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Hong Kong season finale breaks single race meeting turnover record

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An extraordinary 2022/23 Hong Kong horse racing season ended in style on Sunday, 16 July at Sha Tin Racecourse, with the 88th and final meeting of the season setting a new turnover record for both a single race meeting and the season finale meeting of HK$2.065 billion (approx. £202 million) – an increase of 1.3% year-on-year – since the establishment of the HKSAR in 1997.

In total, the season’s 88 meetings saw 835 Hong Kong races and 299 overseas simulcast races and posted turnover of HK$141.1 billion (approx. £13.8 billion), representing a slight 0.5% increase on the 2021/22 season.

The increasing popularity of the simulcast of overseas races and the increasing appreciation of the global nature of racing contributed to a 12.5% growth in simulcast turnover to over HK$11.8 billion (approx. £1.2 billion).

While the majority of simulcast turnover comes from Hong Kong customers, which registered an 11.3% growth to HK$10.5 billion (approx. £1 billion), turnover generated via World Pool from the Hong Kong Jockey Club’s (HKJC) overseas customers and partners grew by 23% to HK$1.3 billion (approx. £127 million).

The turnover of all simulcast races conducted under the World Pool Brand (including both Hong Kong and overseas customers) increased from HK$6.2 billion (approx. £606 million) in the 2021/22 season to HK$7.3 billion (approx. £714 million), representing a 18.5% increase.

The HKJC have continued to increase the number of World Pool races to 24 days this season featuring many of the LONGINES Top 100 Group 1 races, while also broadening World Pool partnerships to include racing from Australia, Saudi Arabia and Germany for the first time.

Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges, Chief Executive Officer at the Hong Kong Jockey Club, said: “Under such a challenging economic situation, our overall season racing turnover of HK$141.1 billion is very satisfactory. The strength of the turnover reflects the quality of our products and the on-going support of our customers. However, we will stay vigilant as there will be significant challenges from offshore bookmakers following the reopening of borders and also illegal bookmakers.

“To ensure our racing will stay competitive and maintain its world-class status, we will re-invest in racecourse assets and enhance customer experience. We will also grasp the unique development opportunity in the GBA under the ‘One Country Two Systems’ principle. After all, the Club is acting for the betterment of society. All we do is to contribute more to our community with a strategic focus that best meets the needs of Hong Kong people.”

Zac Purton and John Size set new records

The 2022/23 season saw new records set on the track too, with trainer John Size becoming the first trainer to win 12 Hong Kong trainers’ championships. The Australian master trainer has now trained 1493 winners in Hong Kong and continues to excel with an uncanny ability to patiently develop young talent into elite top-level performers.

Zac Purton clinched his sixth Hong Kong jockeys’ championship with a single-season record of 179 wins, breaking Joao Moreira’s previous record of 170.

Home-grown jockey Vincent Ho received the Tony Cruz Award – given to the leading local rider with the most wins in the season – for a fourth time.

With only 1,250 horses in training – or around 0.7 percent of the world’s horse population – Hong Kong’s racing once again displayed its world-class quality in 2022/23.

Golden Sixty, the first horse in the history of Hong Kong racing to have secured three consecutive Horse of the Year crowns, and fellow G1 winners, Lucky Sweynesse and Romantic Warrior, are firmly entrenched in the top seven of the LONGINES World’s Best Racehorse Rankings.

They delivered astounding performances against international rivals in the international spotlight on FWD Champions Day on 30 April 2023 and led a clean sweep of the three Group 1 features of the day – G1 FWD Champions Mile (1600m), G1 Chairman’s Sprint Prize (1200m) and G1 FWD QEII Cup (2000m).

Engelbrecht-Bresges, said: “Hong Kong’s world-class racing is not only built on our state-of-art racing facilities, but more importantly a rich and growing pool of racing talents across all levels from trainers, jockeys, veterinarians to stable assistants and farriers. The Hong Kong Jockey Club is committed to attracting world-class talents from overseas and nurturing high-potential home-grown talents. I am delighted to see our racing talents and the horses they train, and take care of, deliver remarkable performances this season to local and global fans. They are the future of Hong Kong’s racing.”

Development of racing in Mainland China

Another important highlight of the 2022/23 season is that Conghua Racecourse (CRC) has demonstrated its critical role in supporting Hong Kong’s racing as well as the development of the equine industry in the Greater Bay Area.

