The ground breaking two and a half year deal will run until the end of the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil, and includes a wide range of promotional and advertising opportunities for the London based bookies.

Established in 1934, the gambling group operates around 2,300 betting shops across Britain, as well as having a strong online presence with William Hill Online (WHO) and commenting on the latest deal CEO of Williamhill.com, said:

“The deal with The FA is an excellent one for williamhill.com as it provides us with a strong platform for our brands and products both in the UK and internationally.”

CEO of William Hill Ralph Topping was also quick to point out that the partnership covered an exciting period for UK football and that the deal complimented the company’s existing  agreement with the Scottish Football Association and sponsorship of the Scottish Cup.

For their part, The Football Association seemed equally delighted with the FA’s Head of Sponsorship Peter Daire,  commenting:

“We are delighted to have William Hill on board. They have a strong track record in sports sponsorship and a considerable online and high street presence that will enable us to strengthen our communication platforms for England and The FA Cup. In return, William Hill will benefit from an association with two of the highest-profile football sponsorship properties in the world.”

In 2010, William Hill generated £1.072 billion in revenue and made a £156 million profit, with the company currently valued at around £1.7 billion. Alternately, The FA controls the lucrative Premier League, with its main commercial asset being its ownership rights to the England team’s internationals matches, as well as the FA Cup.

Overall, the group’s revenue for the whole of 2011 was up 26% to $331 million compared to $262 million in 2010, representing the highest ever recorded. Commenting on the impressive figures, deputy chairman Brian Mattingley said:

“We are delighted with 888′s strong performance over the last year and in particular Q4. Q4 revenue is the highest on record and represents five consecutive quarters of revenue growth.”

888 Holdings strong performance was led by its B2C casino and poker offerings, which generated $61 million in revenue for 2011, up 58% compared to $38 million in 2010.

The fourth quarter of 2011 alone saw the company’s B2C poker revenue rise by 76% to $19 million, compared to $11 million in Q4 2010. 888′s active poker customers were also up a huge 58% in Q4 to 318,000, with Brian Mattingley explaining:

“Strong trading was led by an excellent performance in our B2C Casino & Poker, and is the successful result of an increased strategic focus on our core competencies and the stand out success of Poker 6.”

The groups interim management statement has also indicated that 888 has taken its momentum forward and is currently experiencing record trading levels for 2012 so far, with January’s average daily revenue already 25% ahead of those recorded for the same period in 2011.

Consequently, Nick Batram from Peel Hunt has recommended the company’s shares with a target price from 46p to 63p, commenting:

“We believe the fourth quarter figures show that the improvement at 888 is sustainable. Our confidence comes from a view that the technology has clearly proven itself, there is much greater management focus and these factors should also enhance the group’s strategic position in a rapidly evolving market.”

Following the financial results, 888′s share price is currently trading at 56.75p, which is near its 52 week high of 65.25p and way ahead of its 52 week low of 28.25p recorded on 22 August 2011.

However, any thoughts that Mitt Romney might be have now been quashed following an interview with ’8newsnow,’ with the article ending by stating:

“Romney also said he doesn’t support legalizing online gaming. He’s says he’s against it because of the social costs and people’s addictive gambling habits.”

Therefore, with fellow Republican runners Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich also coming out against online poker, Libertarian Ron Paul remains the industries biggest champion, which could help him in the Nevada caucuses. However, since Ron Paul’s ultimate victory is highly unlikely, the thus far neutral Democrat President Barack Obama would appear the logical choice for online poker players. 

Nonetheless, online poker fans would most likely need a sign from Obama that he was prepared to sign an online poker bill before committing to give him their votes come November.

In the meantime, the Poker Players Alliance (PPA)  Executive Director John Pappas responded to Mitt Romney’s anti-online poker comment by saying that it was misinformed, and explaning that Romney’s statement was “based on a misperception of the status quo..”

Furthering the argument, PPA Executive Vice President of Player Relations Rich Muny, stated: “I believe Romney has it wrong here. Licensing and regulation will ensure that age verification measures are implemented, consumer protections are provided, and protections for those with excessive gaming habits are mandated. Current law does not provide any protections for anyone.”

Consequently, the PPA have now urged poker players to take to their Twitter and Facebook accounts and make their opinions known to U.S. presidential candidates Romney and Santorum.

Apparently, the Full Tilt co-owner had received around $60 million from the company since 2007, but post-Black Friday put back $14.3 million to help with the company’s expenditures. Allegedly, Ferguson also viewed this as a “good will” gesture that would enable him to become part owner of the site once again, after Full Tilt Poker was acquired by Groupe Bernard Tapie.

However, during negotiations with the U.S. Department of Justice it was  stipulated that none of the current FTP board of directors would be permitted to hold even partial ownership of the company. This caveat thus scuppered Chris “Jesus” Ferguson’s ownershipvplan, as well as his $14.3 million investment, with the US pro subsequently holding up the deal believing his rights have been denied.

