Yesterday’s post on Microgaming’s Diamond Edition was incorrect.

It is correct that Microgaming have released a updated live dealer software version, however the games that I played at Royal Vegas, (and the screenshots included in the post) were not the new Diamond Edition. Thanks to the Microgaming Live Games team member who was kind enough to politely inform me of the mistake and point me in the right direction to give the new games a whirl.

Must admit, yesterday I did wonder what the fuss was about. Having now played the actual Diamond Edition games, I do see that the fuss is entirely justified. Below are the correct screen grabs.

Lobby...

Live baccarat…

Live blackjack...

Live roulette…

Two things were readily apparent playing these games.

The first was a marked increase in video quality.  Interestingly, the video displays in quite low resolution initially on game load and then after a 10 or 15 seconds it snaps to HD. I’m guessing here, but suspect this could have something to do with the software’s automated video quality system that sets the quality depending on your connection speed; so it must first detect your bandwidth before setting to the optimal stream quality. Whatever’s going on under the hood…the result is something that you’re going to like because you almost feel as though you can reach out an touch the dealers (in a non-sexual way of course).

The second thing that hits you, and this is most notable playing live roulette, is the other players’ chips being placed on the large virtual table in real time.

The good news is that Microgaming have definitely taken another large step closer to replicating the traditional table gaming experience.

The bad news is that I’ve got more work to do updating all the M’gaming game details across the site!

NOTE! The below screen-shots are incorrect.  Here is the corrected post on Microgaming’s Live Dealer Diamond Edition.

According to the folk at Microgaming, players love their multi-player games, especially those that allow them to see bets placed by other players.  Apparently there’s been ‘a surge’ in the number of players wanting to play these types of games so with this in mind they’ve tweaked their live games software to include this functionality.

They’re calling this upgrade to their live dealer games the ‘Diamond Edition’ and it allows you to see others’ bets being placed on the table in real time. Pretty standard for live blackjack and live baccarat (most platforms show other seated players’ wagered chips on the table) but where you really notice this new feature is playing live roulette.

The below screen grabs are from a session of the new Diamond Edition live roulette played at Royal Vegas’ live casino where it is now available.

Both game views show you seated player chip stacks and table action up to the point where bets close.

Not a first – the ‘for television’ games like Smart Live been doing this for a while now, but it is a nice feature that certainly adds, rather than detracts from the game.

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Related pages at livedealer.org: Live Roulette | Microgaming live roulette

May the year of the Water Dragon be a prosperous one.  Particularly when it comes to playing live games!

Speaking of prosperous, you would have thought the beginning of the Chinese new year would have brought with it a bunch of generous live casino promotions to mark the occasion.  Not so unfortunately.  But we did manage to find a couple.

At Paddy Power, you can catch the (dragon) tail end of their £/€15,000 Chinese New Year Race to Win.

It’s a straight wager race with 1 point for every £/€1 staked on live blackjack, 2 points for every £/€1 bet on their live roulette tables. It runs until 23:59 (GMT) on Tuesday the 24^th. Prizes are as follows:

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At Bodog88, they’re getting into the spirit of things by offering 6 special dragon prizes.   Now we’re talking!

This promotion runs from January 19^th to February  12^th, is open to players living in China, Malaysia and Thailand only and includes 6 different competition categories and prizes:

This is definitely one to keep on the radar if you like your live blackjack, especially if you live in Europe.

Unibet are running an 18 person blackjack tournament that will take place over the weekend of 17^th to 19^th February in Prague. The winner walks away with €8000, 2^nd place gets €5000, 3^rd €4000, 4^th €3000, 5^th €2000 and 6^th gets €1000.

It’s an invitational and getting there is part of the prize.  You book your seat by placing in the top 6 in any one of a series of tournaments being run on Unibet’s live blackjack tables, and round one is on right now!  As well as a seat at the tournament final table you get:

• 2 nights accom. at the Hilton Prague
• Spending money towards travel expenses – €300
• 2 breakfasts, 2 dinners + party on Saturday 18^th of February

Here’s how the qualifying tournaments work.

Once you’ve opted in, you earn points equal to your best single day net win playing Unibet’s live blackjack. Win €10 on a given day (00.01.-23.59 CET) and you’ve got 10 points and you’re on the leader board.  If you win €75 the next day, your point score becomes 75 (not 85 as points don’t accumulate).  And yes, a net loss on a given day doesn’t help your cause at all, but neither does it reduce your current point tally.

The current qualifier (6 places up for grabs)  is running until the end of this Sunday 22^nd.

They’ll be running 2 more of these qualifiers (after this one) before the final table tourney in Prague on Feb 17^th , so like I said above, keep an eye on what’s going on at Unibet over the nest couple of weeks.

To visit Unibet, click here.

Industry researchers Gambling Compliance recently published the results of a study conducted to identify which company offers the most prolific in-play betting product.

In-play bets are those offered on events within events allowing punters to place multiple bets during the course of a given game…next goal in football, outcome of next ball in cricket etc.   It’s a high frequency bet option that is the biggest current driver of betting turnover growth because the punters love it.  It’s also criticized by the anti-gambling fraternity as one of the more addictive forms of gambling which is an understandable concern but perhaps an issue for another post.

