the victim shows signs of common addictive symptoms including:

Unlike being prideful due to positive accomplishments, here pride is misguided/fleeting and bolstered by an occasional win. This sin will gradually lead to their downfall because after a while the losses will pile up without any means of control.

The best example I could think of is one of the last scenes from Requiem for a Dream where a few of the addicts end up in prison after they’ve been caught due to illegal activities.

Discover how gambling disorder progresses into and through the stages of wrath, pride, greed, gluttony, lust, envy, and sloth.

However this isn’t a scenic drive towards your ideal destination, this is a ride into a bottomless pit.

None of the losses matter anymore, and even the occasional win fails to excite their emotional state.

Deadly Sin: Envy

You might think envy would be one of the first sins you’d encounter throughout the disorder’s progression, but it’s actually one of the last ones you’ll see.

Why do people gamble in the first place?

You may even feel hatred towards people because they’ve been able to succeed where you failed.

Those internal monologues makes you feel stronger and accomplished but because the gain is fleeting, it creates a false sense of self-worth.

Satisfaction of a small gain

Inner monologue of something greater

False sense of self-worth

They are lusting for something that has eluded them (money and wealth).

Why?

This could be seen as the point of no return because if the person suffering is not stopped or controlled, then they could lose everything and end up on the streets or in jail.

Deadly Sin: Gluttony

Once the charm and glamour of gambling fades, the person dives into the sad and uncomfortable state of the disorder.

Atlantic City, NJ Closes Due to “Financial Circumstances”

The only psychological stimulant to them is an occasional win, which is no longer supported by thoughts of greed.

In today’s economy casino cities like Atlantic City, New Jersey are struggling, so somebody has to take the fall. Once a person enters the greedy stage, they begin to forego logic and focus on the illogical odds.

Pride begins the unraveling process that’s generated in three different psychological ways:

Eating extra every now and then is okay, but constant overindulgence indicates a significant problem.

Going back to the movie “Requiem for a Dream”, it’s that scene where all of the addicts are lying in a fetal position after their hopes and dreams have been shattered. The gambling and casino industry welcomes this impulsive behavior with open arms.

You feel worthy during a gambling surplus, but chances are that surplus will disintegrate before your eyes turning thoughts of self-worth and happiness into an endless chase.

When your losses pile up and you begin to dive into greater financial debt, you’ll look towards other people who have had luck and success when they gambled.

A win is akin to a shot of vodka or an ingestion of a drug because of the intense euphoria generated.

Deadly Sin: Pride

Each win is a strong hubris to the mind, and it’s an early phase of gambling disorder.

Gluttony is another word for excess, and it’s a very appropriate sin pertaining to addictive behaviors where excess means everything. They may have lost their car, home, or other amenities, and they don’t care anymore. Some of those people end up on the streets or in jail while others look like gambling zombies.

Deadly Sin: Wrath

Wrath or anger is the most powerful emotion one can feel, but what’s its role in addiction?

This is the complete opposite of winning an Olympic gold medal because the success of earning a medal will always be there, and that accomplishment can’t be taken away whereas monetary gain can.

When it comes to drugs and alcohol, wrath shows itself as a side effect to the ingestion of these harmful products.

This is similar to lust where there’s an obsession and a thirst, except this time it’s directly related towards others.

In fact I’d probably group lust and envy together because those sins have a lot in common. For example, a few wins on the slot machine create a mental satisfaction despite the small gain.

From some gambling is seen as the eight deadliest sin because of how it weaves elements of the other seven into the longer it continues.

Deadly Sin: Greed

Considering gambling is associated with money, it’s appropriate for greed to play a massive role throughout the process

This hatred only fuels addiction further, and the actions you partake in may include illegal activities. For a gambling addict the endings are often similar.

You may not think of gambling as a deadly sin, but several religious groups and countries outlaw it because of its immorality and impure behavior that comes from it

Online gambling companies struggle to clear EU hurdles | Reuters

The shift to a taxation model based on the location of the consumer was expected to cost gambling companies as much as 270 million pounds ($435 million) by 2016-17.

“It is not a European Union in any way, it is a patchwork of different countries who happen to be in the EU,” said Professor Leighton Vaughan Williams, director of the betting research unit at Nottingham Business School in central England.

