The 2022-23 Premier League Boxing Day action kicks off with the Brentford vs Tottenham game. The Spurs are seen as odds-on favorites, but their odds have started moving against them. The (probable) reason is that several of their key men stayed in Qatar until last Sunday, which is not the case for Brentford’s players.

The Bees have been preparing for this game for weeks, so we can only expect a good performance from them on Monday. But will it be good enough to win point(s)? Let’s find out!

Brentford vs Tottenham Odds

When, Where, and How to Watch?

• Place: Brentford Community Stadium in London
• Date: Monday, December 26, 2022
• Time: 7:30 AM ET
• How to Watch: NBC

The Bees have Had Weeks to Prepare for This Game

Although a couple of Brentford players did go to Qatar to take part in the 2022 World Cup, their key men stayed in England. This includes the Bees’ scoring leader Ivan Toney, their goalie David Raya, and many others.

Further, even those who did travel to Qatar did not spend too much time there. In fact, all of Brentford’s World Cup players returned after the end of the group stage. What this means is that they’ve had plenty of time to rest and prepare for the duel with the Spurs.

The Spurs to Miss a Couple of World Cup Finalists

Sunday, December 18 was the day when the 2022 World Cup Final took place, which saw Argentina beat France on penalties after 120+ minutes of play. The players who took part in that game will probably skip the Boxing Day action – the French players are probably way too tired, while the Argentines are both tired and hungover after celebrating their first World Cup title in 36 years.

This is bad news for Tottenham, because two of their players played in that game – goalkeeper Hugo Lloris (France) and central defender Christian Romero (Argentina). Further, Ivan Perisic played for Croatia in the match for the 3^rd spot one day before the final.

Not having these three on the roster sure is a major blow for Antonio Conte’s team. However, bad news do not end there – the Spurs also have a couple of injured player who will miss Monday’s game, most notably full-back Ryan Sessegnon.

Brentford vs Tottenham Prediction

Brentford is a team that just loves playing big games. This season, we already saw the Bees beat Manchester City and Manchester United, can they do the same against Tottenham? We think they might! And if they do it, it’s going to be their first-ever win over this rival.

Picks: Brentford to win; over 2.5 goals

MGM Springfield is the second casino in the Bay State to have cleared the bar for a sports betting license from the Massachusetts Gaming Commission, which did not come without its challenges. For one, MGM Springfield missed a deadline which forced the commission to postpone a vote.

MGM Springfield’s License: Long Time in the Making

Regardless, the Monday hearing was a success with the commission seeing no objection to MGM Springfield’s bid to become the next licensed operator to offer sports gambling products. The original meeting that was due on December 7 had to be deferred until yesterday, as MGM Springfield did not provide sufficient answers to questions about BetMGM, the brand that will help provide many of the in-person betting services as well.

Essentially, the commission needed further insight into the technology and compliance with rules across the United States that BetMGM demonstrated. Among the questions that MGM Springfield had to answer were some hardballs, such as a question by Nakisha Skinner, a commissioner, who tasked the property with explaining how it would remain in control of its sports betting operations when BetMGM would be carrying out much of the actual day-to-day betting operations. She said:

“I think all of the issues that we’d be concerned about in connection with their category three application, they’re present and very much an issue in their role as a vendor for MGM Springfield.“

However, attorney Jed Nosal for MGM Springfield argued that BetMGM is just a service provider whether MGM Springfield will be in charge of the sports betting operations at the casino. Essentially, there is not much difference between the relationship the company would have with BetMGM and the way it runs its slot machines.

Some matters were addressed behind closed doors, including the way that patron data-sharing policies between BetMGM and MGM Springfield would work. Another hot-button topic was the lawsuit brought by former employee Chelan Brown against MGM Springfield which accuses the casino of providing inadequate diversity numbers.