Back to the study.

The number of in-play bets offered by each Europe’s biggest sports betting operators over a 14 day period was assessed.  Leading the charge are a couple 0f our favourite live casino operators…bet365 and William Hill.   Seems real dealers isn’t their only focus

Bet365 had the largest coverage of events in which in-play bets were offered – 20 sports and 534 events, ahead of Sportingbet (358 events), Bwin (317 events), Ladbrokes (313 events) and William Hill (297 events).  But in terms of bets per event, William Hill came up trumps with an average of 53, compared with 30 for Ladbrokes, 25 for Sportingbet, 24 for bet365 and 23 for Bwin.

Victor Chandler gave us the heads-up on their name-change to BETVICTOR late last year.

They haven’t wasted any time with transformation – their new look, newly branded website has already gone live! We received Betvictor’s notification of the new site on Friday.

“The change of name is also supported by our fantastic new look website. The site has been designed to deliver a cleaner and more engaging betting experience for your players and it places ease of navigation and enhanced functionality at the heart of its development.”

It’s largely a cosmetic change. Under the hood they offer the same betting products that were available before the re-brand. This is certainly the case for their live casino page, which still lets players choose between the Evolution Gaming powered “VC Grand” and Chartwell/HoGaming powered “Victor’s Palace”.

You can check out our review of the Betvictor live casino here.

Superyachts.com’s recently updated ‘Top 100 super yachts’ list has caught the attention of a number of news services – understandably so as it makes for interesting reading. Not only for the fact that the yachts themselves are mind blowing in scale and extravagance, but also because it reveals some of the high profile names who own them.

The list looks at the largest (longest) privately owned super yachts currently sailing about the place and coming in on top of the list is a reasonably recent entry that still has the nautical world abuzz – Eclipse.

Owned by Russian oil magnate and Chelsea FC owner Roman Abromovich, Eclipse is 164 meters long (a Boeing 747 is 70m long) has 9 decks, 2 helipads, a swimming pool that converts to a dance floor (??), a missile defense system, 6 tenders (they’re the boats you use to get your guests on board) and a submarine escape pod.  It cost anywhere between $600 million and $1.2 billion to build depending on whose figures you believe. Abromovich, his accountant and maybe constructors Blohm & Voss are the only ones who would have any real idea.

Longest and most expensive privately owned yacht on the water - Eclipse 164m

There’s also rumours of a special anti-paparazzi system that continually scans the surrounding area and disables uninvited cameras with lazer beams. Actually there are plenty of rumours about this boat…as indeed there are about most on the list because typically their cost, features and ownership are shrouded in mystery.

The one thing never kept a secret is the all important length and 164m is significant because the previous number one, Sheik Mohammed Rashid al-Maktoum’s Dubai is 162m long.

Roman didn’t actually need a big boat.  Truth is he had another four that were already on the top 100 list…Pelorus (115m 18^th), Luna (115m 18^th), Le Grand Bleu (112.8m 20^th) and Ecstasea (86m 49^th).  What he wanted was the biggest boat.

Rounding out the top 10 at 133m is Al Mirqab, owned by the Emir of Qatar

This is the world’s ultimate ‘my penis is bigger than yours’ comp and it’s contested pretty fiercely. When Larry Ellison (Oracle) had Rising Sun (138.4m 8^th) commissioned, word is he specifically wanted a yacht that was bigger than Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s  Octopus (126.2m 11^th).

A full time crew of 60 manage Paul Allen's 126.2m Octopus

It’s no surprise to find Saudi Arabian Princes and Sheikhs very well represented as owners. The King Abdullah owned Prince Abdulaziz (147m 4^th) has been near the top of the list for almost 30 years now.   Yas (141m 6^th) jumped straight into the top ten when it launched in November 2011. It was commissioned by an unnamed member of the Saudi royal family.

Then there’s Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz with Al Salamah (139m 7^th), Prince Khaled bin Sultan with Golden Odyssey (80.15m 66^th), former oil minister Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani with Al Diriyah  (78.65m 72^nd), Prince Salaman with Tueq (78.47m 76^th) and Prince Mohammed bin Fahd with Montkaj (78.03m 82^nd). Adnan Khashoggi also gets a mention as the original owner of Kingdom 5KR (86m 49^th) which starred in the Bond film ‘Never Say Never Again’ as villain Maximillian Largo’s yacht the Flying Saucer.

Commissioned by a member of the Saudi royal family - the incredible looking Yas

Members of royal families of Qatar and Oman also seem to have plenty of big yachts.  In fact, 7 of the 10 largest super yachts (see below) and 30% of the top 100 (according to Charter World) belong to Middle Eastern owners. Must be good money in oil?