Betting online on sports events or playing poker on the Internet are increasingly popular pastimes in Europe, where operators say they are held back by unfair and discriminatory rules in many European Union countries.

“Different countries have different vested interests and different ideas they are trying to promote. Analyst Nick Batram at brokerage Peel Hunt said smaller players would likely be picked off because of the impact of higher tax and regulatory burdens across Europe.

This is illustrated in Britain, historically the biggest betting market in Europe and a place with a well-developed gambling culture where bookmakers have operated in town centers for 50 years.

By joining forces with Belcasinos, a unit of local casino owner Group Partouche, bwin.party neatly met a requirement to have a presence in Belgium to win a license for online poker, casino and sports betting.

William Hill, Britain’s largest bookmaker, has joined Betfair in pulling out of Greece and has also stopped offering sports betting to German residents because of a 5 percent turnover tax.

The 27 EU member states retain the right to regulate their gambling sectors as they see fit, but rules must comply with EU law, broadly meaning they must be consistent and proportionate.

STAKES RISE

LONDON A partnership stuck on Friday between bwin.party Digital Entertainment and a Belgian casino group has defused one of many disputes pitting online gambling companies against governments across Europe.

However, the industry questions whether the EU will go into battle over gambling when it is facing so many other problems.

In that vein, William Hill has provisionally agreed a 485 million pound takeover of smaller rival Sportingbet, keen to get its hands on the company’s regulated Australian betting business.

“All citizens must be adequately protected, money laundering and fraud must be prevented, sport must be safeguarded against betting-related match-fixing and national rules must comply with EU law,” Internal Market and Services Commissioner Michel Barnier said, setting out his approach.

“They will chip away at some of the most blatant ones,” said Clive Hawkswood, chief executive of trade body the Remote Gambling Association. There they are sheltered from a 15 percent tax on gross profit faced by operators based in Britain.

The European Commission, the EU’s executive, stepped in to the debate in October when it published a medium-term plan to clarify regulations and promote cooperation between member states, ruling out EU-wide legislation for the time being.

(Additional reporting by Rosalba O’Brien; Editing by David Holmes)

BRITISH TAXES

The agreement is a rare bright spot in a tough regulatory environment for online gambling companies across the continent.

The online operators accuse the European Commission of failing to follow through properly on complaints lodged about regulation in no fewer than 20 or the 27 EU member states.

Barnier has written to member states accused of breaching EU law in the way they handle gambling, seeking an update on the situation by the end of the year.

The agreement came a month after bwin.party’s co-CEO was questioned by Belgian authorities in an escalating license dispute the company said was costing it 700,000 euros ($916,000) in monthly revenue.

New legislation will close off that loophole after 2014. Online gambling is growing at an annual rate of almost 15 percent in the EU and will be worth an estimated 13 billion euros ($17 billion) by 2015, according to EU figures.. There is more change afoot but it should ultimately play into the hands of the better-capitalized companies.”

Gambling companies themselves have taken advantage of different tax regimes where they work in their favor.

The stakes are high. Are they trying to protect consumers or to maximize their tax take?” he said.

“It is getting more complicated and more expensive. “What we really need is for them to take some to the European Court and take enforcement action.”

Some companies are scaling back activities in European markets where, they say, regulatory risks are too high or tax rates are punitive.

Betting exchange operator Betfair for instance said this week it was halting marketing and investment in unregulated markets, including EU members Cyprus, Germany and Greece.

“I think there is a lot more M&A activity to come,” said Batram.

In recent years, most betting companies have moved their British online betting operations to Britain’s overseas territory of Gibraltar

NBA awards ballot, Part 1: More wins for the Warriors

He is much better than his traditional numbers suggest. Curry has been the best and most valuable player in the NBA — a glitch in the system who transformed a sport. Chris Paul

Walker reinvented only one part of his game, but that single change — morphing into an above-average 3-point shooter — transformed everything for the Hornets. Not here.

But on a night-to-night basis, Paul is the more calming, precise player, and he has to be on the ballot after keeping the Clippers afloat amid Blake Griffin’s injury melodrama.

