From LA Times Poker aficionados will descend on Las Vegas as the 44th World Series of Poker kicks off at Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino. The first event, which began Wednesday, is a two-day No-Limit Hold ‘em tournament exclusively for casino employees. This year, the World Series of Poker, first held in 1970, will run until July 15 and will feature 62 events on 480 tables. Seemingly every major poker variation is present in the tournament, with buy-ins for the various events ranging from $500 to $111,111. Anyone 21 years or older can enter. Tens of thousands of poker enthusiasts…

From iGaming Business Online gaming provider bwin.party digital entertainment has announced that it is in the ‘final stages’ of agreeing a long-term deal to serve as the official digital partner of Spanish football club Real Madrid. The new agreement will follow the conclusion of bwin.party’s existing six-year shirt sponsorship arrangement with the record 32-time domestic champions, which is due to end this weekend. “Our decision not to renew the shirt sponsorship brings to an end one chapter in our relationship with Real Madrid, which has delivered six highly successful years of brand promotion for bwin on the shirts of one…

From Vegas Inc Critics of online gaming say a new generation of problem gamblers is likely to emerge with Internet poker being so readily available. But two presenters at this week’s 15th International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking at Caesars Palace say computer programs are being used to educate online gamblers and force them to think twice before making wagers they can’t afford. In a session on responsible gambling and new technologies, Mark Griffiths, a professor of gambling studies at Nottingham Trent University in Great Britain, and Andreas Holmstrom, CEO of Sweden-based Playscan, discussed strategies to communicate with players…

A few years ago, declining a FarmVille request on Facebook or not knowing of Restaurant Story was akin to committing social harakiri. That no longer seems to be the case. Figures from metrics tracking firm SuperData, which were out recently, reveal that social gaming is on the decline. Their data shows that the total number of monthly active social gamers have dropped below 200 million for the first time in over a year, down by 10 million users in March in comparison to February. It even noted that revenues from social gaming had fallen. Almost on cue, Electronic Arts (EA)…

From iGaming Business As part of his sponsorship deal with PokerStars, 2008 Olympic gold medallist and eleven-time Grand Slam tennis champion Rafael Nadal challenged 100 fans to a game of mobile online poker over the weekend. The Majorca-born tennis star will celebrate his 27th birthday on Monday and took part in the special PokerStars-sponsored competition during a break from his preparations to defend his French Open men’s singles title. “It’s no secret that I love the competition and that’s what I like about the game of poker,” said Nadal, who has won the world-famous Roland Garros tournament in each of…

from iGaming Business Playtech has expanded its mobile bingo offering with the launch of eight new slot titles. The new games are mini-embedded in the bingo pages on mobile and are also available in full screen mode across the HTML5 and native offering. “As our mobile Bingo is growing exponentially, it has become a key focus in our product development this year,” said Rhys Owen, Head of Bingo at Playtech. “With the launch of the HTML5 solution along with Native iOS and Android operating systems, we have begun rolling out the product to our customer base. Using an HTML5 template…