Subjectpoker.com then finished its article by stipulating: “(We) would like to make it clear that we have no reason to believe that the above threats (by Ferguson and his attorney) have in any way been successful in stalling or impeding the (GBT/FTP) deal.”

As more and more revelations come to light during the ongoing Full Tilt saga, the poker community have been venting their views on what many see as “pure greed” on behalf of Chris Ferguson, with one Two Plus Two forum poster called ‘Carthac’ writing the following:

“This man not only shamed himself with FTP, put 100′s of millions of dollars of player money in jeopardy because of his extremely dishonest, greedy, and immoral actions, but now he wants to stand in the way of possibly recuperating and refunding his customers because of personal monetary issues from his former company? What complete scum of the earth.”

In the meantime, a due diligence process instigated by GBT in order to reveal the true extent of Full Tilt’s financial situation has thrown up some extra concerns for the French investment firm. One of those concerns is that a number of Full Tilt Pros apparently still owe up to $20 million to the poker site which, although not the only reason for the delay in negotiations with the DOJ, is nevertheless seen as a “substantial” one.

Amongst those players with outstanding debts mentioned by GBT’s attorney Behnam Dayanim to Gaming Intelligence, are Phil Ivey, David Benyamine, Erick Lindgren, Mike Matusow and Barry Greenstein. As Behnam Dayanim explains:

“We do not want to litigate a whole bunch of individual cases against professionals post-acquisition so we are trying to negotiate but we have not been making a lot of progress.”

Apparently, some of the players have expressed interest in paying back their debts only if the money owed  specifically went into a fund to repay Full Tilt’s army of frustrated customers. One pro making the effort to come forward and explain his view to the poker community was Barry Greenstein, who made a statement on the 2+2 forum as follows:

“I borrowed $400,000 to play on Full Tilt a few years ago, before PokerStars had high stakes games. I didn’t pay it back, hoping that some people who owed me and had money on Full Tilt would pay me there so I could use that against the debt. (I’m only owed about $150,000 now)…I was concerned about taking money due to US players and giving it to the Tapie Group because it is understood that the Tapie Group won’t be the one paying the US players.”

Meanwhile, the need to recover quickly the outstanding millions would seem to be of key concern for GBT, with attorney Behnam Dayanim stating that without a resolution to the problem, it’s difficult to see the deal being brought to a successful conclusion.

The results were ahead of many analysts’ predictions of between 23 to 26 billion patacas for the month, mostly boosted by the Chinese Lunar New Year falling in January instead of February this year.

However, analysts are still unlikely to revise upwards their forecast for the year based on the result of just one month. In 2012, the prediction is for a 11% to 20% increase in growth, compared to the 42% experienced in 2011, and as  Deutsche Bank gaming analyst Carlo Santarelli explains:

“Given the shift of Chinese New Year into January, we believe February will pose a difficult comparison for the market, despite the extra day. As such, we believe looking at the aggregate of January and February for comparison purposes is more appropriate.”

This all points to February being an interesting month for Macau, with analyst Cameron McKnight from Wells Fargo & Co predicting a fall in revenue of 14% for the month. If that were to be the case, it would mark the first year-on-year fall in over two and a half years, when in June 2009 Macau suffered fall out from the global financial crisis.

Nevertheless, shares in the sector were moderately positive at a time when the benchmark Hang Seng Index was down by 0.3%. Overall, Sands China up 0.8% to HK$26.45, SJM Holdings Ltd up 2% to HK$14.16, MGM China Holdings Ltd up 0.9%, Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd up 1.8%, Wynn Macau Ltd up 0.2% and Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd up 1.4%.

The last quarter of 2011 saw heavy selling of shares due to investor concerns of a sharp slowdown in the Chinese economy, but Macau shares have now gained between 4% and 21% since the beginning of 2012.

At 3:45a.m. on Thursday, January 19th, one lucky player at the Caesars poker room hit quad fours at odds of around 407 to 1. Expecting to win the hand, he soon discovered that his opponent with odds at 3,243 to 1, had cracked his hand holding quad eights to scoop the pot.

Nevertheless, any initial disappointment he may have instinctively felt soon turned to joy after realising he had hit the casino’s Bad Beat Jackpot which stood at $307,482. Consequently, he was awarded $93,313 for the indignity of losing with quads, while his opponent also received $62,565 for the winning hand. In addition, 25 patrons playing at Caesars poker room at the time each collected $1,068 just for being there.

However, the consequences of the hand didn’t finish there, though, and the pooled jackpot was further shared between 117 other players at Harrah’s Resort, Bally’s and Showboat, each of whom also collected a payout of $1,068 apiece.