CRC has fully utilised its state-of-the-art facilities to best accommodate, train and prepare horses to return to Sha Tin and Happy Valley racecourse for racing. In the past season, CRC has produced 172 wins by 138 horses.

Engelbrecht-Bresges said: “The importance of CRC will continue to grow further with the significant work we are undertaking with Sha Tin’s stable refurbishment to meet the future needs of trainers. CRC will also serve as the centre stage of international-standard racing in the Mainland, starting from the first race meeting in 2026 with the establishment of an iconic grandstand enabling visitors from all fronts to enjoy and experience Hong Kong’s world-class racing.”

Hong Kong racing will restart for the 2023/24 season on 10 September.

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Stake unveils new Stake Engine: Build. Launch. Earn. The Engine Is Yours

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Stake, the world’s largest online casino, today announced the launch of Stake Engine — a next-generation Remote Gaming Server (RGS) built to give developers the tools, infrastructure, and audience they need to succeed on their terms.

Backed by the technology behind 300 billion bets and a global community of over 20 million players, Stake Engine offers an instant path to revenue with full end-to-end game development tools and the most developer-friendly commercial model in iGaming: 10% GGR (Gross Gaming Revenue), paid monthly.

Whether you’re an indie creator or a full-scale studio, Stake Engine offers everything you need to build, deploy, and grow games on your terms.

Studios are already winning.
Over the past 12 months, games built on Stake Engine have generated $3.31 billion in turnover. In the most recent quarter, three titles ranked among Stake’s top 50 games by total bets: Massive Studio’s Jawsome at #17, Serpentina at #23, and Twist’s Samurai Dogs Unleashed at #25.

Who can build?
Any developer. From math devs and indie studios to full-stack teams, if you can design and deliver engaging games, you’re welcome here.

What can you build?
Anything your imagination allows. Slots, wheel mechanics, card-based logic, original IP, Stake Engine has no templates, no restrictions, and no gatekeeping. If it plays well and meets our standards, you can build it, launch it, and own it.

Why build on Stake Engine?
Stake Engine gives developers everything they need to launch faster, without the barriers that slow down traditional game development.

No need to build your own infrastructure, negotiate publisher deals, or spend months integrating with legacy Remote Gaming Servers (RGS). With Stake Engine, you can go from idea to live game in days.

Stake handles the infrastructure, distribution, and visibility, so you can focus on what matters: building great games. There’s no pitching, no storefront politics, and no delays.

Behind the scenes, Stake Engine powers everything with a full front-end SDK, integrated math engine, balancing toolkit, and real-time analytics dashboard — putting real performance data at your fingertips.

And once your game goes live, you get paid monthly, with 10% GGR royalties and zero lockups.

Proven at Scale

  • Over 300 billion bets placed on Stake

  • 10 billion monthly wagers processed

  • Stake is behind 4% of global Bitcoin transactions
    Capable of handling 1 million+ bets per second

    Stake Engine: Key Features

  • Stake Engine delivers unmatched scale and performance, supporting over 1 million bets per second and powered by the same infrastructure behind the world’s most popular crypto casino.

  • It offers a full end-to-end developer stack, including a front-end framework, integrated math engine, and balancing toolkit — everything needed to build rich, interactive games quickly and at scale.

  • Developers have complete creative freedom with no templates or restrictions. Build any game, upload it, and launch directly to Stake’s global audience.

  • Instant deployment tools allow developers to upload, test, and go live in minutes, with full versioning and real-time testing capabilities.

  • Stake Engine provides transparent analytics, offering real-time insights into game performance across players, markets, and engagement cohorts.

  • It features an industry-leading commercial model with 10% GGR perpetual royalties — the most aggressive terms in gaming, paid monthly without delays or hidden fees.

  • Stake Engine is built by developers, for developers. Created by the engineers behind some of iGaming’s top studios, it is focused on speed, control, and fixing everything broken about legacy game launch processes.

  • Stake also handles all positioning, marketing, and growth — giving developers full visibility and freeing them to focus purely on building great games.

Brais Pena, Chief Strategy Officer at Easygo, the technology powerhouse behind Stake, said: “Stake Engine is built for creators, with speed, freedom, and scale baked in.”

“Stake Engine is more than just infrastructure, it’s a launchpad for the next generation of iGaming creators. We’ve taken everything we’ve learned building the world’s most popular online casino and packaged it into a platform that removes barriers, unlocks creativity, and delivers scale from day one.”