That leaves an impossible choice between Westbrook and Durant — a choice that almost seems unfair given the Thunder’s hit-or-miss supporting cast. We don’t do a good enough job noting the other three or four bets that come up snake eyes, leaving shooters open and hanging teammates out to dry. Westbrook’s decision-making at money time can be scattershot.

Green is the firing brain circuitry of perhaps the greatest team ever, nearly as important to Golden State’s top-five defense as Curry is to their all-time offense. McCollum

2. Jokic leads all rookies in adjusted plus-minus by a mile; he’s ninth in the whole stinking league, right ahead of DeMarcus Cousins! He’s an intuitive, nasty defender — better than you’d guess, given his ho-hum athleticism.

Millsap’s comfort zone extends across the full court, and every playing style. If you’re looking for a high-volume chaos engine, this is your guy.

He has been Portland’s best big man; he plays a lot of crunch time, and has stepped into an even more important role with Meyers Leonard hurt and Noah Vonleh fading. Post-up brutes do better against backups; dump the ball to Kanter against some second-unit sad sack, and he’s eating buckets. They don’t think of him much at all, really. The first type is packed: Gary Harris, Doug McDermott, Clint Capela, Rodney Hood, JaMychal Green, Jerami Grant and many more. He doesn’t take possessions off. There is some merit to that. Thompson has been great, but the Cavs would have finished first or second in the East even if he had held out the whole season. Kevin Durant

5. Will Barton

3. Their ascension is almost expected. People don’t think of Millsap as an elite defender. Karl-Anthony Towns

2. The Warriors would have to reinvent their entire offense, and they might not be very good.

1. Iguodala laps the field as a playmaker and defender. Young players get better with experience, and they get to play more.

Advanced stats wonks have argued he should win the award, and he has a strong case to leapfrog Porzingis for the No. Ed Davis

There is more to winning basketball than shooting and scoring. pro sports leagues, and at the top, that’s true. No team plays, and lives, with a better spirit. Green and Curry lean on each other, and lift the team together, but the value gap between them is large enough to shove Green off this ballot.

Traditionally, this is an award for gunners. Without further ado:

MOST VALUABLE PLAYER

Below that stratosphere, team identity and culture are fragile. The bigs who might normally displace him have battled injuries, or slipped a bit from peak form: Joakim Noah, Marc Gasol, Serge Ibaka, Rudy Gobert, Andrew Bogut, Tim Duncan, Anthony Davis and a few others. Paul can’t match Westbrook’s gaudy triple-double numbers, or turn a game on its head with 45 seconds of snarling athleticism. He has remade himself into a natural fit for Stotts’ catch-and-go system, and works hard on defense.

The bedrock principles of San Antonio’s culture have been unassailable for 20 years. They switch and re-switch without cracking open even the teeniest lanes. He isn’t the only one responsible for building it, but he was the driver, and he’s one of the few who’s powerful enough to undermine it if he ever chose.

Davis’ 21 minutes drove Portland toward the unexpected. Barton outshot Crawford despite a late-season slump, revved up Denver in transition, rebounded like a power forward and defended more reliably across both wing positions. Gregg Popovich

3. A lead ball handler polishing his long-range shot is the rare isolated skill development that ripples across an entire roster. He might win, and he’d deserve it.

SIXTH MAN AWARD

Creating a cohesive ethos that sticks is a rare thing. That is remarkable. He loosed Isaiah Thomas without worrying about his defensive limitations, encouraged Avery Bradley to chuck more 3s and pushed Jae Crowder to test his off-the-bounce game. No one is. Stephen Curry

2. McCollum worked as Portland’s de facto backup point guard when Lillard rested, and the Blazers outscored opponents during those minutes, per NBA.com research. Evan Turner fills every gap for the Celtics.

Westbrook is incredible, and he might finish in the top three once the votes are in. Kawhi Leonard

3. Only Rick Carlisle, a confirmed warlock, and perhaps now Kerr can touch Pop’s in-game strategy and lineup optimization.

Westbrook remains a manic gambler who submarines too many possessions with reckless choices. Ian Mahinmi

Additional apologies to (deep breath): Barton, Crowder, Capela, Whiteside,  Kent Bazemore, Zach LaVine, Allen Crabbe, Evan Fournier, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Lance Thomas, Khris Middleton, Marvin Williams, Reggie Jackson and many other nice people.

