One incautious Cleveland Browns fan made the wrong kind of headline with a $506,000 bet on the team against the Los Angeles Rams. (The Browns lost, 20-13.) The wager was for the Browns to cover the spread, the most meaningful accomplishment in sports, and they didn’t. The big winner was the William Hill sportsbook at Ocean Casino Resort, which is certain to make impressive September numbers on the strength of that high-risk bet. At least it will provide cover for all the bets placed in favor of the Rams, which caused sportsbooks to take a pasting on the game. Reportedly, the $506K blowout was the biggest bet placed on the NFL so far this season.
* Hard Rock International CEO Jim Allen says his company’s run probably has “another five years” in it. But it’s going to be a very busy period, with 30-odd deals, including 10 or 11 casinos. Most of the growth will be in Hard Rock Cafe franchises. So will Hard Rock be resting on its laurels come 2025? We don’t believe it.
* One of the Caesars Entertainment projects that Eldorado Resorts will inherit is a $700 million South Korea casino, already in progress. Eldorado’s skepticism about overseas projects may harm the Pacific Rim, writes Mohammed Cohen. “Gaming in Asia needs more Vegas pizzazz to spice up an increasingly crowded and homogenized product landscape,” he contends.
In particular, Incheon International Airport needs to have must-see casino attractions, since the South Korean gaming economy is almost entirely dependent on tourism. At present, Caesars Korea is on track for a mid-2021 debut, nipping Mohegan Sun‘s Inspire, which opens the following year. However, we know much less about the Caesars project than we do about Inspire. “Caesars’ corporate DNA includes a product portfolio that covers every market segment and a willingness to experiment. Asia can use more of both in its gaming gene pool, and having Caesars in the neighborhood will make cross fertilization much more likely,” Cohen concludes, noting that—with Caesars’ Las Vegas Strip properties potentially up for grabs Asia might come to Vegas. Any takers?
* Sheldon Adelson has a hotline to the Oval Office and he’s making good use of it. The Wall Street Journal reports that Adelson urged Donald Trump to ratchet back his trade war with China or suffer at the ballot box in 2020. Adelson could have mentioned that said trade war has hurting his casinos in Macao but evidently thought better of it.
* Even if you’re a gangly, string bean teenager, you can still make the college varsity roster if you play e-sports. Big-money scholarships are being offered to League of Legends-savvy teens. “Every now and then, I actually make Jeremy play for a couple of hours so he doesn’t lose his abilities,” says the proud parent of one prospect. There’s big money at stake—$16 million in scholarships. Schools evidently believe they can nurture and funnel talent into Silicon Valley eventually.
“But esports companies aren’t waiting. A number of them are already helping schools set up computer labs, organize tournaments and connect students with college recruiters,” reports NBC News. If you want to attract the attention of the school of your choice, be sure to play in an online tournament, a 65,000-player field from which colleges and universities are cherry-picking prospects.
“Esports has a lot of the same benefits for students as traditional sports. And eventually, as awareness grows, as we work up the chain, through teachers,” says e-sports expert Chris Heintz, “through administrators, the ‘aha’ moment will happen for more people.” Where was this stuff when I was a high schooler who couldn’t get a date?