“Stake Engine is what happens when the biggest operator in iGaming builds for the builders. It’s not just a platform. It’s our commitment to the next generation of game creators.”

The post Stake unveils new Stake Engine: Build. Launch. Earn. The Engine Is Yours appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.

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Ameristar Casino Hotel Council Bluffs

PENN Entertainment Announces Plans for New Land-Based Hollywood Casino to Replace Riverboat Gaming Operations in Council Bluffs, Iowa

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PENN Entertainment Inc. announced plans for an expected $180–$200 million project to relocate its Ameristar Casino Hotel Council Bluffs (Ameristar) riverboat casino operations to a new, state-of-the-art land-based property to be rebranded as Hollywood Casino Council Bluffs (Hollywood Council Bluffs). The proposal is approved by the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission in conjunction with a 15-year extension of Ameristar’s partnership with the nonprofit Qualified Sponsoring Organization (QSO) Iowa West Racing Association. All commercial operators in Iowa are required to have an operating agreement with a QSO licensed to conduct gaming operations.

Under the proposed plan, the new Hollywood Council Bluffs is expected to include roughly 125,000 square feet of new development with approximately 58,000 square feet of gaming space. The new facility will complement the existing ESPN BET sportsbook, 160-room hotel and dining options in the landside portion of the current infrastructure. The existing riverboat, which presently offers gaming spread out over three levels, will be vacated upon opening of the new property.

“We are pleased to add another landside relocation to our pipeline of development projects. This project will enhance the quality and efficiency of our Council Bluffs location and significantly improve the property’s competitive positioning in the greater Omaha market. PENN’s diversified portfolio of casino properties is core to our omni-channel approach to entertainment, which combines our best-in-class retail operations and a database of more than 32 million PENN Play members with our robust interactive and media footprint. We thank the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission for their approval today and are grateful for the continued collaboration with our partners at the Iowa West Racing Association,” said Todd George, Executive Vice President of Operations for PENN.

“We are thrilled with the exciting development plans for the new Hollywood Casino Council Bluffs. For nearly thirty years, the Ameristar riverboat has been providing not only dining and entertainment, but thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in support of our community. PENN’s commitment to reinvesting in Council Bluffs is laudable and we are grateful for our ongoing partnership,” said Brenda Mainwaring, President & CEO of the Iowa West Racing Association.

Construction of the new facility is expected to take approximately 18-24 months following the design and permitting approval process. The Company is entitled to obtain financing for the project from Gaming and Leisure Properties Inc. (GLPI) of up to $150 million at a 7.10% cap rate, which may be structured at PENN’s option as either rent or a 5-year term loan that is pre-payable at any time without penalty.

The post PENN Entertainment Announces Plans for New Land-Based Hollywood Casino to Replace Riverboat Gaming Operations in Council Bluffs, Iowa appeared first on Gaming and Gambling Industry in the Americas.

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PrizePicks Teams Up with San Francisco Giants as Official DFS Partner

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PrizePicks, the largest daily fantasy sports operator in North America, announced that it has been named the Official Daily Fantasy Partner of the San Francisco Giants. The new partnership strengthens the DFS leader’s presence in professional baseball and features digital and in-park activations at Oracle Park.

“We are thrilled to team up with a legendary organization like the San Francisco Giants. PrizePicks is committed to bringing unique experiences to our players around the country and is excited to strengthen our connection with baseball fans in San Francisco and across the United States,” said Mike Quigley, Chief Marketing Officer at PrizePicks.

As part of the multi-year partnership, PrizePicks branding will be showcased prominently throughout Oracle Park with rotating signage behind home plate and LED signage on each baseline. PrizePicks logos will be featured across the K-Counter in right field, creating an interactive experience for fans in the ballpark. Fans seated on top of the right field wall near the strikeout counter will have the opportunity to flip over the PrizePicks branded signs, revealing a “K” for each strikeout earned by a Giants pitcher.

When Giants pitchers combine for 12 strikeouts in a home game, fans can participate in a text-to-enter promotion with the chance to win a $12,000 free PrizePicks lineup and tickets to a future Giants game at Oracle Park.

“The Giants are always looking for innovative ways to enhance the fan experience. Partnering with PrizePicks provides our fans with new ways to engage with us and deepen their connection to both the Giants and baseball,” said Jason Pearl, Chief Revenue Officer at the San Francisco Giants.

The post PrizePicks Teams Up with San Francisco Giants as Official DFS Partner appeared first on Gaming and Gambling Industry in the Americas.

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