1. The Raptors love Casey and play hard for him. Davis has better stats across the board: 61 percent from the floor as a basket vulture, the fourth-best offensive rebounding rate in the league and much better rim-protection numbers.

Now, he’s doing stuff like this:

He’s not LeBron in those situations. Other teams fear Westbrook. Chicago lost its way, and by the end of the season, the Bulls were just throwing crap against the wall on offense — lifeless possessions with no purpose. Draymond Green

2. They are active with such synchronization; you barely notice the activity. He blew them away. Players embraced those challenges, in part because they thought their coach and their superstar had already embraced them.

He redefined the tone of the organization the moment he walked in the door. He stabilized the team’s iffy defense with some key midseason tweaks, including a few that nudged players into uncomfortable new challenges. Brutes with touch and the heft to get into Whiteside’s body have done damage on the block; opponents have hit 51 percent of their post-up shots against him, per Synergy Sports research, 10th worst among 72 defenders who have faced at least 75 post-ups this season.

Whiteside doesn’t, though he has found another gear over the past three months. But he’s plenty good, with a jumper that clicked as LeBron’s broke apart, and he has been the league’s second-best player.

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR

He gets those numbers without gambling, and he can guard any position in a pinch. There isn’t much difference between them statistically, and Durant reclaimed some control of the Thunder offense once Billy Donovan started staggering the Westbrook/Durant minutes in February. Durant seized more possessions, dished more dimes and drove Oklahoma City to a better scoring margin in his non-Westbrook minutes than in the opposite scenario, per NBA.com research.

The only drama comes in the last four spots, which means it really doesn’t matter much for historical purposes. C.J. Myles Turner is coming off the bench again.

This is why, as queasy as it makes me, I can look past the fact that serious health issues kept Kerr off the sideline for half the season. Green is the yapping nervous system of that defense.

The final spot came down to a bunch of guys whose teams play together, play hard and know who they are: Stotts, Dwane Casey, Brad Stevens, Steve Clifford, Erik Spoelstra, Dave Joerger, Quin Synder, Stan Van Gundy, Mike Budenholzer and Carlisle. Most of the Clippers’ bench mobs have stunk, anyway. You cannot imagine Golden State with a league-average point guard in Curry’s place. Crawford thrives with Paul, J.J. Jahlil Okafor missed 35 percent of the season, played some of the worst big-man defense in NBA history and exacerbated an internal crisis with embarrassing off-court behavior. He empowered Curry to test the limits of his revolutionary game, sold stars on passing and cutting, convinced big names to sacrifice and gave everyone a voice in choosing strategies. You could build an argument for James Harden, carrying the wheezing wraith of Houston on his back, but he showed up out of shape and played zippo defense for a would-be contender about to limp into the No. What a season.

But Curry and Leonard were already so damn good, they had only so far to leap. Nikola Jokic

Crawford’s limitations on defense matter even more when he plays with those guys, since that means he’s probably also playing against opposing starters — lineups that might not offer him a safe hiding spot.

But you can’t make a case based on a single, all-in-one stat, especially one questioned by team insiders with access to the real secret sauce: analytics derived from SportVU tracking data. Crowder and Whiteside are matching what they did last season in more limited runs in Boston and Miami, respectively.

That is why Jamal Crawford is a two-time winner and such a popular candidate as he finishes this season with a flourish of crossover goodness. He envelopes opponents, and he’d be the captain of my Mirror Guy team for defenders who move in such exact sync with a ball handler, it almost appears as if the ball handler is dueling with a reflection.

Towns should win unanimously. Most of those chuckers can slide into a secondary role alongside starters in crunch time.

He’s also a better, more versatile defender — quick enough to guard any wing, and so long, he can dart in from the strong side to snuff a drive and veer back to a sharp shooter without conceding a thing. 1 — a jack-of-all-trades with the speed to extinguish pick-and-rolls 30 feet from the basket, glue-trap hands that rip more steals than almost any big man in league history, and the guts to initiate an airborne collision at the rim. 6 seed after losing four starters is perhaps the happiest story of the season. There was almost nothing in Mahinmi’s dossier to suggest he could work as the dive man in a semi-functional pick-and-roll offense. He hit 3s at nearly a league-average rate, led fast breaks and assisted on 18 percent of Denver’s buckets while on the floor — the fifth-best mark in history for a rookie big. The Blazers don’t rise from the ashes without McCollum maturing into a borderline star.