The top 10:

1. Eclipse, 164m, Roman Abramovich
2. Dubai, 162m, Sheik Mohammed Rashid al-Maktoum
3. Al Said, 155m, Sultan Qaboos of Oman
4. Prince Abdulaziz, 147m , King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia
5. El Horriya, 145.72m, Egyption Presidential
6. Yas , 141m, Unknown member of Saudi royal family
7. Al Salamah, 139m,  Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia.
8. Rising Sun, 138.40m David Geffen & Larry Ellison
9. Serene, 133.9, Yuri Scheffler
10. Al Mirqab, 133, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabor Al-Thani (Emir of Qatar)

Greece is also extremely well represented (for a smallish country that’s going broke that is), with the Latsis family’s Alexander (122m 13^th), Stavros Niarchos’ Atlantis II (115.82m 16^th) which is available for charter if you’re interested, Andreas Liveras’ Moonlight II (85.3m 55^th) and Theodoros Aggelopoulos’ Alfa Nero (82m 60^th).

Mayan Queen IV (92m 34th) owned by Mexican mining magnate Alberto Baillères

Mr Abromovich isn’t the only Russian on the list with a few fellow oligarchs keeping him company.

Andrey Melnichenko owns the amazing looking A (119m 14^th),  Eugene Shvidler now has Le Grand Bleu (112.8m 20^th) after Abromivich gave it to him in 2006, Alisher Usmanov owns Dilmar  (110m 21^st), precious metals magnate Mikhail Prokhorov owns the aptly named and arguably sexiest looking Palladium (96m 40^th), Suleiman Kerimov comes in at number 38 with Ice (90.1m 38^th) and oil baron Mikhail Khodorkovsky has Lauren L (90m 40^th).

Palladium - 96m of pure porn on the high seas

One last interesting fact to finish on.  17 of the world’s top 25 super yachts were built in Germany.

And you thought they only did cars.

If you have any interest in Washington political process as it relates to the issue of Internet gambling then the below video is worth a look.

Jack Abromoff (Casino Jack) comments on the Department of Justice’s softened stance toward online gambling and the likelihood of legislation legalizing the industry passing any time soon.  This guy’s got as good a handle on the political process in Washington as anyone…a super lobbyist credited by many as being the driving force behind the defeat of a couple of anti-online gambling bills before UIGEA was eventually passed in 2006 (his lobbying days were over by then).

Couple of interesting remarks:

On the DOJ about face…

“It’s actually quite amazing. For those of us that worked on internet gambling…it’s quite astonishing frankly. I’m not certain who expected it but it was certainly a surprise to me.”

On the likelihood of getting pro-Internet gambling legislation over the line…

“It’s going to be very difficult.  Whenever one is on offence lets call it, trying to get something affirnatively passed it’s always more difficult than people on defence and there are people who will oppose this…they’re active in lobbying and spending money.  Moving legislation in the house is going to be extremely difficult and expensive.”

bet365 began its life as a single portable (trailer for you US folk) situated in a car park, occupied by a handful of techies in the year 2000.

According to their latest  annual report they now employ over 1,700 staff, having put on almost 400 in the 12 months to March 2011!  I wonder how many portables they have now?

According to founder Denise Coates, “we continue to invest heavily in the business to keep growing. If we are successful in doing this, we will continue to recruit.” 

Since inception the company has invested heavily on developing technology and development capabilities in-house rather than licensing from third parties and Coates says this strategy has been crucial to her business’ success and continued growth.

And growing it certainly is. The other glaring number coming out of the report was £8.54 billion - the value of total customer wagers which was up  58% on the previous year’s £5.4 billion. Quite a staggering increase given the current economic climate. Customer registrations grew by 34% to just under 6 million.

Based in Stoke-on-Trent (in proper offices not a stack of portables) bet365 is one of the areas largest private sector employers and one of the UK’s largest private companies.

In wake of the US Department of Justice’s newly softened stance on online gambling, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has told the press that his state should become an “epicenter” for the industry.

His exact words, as reported by the Reuters news agency were, “I think we should be an epicenter for that business, but I want to do it right — I do not want to rush and get legislation that either doesn’t pass state constitutional muster, or creates other problems for us.”

Christie’s take on the New Jersey’s net-gambling future is significant because he’s the guy whose signature is required in order for any new i-gaming legislation to become law.  Last year he vetoed a bill that would have allowed Atlantic City casinos to offer online casino games including blackjack, roulette and baccarat and concerns over DOJ opposition was no doubt a factor in this decision (not to mention lobby pressure from Caesars Entertainment who didn’t want the bill to interfere with their push for federal legalization).

While the DOJ’s about-face appears to have removed a major obstacle in Christie’s eyes, he’s still not in a rush to get his online gambling epicenter established straight away.

The state legislature was expected to vote on the net gambling bill re-introduced by Senator Raymond Lesniak this coming Monday, but Lesniak was asked by Christie to delay the vote until the first weeks of the following legislative session to allow any potential constitutional concerns to be addressed.

Lesniak told the press Wednesday that he was, “convinced that we can move forward & get it up & rolling without amending the constitution.”  He plans on having a bill on Christie’s desk for signature in the first few weeks of the new legislative session.

The bill in question is essentially the same as the last year’s failed bill, the main provisions being :

• licenses issued & policed by the Casino Control Commission;
• games served out of  Atlantic City casinos;
• games offered to  New Jersey residents over 21 only;
• card games restricted to those available in Atlantic City land casinos; and
• sports betting not included.