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…

Like infinite numbers of women before her, Heather Robbins didn’t dream of Nevada brothels. She came to Las Vegas with a bit of luggage and a big dream: to someday become a showgirl; or at the very least, to dance in a strip club and maybe work her way up by catching the attention of somebody influential. Like the thousands before her, the 22-year-old arrived by bus, fleeing a dysfunctional relationship, a negligent family, and desperate poverty in inner-city Indianapolis. Within the first week here, she managed some job interviews but never a job. By week two, she was ripping…