Commenting on the milestone hand, Caesars Entertainment Eastern Division President Don Marrandino, said:  

“The Bad Beat Poker Jackpot hitting for the twentieth time is truly a milestone in our storied poker history. As the East Coast home of the WSOP and first to debut a accumulative Bad Beat Jackpot, I can honestly say poker is something we here at Caesars Entertainment Atlantic City take very seriously. We’re extremely proud to have given out more than $5 million over the last 16 months to our dedicated poker players.”

On average, the Bad Beat Jackpot has now been hit every one and a half months and following the latest win, the jackpot was reset to $100,000 with quad queens set as the qualifying hand.

Breaking the figures down further, around 2.6 million people visited Louisiana casinos in December with revenue at the state’s 13 riverboat casinos declining by 1.7% to $138.6 million compared to last year. Meanwhile, revenue at the only land-based casino in the state,  Harrah’s, was also largely flat down 0.2% to $32.1 million, while the state’s four racetrack casinos similarly saw their revenue change by a mere margin, up 0.1% in December yoy to $31.2 million

Collectively, Louisiana casinos generated $2.37 billion in revenue in 2011, a figure largely the same as the year before. Furthermore, the amount excludes three Indian reservation  casinos which are exempt from publicly reporting their winnings.

At a time of economic downturn in the US, Louisiana casinos therefore appear to be weathering the storm well and chairman of the Louisiana Gaming Control Board, Dane Morgan, has stated that around $1 billion has already been earmarked for new casino projects and developments.

In addition, next year Louisiana is poised to benefit from a new 400 room hotel-casino, complete with a convention center and an 18-hole golf course. Currently, Las Vegas casino developer Creative Casinos is in the process of completing financing for the $400 million Mojito Pointe Casino Resort in Lake Charles, with construction scheduled to begin around February 18th and completion in 2013.

However, the Creative Casinos and MGM Resorts International collaboration is dependent on the funding first being there, and as Dan Lee from Creative Casinos explains:

“All of the commitments are contingent on us having all of the money. Nobody wants to own part of an unfinished building.”

In May 2011, the European Poker Tour (EPT) tournament director Thomas Kremser was the first to depart PokerStars in order to “explore new ventures,” followed earlier this month by EPT creator and CEO John Duthie, who also announced his resignation to “take on new challenges,” Now Gabi Campos, has also parted ways with PokerStars having been CEO at the company since October 2010.

Campos had held senior executive positions at 888, and then its B2B arm, Dragonfish before joining PokerStars. After his arrival PokerStars founder, Isai Scheinberg continued as the Chief Technical Officer, although his son, Mark, was named the new Chairman of the company. Following yesterday’s announcement of Campos’ departure, an official statement read:

“PokerStars announced today that Gabi Campos has decided to step down from his position as Chief Executive Officer, effective Feb. 1, 2012, to pursue other opportunities. The company thanks Gabi for his hard work and commitment and wishes him the best in all his future endeavors. A search for Gabi’s replacement is under way.”

Meanwhile, rumours have surfaced that  the Global Poker Tours Limited MD Jeffrey Haas, has also been caught up in the shake-up currently underway. The company is another PokerStars related business organizing live events, and Haas recently opened the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA), but his name appeared without any related title.

As the management overhaul continues at PokerStars, the site still maintains its position as a market leader, with six times as many cash game players as next biggest poker room PartyPoker. Back in 2010, PokerStars earnt roughly $1.4 billion and netted approximately $1.34 million each day.

The Las Vegas Strip generally accounts for around half the state’s revenue, and in November its casinos reported a 9% increase in gambling revenues to $495.3 million. This figure includes slot revenues increasing by 2.6% to $261 million and baccarat winnings rising by a massive 29.3% to $89 million.

However, despite the encouraging figures, baccarat was seen as being pivotal in driving up The Strips’ takings, while slots revenue is typically viewed as a better indicator for signs of recovery in the wider nongaming sector. As gaming analyst Chad Beynon from Macquarie Securities explains:

“While the headline growth rate of 9 percent is strong, we again would have liked to see a more broad-based growth story across all segments. In particular, the fact that slot handle was basically flat year-over-year was somewhat disappointing given the positive trends over the past two months.”

The disappointment was highlighted by the fact that November should have been a particularly busy month, with the WSOP Main Event Final Table having taken place, as well as the Manny Paquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez fight on November 12th.

Nonetheless, it is believed that the second consecutive month of rising gambling revenues for the Las Vegas Strip confirms positive sign of recovery for the whole state going into 2012. This was widely reflected across the board, with most of the gaming areas posting increases in revenue including Boulder Strip up 12.44% to $71.635 million, Washoe County up 1.95% to $53.5 million, and Mesquite up 4.18% to $9.868 million.

Just North Las Vegas was down by 4.7% to $23.075 million, and Laughlin down 1.87% to $38.609 million.

Overall, the State of Nevada saw a  15.2% increase in the amount of gambling taxes it collected for November, to $57 million. In addition,  Nevada gambling is currently showing a 2.9% increase in revenues for 2011, with just December’s results left to collect.