Coming later this week: my picks for All-NBA, All-Rookie and All-Defense.

Two broad player types give me trouble here: the second-year guy who thrives with increased playing time, and the superstar who somehow becomes even better. 3 spot will raise some eyebrows, especially in Miami, where Hassan Whiteside rejected everything in sight. He’s like a five-tool center! If he’s not a top-15 player already, he’s going to be soon.

There are too many six-point, five-rebound nights for Davis to win this award, but he deserves a hard look. Both engineer decent shots from nothing, but only LeBron can steamroll to the rim almost whenever he wants. He has been a two-way force with the inside-outside skill set a big-man star needs in the modern NBA. A lot of bench-heavy units are light on shot creators and need someone, anyone, to chuck when the shot clock dwindles. Both guys can defend up a position, but Durant sliding to power forward opens more lineup possibilities than Westbrook muscling a shooting guard.

Durant gets the nod by the hair on my chinny-chin-chin. Leonard and Green are the two most important, cruelest, most unfair defenders in the league, and it isn’t close. The NBA is considered the most predictable of the four major U.S. Houston found something last season as a carefree, go-go outfit, brought back the same cast and fell apart amid chemistry issues, laziness and a staleness of spirit. Patrick Patterson’s candidacy suffers from the same lack of raw production, but his 3-point shooting at power forward and ability to guard multiple positions make him a key part of almost every successful Toronto lineup. The Magic still don’t know what in the hell they are.

1. That culture of openness and community held up as Kerr recovered. Redick and Jordan. But no other candidate has done enough in every facet of the game to unseat him — especially given Golden State’s historic success.

He’s still bad on defense, but not as bad as he once was. He sure scored a lot, though!  Devin Booker got started too late, defended air and finished with an ugly — if understandable — uptick in turnovers. 2 slot. He’s already a bright, shining plus at everything: post scoring, jump shooting, passing, defending the rim and scampering around in space. Isolating a coach’s work from Halloween through tax day is a strange conceit.

Choosing Millsap for the No. He became a different player.

You could give the third slot to at least two-dozen guys, but I’m going with Mahinmi, Indy’s only source of reliable front-line play over the full season. Towns kills by those metrics, sources tell me, and he laps the field by most other public statistical measures.

But from start to finish, Leonard had the better season, for the better team. He would be a star anywhere. Kawhi Leonard

3. Pair him with a drive-and-kick star like Westbrook or Durant, and Kanter morphs into perhaps the league’s pre-eminent scoring mooch — gobbling up drop-off passes and offensive rebounds when his man leaves to help on a Thunder stud.

The Blazers snagging the No. And alas, DeAndre Jordan is not quite as good as his reputation.

I understand if some readers might not be able to identify Jokic if he walked by them. Remember: I was touting Whiteside early in the season when commentators who didn’t bother digging into even one layer of context would robotically recite the stat showing the Heat defended better with Whiteside on the bench.

Leonard might be an even better one-on-one defender, though, and he could toggle between positions more often if Gregg Popovich demanded it. They help in one spot, bend away from another and return there before the offense even realizes anyone was open. He finally made good. LeBron James

4. LeBron resides in another universe as a passer. It takes nurturing over years. Terry Stotts

Porzingis can’t match Jokic’s advanced numbers, and he actually shot a tick worse from downtown. Popovich re-centered his offense around Leonard and LaMarcus Aldridge without completely losing the pass-first mojo that powered the 2012-2015 versions of the Spurs borg; you especially see it on bench-heavy units. It’s a big reason Charlotte gradually found its footing in those minutes when Walker leads the offense without Nicolas Batum as co-pilot.

Even so: There are matchups that trouble him. When Stotts asked Davis to defend power forwards so that Leonard could hang closer to the hoop against centers, Davis accepted the shift out of position — and busted his butt to make it work.

