Grand Wheel

What is Grand Wheel?

Three months later, Judge Denise Cote ordered Papaya to pay Skillz $719 million in damages for poaching players from its skill gaming platform on the belief that Papaya had more players and therefore facilitated considerably faster peer-to-peer pairing times.

Papaya, headquartered in Israel, quickly secured a temporary stay of proceedings from the Tel Aviv District Court and filed a Chapter 15 petition with Delaware’s U.S. Bankruptcy Court. The Chapter 15 petition seeks to prevent Skillz from initiating collection efforts until its appeals play out.

Papaya concedes that it cannot immediately pay the $719 million judgment, arguing that allowing the company to pay the penalty over multiple years would “preserve … the rights of all parties.”

About Grand Wheel

The subject of athlete harassment has become a popular topic at one of the nation’s largest conferences for state gambling legislators. In July, a panel at the National Council of Legislators From Gaming States spent a considerable portion of the session on distilling the root causes of the incidents. The panel featured Mid-American Conference Commissioner Jon Steinbrecher, among other college sports leaders.

On the sidelines of the NCLGS conference, a state representative informed iGB of a spate of menacing threats directed at a football kicker from his state. The kicker, according to the legislator, endured a barrage of threats after missing a field goal in a Football Championship Subdivision game, a lower-tier division in college football.

Days later, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver appeared in Las Vegas for his annual NBA Summer League press conference. Silver took the stage in the wake of a host of betting scandals that have ensnared Pro Basketball Hall of Fame member Chauncey Billups, former Charlotte Hornets guard Terry Rozier and several other ex-NBA players.

About Grand Wheel

Many top gaming stocks have underperformed relative to the broader market in recent years, and most of the M&A activity has been facilitated by private equity and other institutions that can more readily capitalise on depressed valuations. There had been hope that rates would start to fall and help alleviate those pressures.

“Publicly traded valuations are a reflection of the current interest rate environment,” Chad Beynon, lead gaming analyst for Macquarie, told iGB. “Whether it’s a long-term financial model on a growth company, you’re going to discount that back at a higher rate, or if it’s just a standard four-wall business, the cash flows in a higher interest rate environment are worth less.”

According to data from Yahoo Finance, the resort and casino sector is -41% over the last five years, and the overall gambling sector, which includes major sportsbooks and online operators, is +7%; the benchmark S&P 500 index, by comparison, is +71% during that span.