Joldis, a good friend of 12-time gold ring winner Valentin Vornicu, took down the $600 Double Stack No-Limit Hold’em for his first piece of WSOP Circuit gold
Cosmin Joldis from Romania has become the latest player to capture a gold ring from the ongoing WSOP Circuit Planet Hollywood series. The player was crowned the victor of Event #5: $600 Double Stack No-Limit Hold’em to claim his first piece of Circuit jewelry and a first-place prize of $19,758.
The event drew an international field of 137 entries who created a prize pool of $70,555. Players battled it out for two days until there was just one last contender left. Day 1 of the event ended with 27 hopefuls still in contention for the gold piece. They had two important tasks ahead for Day 2 – to burst the money bubble and then to determine the champion.
There were payouts for the top 15 finishers, min-cashes were worth $1,191. Action unfolded quite quickly on Day 2 of the tournament and it was not long before the money bubble burst. Players then kept leaving the poker tables at the host venue until there were just four of them left at the time when action stopped for dinner break.
Joldis was the chip leader at the time with 2.3 million and a good advantage over his three remaining opponents. Daniel Perkins had the second largest stack at that point, but he only had 1.2 million worth in chips.
Joldis Eyes Global Casino Championship Seat
The final stage of the tournament was quite a race. It took relatively quickly for the final four to be whittled down to just Joldis. Martin Logue was the Romanian’s final challenge before claiming the title. Logue was eyeing his first gold ring from the series, but eventually finished second to scoop his first WSOP Circuit cash of $12,210.
As for the winner, he came into the Double Stack event fresh off a fourth-place finish in a $400 buy-in event at Planet Hollywood. The player now has 77.5 points from the stop and holds a firm lead in the Casino Championship race. The player who becomes the Planet Hollywood Casino Champion, that is the one who accumulates the most points throughout the stop, will secure a seat into the season-ending $1 million guaranteed Global Casino Championship.
Joldis told WSOP staff that he will be playing the Main Event over the weekend in a bid to cement his top spot.
The Romanian player is a good friend of WSOP Circuit star and record-breaking gold ring winner Valentin Vornicu, who himself hails from Romania. Aside from his participation in WSOP Circuit events, Joldis has also had quite the run in the WSOP. The player cashed for over $225,000 during last year’s edition of the summer poker series. Most notably, he finished 50th in the 2017 WSOP Main Event, collecting $145,733 for his deep run.
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GVC adds Neds International to Australian business amid consolidation wave in the local sports betting field
Gambling giant GVC Holdings has snapped up Australian online sports betting operator Neds International in a bid to further extend its footprint across the lucrative Australian gambling market. GVC would pay up to A$95 million for the newbie bookie which only launched its operations last year but has grown tremendously.
GVC operates in Australia through the Ladbrokes brand. The Isle of Man-headquartered gambling group acquired Ladbrokes Coral and its digital and retail operations across multiple markets in a £4-billion deal this past March.
Neds was founded last year by bookmaker and entrepreneur Dean Shannon. Mr. Shannon was previously the CEO of Ladbrokes’ Australian business, which makes the recent tie-up between his new company and the one he was formerly employed at not an entirely unexpected move.
Despite being in the field for about a year, Neds is on track to handle A$1-billion worth of wagers and generate A$100 million in revenue this year.
GVC said in a statement from today that the combination of Ladbrokes’ Australian operation with Neds would result in cost savings of around A$16 million per year. Jason Scott, the current Ladbrokes Australia CEO, will lead the enlarged business, while Mr. Shannon will stay on as a consultant.
Commenting on the deal, GVC CEO Kenneth Alexander said in a statement that “Australia is a core market for the Group and today’s acquisition further strengthens [their] position.”
Mr. Shannon pointed out that “GVC is a natural fit for the Neds business” and that “[they] share the same entrepreneurial ideals” while delivering “market leading products and service to [their] customers.”
Wave of Consolidation
GVC’s acquisition of Neds has become the latest deal of this kind to be taking place within the Australian bookmaking space. Growing competition and demand for quality betting services as well as regulatory pressure and new gambling taxes have spurred unprecedented consolidation activity in Australia.
Early this year, William Hill announced that it would sell its underperforming Australian business after years of struggles to establish itself Down Under. CrownBet (now BetEasy) was selected as the winning bidder to acquire William Hill Australia after a competitive bidding process. At about the same time, Canadian gambling giant The Stars Group announced that it would buy an 80% stake in CrownBet from its previous owner, Australian casino operator Crown Resorts.
As the Australian sports betting field has grown rapidly over the past several years, a number of states and territories have decided to implement the so-called point of consumption tax, seeking a share of what licensed bookmakers generate for servicing punters based within their borders. New South Wales and Victoria are to become the latest states where said tax will be rolled out. That is set to happen on January 1, 2019. It is believed that the new tax regimes across Australian states and territories have, too, contributed to the wave of consolidation in the sector.
GVC said that with the acquisition of Neds it expects its Australian business to enter top three of the corporate bookmakers servicing the local market. The gambling company also hopes to become the market leader in the region at some point in future.
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DraftKings Sportsbook looks in on the upcoming NFL Week 12 games on Thanksgiving. The NJ sports betting site has a few lines and odds to consider.
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