1. But you could imagine these Warriors playing good defense without Green; they did under Mark Jackson, using a more traditional scheme. Cousins could crack this ballot if he tried hard all the time. Gentle reminder: I consider every speck of information — game film, public stats, secret stats I wrangle up, exchanges of intel with team officials — and I don’t hate your team.

Clifford reimagined Charlotte’s offense as a high-octane triple machine without conceding an inch on any of his conservative (basketball) principles: low turnovers, fast-break paranoia, and killer defensive rebounding. Who doesn’t?

I haven’t wrapped my head around what to do with the second type — notably Curry, Green and Leonard.

This is like choosing between Elastic Man and a fire-breathing version of The Thing. LeBron can be the fastest all-court defender in the league when he wishes; remember, he outperformed computerized ghost defenders programmed to be perfect!

I gravitate toward the squishy middle — mid-career guys who make an overall leap, or hone one key skill that unlocks other parts of their game. By some measures, the dude is wrapping up one of the best all-around seasons ever for a rookie center. An MVP sharpening skills-within-skills to transform into an historic superstar might be the hardest advance, and certainly the most unusual. Steve Kerr

2. Opponents for years clogged Charlotte’s dreary offense by ducking under screens against Walker, walling off his driving lanes and leaving the Bobcats/Hornets heaving up junk late in the shot clock. He can slide more easily between the two big-man positions, hang with guards on switches, and swat damn near everything around the basket.

DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR

He has also played 900 more minutes than Jokic, the equivalent of 19 full games, while shouldering a much heavier load; Jokic averages a hair fewer than 10 points per game, and sometimes looks reluctant to assert himself. He’s just not as good as these other guys.

But those teams had more continuity in talent; we knew most of them would be at least decent. No one else should get a first-place vote.

Still: Kanter gives back a lot of points, and the Thunder will have to cut his minutes against elite postseason offenses who target him like chum.

So, screw it: I’m going with the blue-collar, unheralded Ed Davis — a journeyman who became essential for Portland, and has long slapped up per-minute numbers that blow away almost every other sixth-man candidate. Do that now, and Walker is roasting you from deep.

Walker vowed for years he would do this. No one watches the Nuggets — not even in Denver. Even piss-poor bench lineups relying on such tough jumpers can redistribute some of those shots to other players, and not lose much. Leonard doesn’t think, or pass, two steps ahead of the defense, and he’s not strong enough to bulldoze his way to the rim every damn time. They respect Paul, but they don’t shudder at the possibility of him smashing through their entire team — and the concept of normal basketball — for two or three pivotal minutes.

Barton and Enes Kanter might represent superior versions of the classic Crawford candidacy. 8 spot with a win over the tanking Kings.

Lowry became a superstar, always in hunched motion, waiting to spring into open space when you take a breath. He had never started more than 12 games, and he entered this season with 107 career assists; ask him to throw a quick-hitter on the move, and he was more likely to fling the ball five rows deep in the stands.

There isn’t a case for anyone else. The drudgery of travel and in-the-moment decision-making are big parts of coaching. They’re going to win mega-awards, anyway, and one of them will likely snag the championship.

The fully engaged Warriors are a perfectly coordinated swarm. Kemba Walker

3. Paul Millsap

There are seven candidates for the last four spots: the four listed, plus Russell Westbrook, Kyle Lowry and Draymond Green. Kristaps Porzingis

3. He’s a slick passer from the post, the elbows and in transition.

Somehow, it’s already time to hand out regular-season awards. Green can play up a position for entire games if need be, and that is the launch code to basketball’s nuclear bomb: the Death Lineup, with Green as a sneering, rampaging, fast-breaking center, and shooters raining death around him.

But he has developed into the keystone of the league’s stingiest defense since Jan. Some combination of injuries, infighting and confusion undid Washington, New Orleans and Phoenix. Andre Iguodala

2. Popovich tweaks the stylistic fringes to fit every new cast, and that’s why this second-place vote isn’t just a lifetime achievement trophy. Kanter is trying harder this season, and he can usually survive if the other team plays at least one traditional big man.

None of the league’s perimeter stoppers — including Paul George and Jimmy Butler — matched the consistency of these three studs.

