On today’s edition of the Daily Deal, a major internet gambling bill picks up a new endorser, CardRunners re-launches its affiliate program, and two major operators report mixed financial results. It’s all coming your way… right now!
Hello, I’m Sean Gibson and welcome to the Daily Deal by Poker News Daily.
On the same day as HR 2267 passed out of the House Financial Services Committee, the bill picked up its 70th co-sponsor. Congressman John Campbell, a Republican from California in the Orange County region, signed on to the largely bipartisan bill to make it an even seventy co-sponsors.
A total of eighteen amendments to HR 2267 were discussed last Wednesday during a two-part marathon markup session. Campbell’s amendment focused primarily on consumer protections, including the option for internet gamblers to select a loss limit. Campbell’s amendment also mandated that the odds of winning should be posted and users should be able to choose which random number generator to use when playing on the virtual felts.
In other recent news, the popular poker training site CardRunners re-launched its affiliate program. Affiliates are compensated when players sign up for monthly memberships or redeem their Full Tilt Points as part of the site’s Truly Free Poker Training. In the past, CardRunners had forged different affiliate arrangements with each partner, creating a patchwork group. Now, CardRunners has quadrupled the number of affiliates since launching the revamped program. Affiliates are paid out on the first of every month via PayPal. Visit CardRunners.com for full details and to sign up.
Although its poker revenues were down, Playtech reported a 34% increase in gross income from a year ago after it released its second quarter financials. The parent company of the iPoker Network saw poker revenues dip thirteen percent year over year and 15% quarter over quarter. Its business was hurt in part by the recently-completed World Cup, which brings out the world’s sports bettors.
Finally, 888’s CEO told eGaming Review on Tuesday that it was “highly likely” that his internet gaming company would engage in merger discussions with other companies in the industry within the next six months. While most would agree that such a move appears to be a case of “keeping up with the Joneses” in light of the recent Party Gaming/bwin merger announcement, he told eGaming Review that the union of his competitors is not changing 888’s marketing tactics.
According to PokerScout.com, 888’s online poker site, Pacific Poker, is just the fifteenth largest worldwide in terms of real money ring game traffic. Ladbrokes has been a rumored merger partner for 888, although nothing official has been announced. Don’t forget to keep it tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest financial headlines.
Thanks for joining me on The Daily Deal and Don’t forget to visit PokerNewsDaily.com and be sure to follow us at Twitter.com/PokerNewsDaily for the latest in poker news. This is Sean Gibson, wishing you monster pots at the tables!