COACH OF THE YEAR

Also: Win 72 games — and maybe 73! — and I break my long-standing rule of voting for Popovich every season.

I have an official ballot again this year, so these votes count. 5 or No. But Porzingis logged nearly 400 more minutes and did heavy lifting as the No. Millsap is averaging 1.7 blocks per game, by far a career high, and he’s the only rotation player in the league topping 1.7 blocks and 1.7 steals per night.

1. Stotts placed cast-offs and unknowns around Lillard and forged a playoff team in Portland.. He doesn’t snap at teammates or manufacture chaos with calculated, passive-aggressive social media fits. He also absorbed a larger burden during Griffin’s absence.

Confession: I had no idea what to do with this award once Iguodala started missing games — and with Whiteside ineligible.

D’Angelo Russell combined hot shooting with beyond-his-years playmaking after finally earning Byron Scott’s trust, only to betray Nick Young’s and deflate the Lakers’ locker room.

1. But Kerr was very much present during his absence, especially when the Warriors were at home.

Defenders have to chase Walker over picks, and that means he can ankle-break his way into the paint — drawing help and opening up 3-point looks for Charlotte’s army of shooters. Both will make a lot of ballots, and that’s fine.

He likes to hang back on the pick-and-roll, inviting disaster against sharpshooters like Curry and Damian Lillard, who need only a sliver to unleash pull-up 3s upon turning the corner. He logs about 21 minutes per game, the same as Kanter, and half-dozen fewer than Tristan Thompson, his burlier doppelgänger in Cleveland, working the same role as a hybrid, rim-running big.

But Crawford is barely shooting 40 percent from the floor. Casey, Clifford and Stevens were the final, painful cuts; all of them have real arguments for the top spot.

Stotts empowers players to stretch themselves in his whirring motion offense, knowing that if they feel involved on that end, they’ll buy into the grunt work. He works as a co-point guard off the bench, defends the other team’s best wing players, drains 40-plus percent of his corner 3s when Curry is on the floor and shares a genius-level defensive mind-meld with Green.

The Warriors’ offense falls apart without Curry, and for the second straight season, opponents outscored Golden State — by a huge margin — with Curry on the bench. It’s like a 60-win team pushing for 70 the next season.

That left Durant, Westbrook and Paul for two spots. Being a low-key dude in Utah and Atlanta will do that.

I lean toward Green because of his versatility — and especially his unique ability, at 6-foot-6, to credibly guard centers. For all the angst over whether Leonard can generate offense when everything else stalls out in crunch time, he ranks among the league’s best one-on-one scorers — from both the perimeter and the post, per Synergy Sports research.

This is partly a multiyear achievement award for Kerr and Popovich, and it should be. You trust Stevens’ play calling a bit more than Casey’s in crunch time.

And this:

He didn’t just maintain his per-minute stats over triple the minutes. He can play with any lineup, and against any lineup. Some smaller guys can fake it for a possession or two, provided some crisis — like a rebound bouncing in their direction — doesn’t happen. McCollum is really a Category 1 type on a one-year delay, but unlike a lot of young guys thrust into larger roles, he’s pulling this as the second-best player on a playoff team. Whiteside has been more diligent taking an extra step out toward such players over the past 40 games, but he’s wobbly — and vulnerable to blow-bys — outside his comfort zone.

A word on the Leonard-LeBron debate: LeBron at full throttle is the better player, and perhaps still the best player in the league. The better team usually wins a best-of-seven series, and the best teams with the best players win championships.

This was just a brutal category.

Kanter might win the damn thing, and I’d have no problem with that. 2 option for the Knicks. He’s a horse on the glass, always does his job in transition and plays hard on every damn possession.

Mahinmi doubled his career assist total, nearly doubled his scoring average and obliterated almost every past statistical marker — all while maintaining his SMOTHERED CHICKEN presence around the rim on defense. Much of that gravitates from Stotts. Jokic has more competition for minutes and touches, but it’s not as if he’s stuck in a loaded roster; the Nuggets are only four games ahead of Minnesota, and Jusuf Nurkic, one of Jokic’s main competitors for playing time, spent half the season injured and in Mike Malone’s doghouse.

Additional apologies to: Crawford, Turner, Patterson, Thompson, Mirza Teletovic,  Jeremy Lin, Shaun Livingston, Dennis Schroder, Clint Capela, Ryan Anderson, Jrue Holiday, Darren Collison, Patty Mills, Cory Joseph, Manu Ginobili, Bismack Biyombo and Matthew Dellavedova.

MOST IMPROVED PLAYER

Jabari Parker and Julius Randle are basically rookies. When two bets in a row hit, it looks spectacular, and we laud Westbrook’s ability to bend the game to his will. It’s a little corny how Boston’s Stevens talks about wanting players to “soar with their strengths,” but he lives up to the motivational mantra. Everything about the Warriors — their style, their identity, their strut — emanates from his historically unprecedented shooting.

Yeah, Iguodala will end up missing 25 percent of the season

How to Bet the Kentucky Derby: A Beginner’s Guide

The Kentucky Derby is one and a quarter miles long, longer than any race these horses have run before, so the winner will need stamina.

Odds and Favorites

When you look at a race form there will be a number in parentheses after each horse’s name. Or you can bet that he will “show,” — that is, come in first, second, or third. Conversely, betting on a horse with bad odds will pay out a lot of money if they do win. The words “first, second, and third,” are replaced by “win, place, and show.” If you think your horse is pretty good but not going to come in first, you can bet that he will “place,” — that is, come in first or second.

Here’s our guide to making sense of the Run for the Roses. If your horse comes in any of those positions, you’ll get money.

If you’re sure you’ve got the winner and you only want to place a simple bet for him to come in first, go ahead and bet your money that way. Give that a good look to see who’s done well recently.

Look for a horse that has won most of his races by a good length. A horse that goes into the race with 50-1 odds but comes in first place will pay out the most money to the bettor. Say, “I’ll bet $2 on (horse’s name or number) to win.”

If you’re done with the beginner stage of betting, you can up your odds of winning by doing more complicated bets that yield bigger payouts: exactas, trifectas, and superfectas. Horses with lower first number (10 and down) are considered top contenders.

Betting on a horse with good odds will not pay out much money if they win. If you’re in it for the thrill of victory alone (and not the money), he’s a good bet.

Betting on Your Picks: “I’ll take $2 to win on the four horse, please.”

In horse racing, you need to bet on what place the horse will come in. You’re trying to hit the sweet spot: a horse with okay odds who you think has a shot at winning.

The favorite going into this weekend is California Chrome, with 5-2 odds. Good luck racing fans!

Picking a Horse

There are 20 horses in the field for the Kentucky Derby, though as of now only 19 will be running Saturday (#11 Hopportunity was “scratched.”) All the horses are 3-year-old male thoroughbreds, which means they’re young horses with lots of talent that is still developing and not a ton of experience.

Many casual bettors will pick a horse based on name or looks, but there are better ways to judge the odds for whether a horse has a shot at winning. Each horse will have a record of recent races he’s run, what place he finished, and how far ahead of the other horses he was. You can place your bet anytime up until about 20 minutes before the race goes off at 6:24 p.m. Therefore, betting on him won’t yield a big payout. It looks something like this: Vicar’s In Trouble (20-1).

Horses with a high first number (like 20-1 or 50-1) are considered unlikely to win the race. What’s a superfecta anyway, and how do you bet one?. That number shows what the odds are that the horse will win. Here’s a quick guide:

Exacta: You pick the two horses you think will come in first and second, in that order.

Trifecta: Pick the three horses you think will come in first, second, and third – in the right order.

Superfecta: You guessed it. For a superfecta you pick the top four finishers in the right order. If you’re not going to be in Louisville for the big day, you can head to your local racetrack or off-track betting outlet and place a bet there.

Now it’s off to the races. He’s dominated all the races he’s run so far and all eyes will be on him. Saturday. Like it’s name implies, the superfecta pays out big bucks if you manage to get it right.

You’ve got your mint julep and your fancy hat ready for the Kentucky Derby, but are you ready to place your bet on the horse you think will win?

Like all sports, horse racing has its own language that can be confusing to casual watchers

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About Tropicana Las Vegas | http://www.troplv.com

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