Lawsuit Against MGM Springfield Lacks Substantial Evidence

Nosal assured that the property was prepared to prove that the complaints and claims against the casino were falsehoods and denied the allegations. There is a lack of any evidence, let alone “substantial evidence,” Nosal concluded tersely. Despite these challenges, MGM Springfield managed to complete a $4-million lounge that is fully equipped to accommodate sports bettors and features amenities such as a 45-foot screen, a bar, wagering counters, betting kiosks and so much more.

For all the perceived difficulties and challenges, BetMGM has shown unfaltering conviction in the success of its sports betting bid with the Massachusetts Gaming Commission.

Andréa Carter has more than two decades of experience in human resources as a part of different global companies. She currently holds the position of senior executive vice president and chief human resources officer for Global Payments and now became a part of CDI’s Board of Directors.

HR Expert Andréa Carter Joins CDI’s Board of Directors

Carter’s addition to the Board at CDI increases the number of directors to nine. She joins the Board as a Class II director and according to the company, her term is set to expire in 2025 with other Class II directors at the Annual Meeting of the Shareholders of the company.

Sharing her excitement, Carter said that providing support to companies and helping them grow was always the main goal within her professional career. She explained that she will leverage her passion and significant industry experience to help deliver continued success for Churchill Downs.

“I look forward to applying my experience and my passion toward the continued success of an iconic brand like the Kentucky Derby and the ongoing growth of this great company.“

Andréa Carter, member of the Board of Directors at Churchill Downs Incorporated

The Company Is Delighted to Welcome Carter to Its Team

Alex Rankin, CDI’s chairman of the Board of Directors, added that having an industry expert like Carter join the Board is an honor. He explained that she has extensive experience after helping global companies achieve success. Finally, Rankin predicted that Carter’s strategic guidance will benefit CDI in the long run.

“It is a distinct honor to welcome Andréa Carter as the newest member to the Board.“

Alex Rankin, chairman of the Board of Directors at CDI

Before becoming a part of Global Payments, Carter held the position of HR officer at Habitat for Humanity. Her professional background includes different HR-related senior-level roles with Newell Rubbermaid, Ralph Lauren, as well as Home Depot. Throughout her career, Carter has won multiple awards and distinctions such as Atlanta Magazine’s “Women Making a Mark,” Atlanta Business Chronicle, “Women who Mean Business,” and Savoy Magazine’s “Power 300 Most Influential Black Executives.” What’s more, back in 2021 she received the UNCF Masked (Mankind Assisting Student Kindle Educational Dreams) award. Carter was also recognized among the “Most Influential Women Execs in Corporate America” by Women’s Inc.

The game comes fused with NoLimit City’s “xMechanics” and is one of the most significant titles to appear in the company’s library and prompt GamblingNews to seek input from Shaun Brassington, bet365 head of games software production, who tells us more about the game, its origins, and the company’s ambitious “Originals” series.

Q: Shaun, can you tell us about the success of the “Originals” project over the past couple of years?

Hi, we went live with our first in-house developed games in March 2018. This was a few core titles including Blackjack, Roulette, Baccarat, and a selection of more classic and simple slots in order to introduce our players to ‘Originals’. It was a really exciting and nervy period but we quickly realized the content was well received and we had faith in our ability to go on to create a high-quality, unique, and innovative experience for our players. In the five years since then, we’ve launched over 120 games covering all of the popular game types in order to give bet365 players our own take on each of them. For example, we’ve produced multiple table/card games, slots, instant wins, video pokers, Keno, and many more!

We developed our 8 Immortals jackpot slots series which is a more traditional progressive jackpot system and our Dual Drop Jackpots product. Dual Drop is available in 18 unique slots, which offers both a community jackpot that pays thousands of prizes when it reaches £100,000 and also a weekly jackpot that pays out aspirational sums to one individual every Sunday evening. Both jackpot products have proven to be very popular on-site and we’re looking to develop them further going forwards.

Q: How is “Originals” allowing you to service the bet365 customer base better?

In short, it enables us to be extremely agile, and react to industry trends and our players’ requirements very quickly. We can also experiment with unique features and themes which we may not have readily available from other suppliers which again helps us to learn more about what works and of course what doesn’t with our player base.

Entry into new and emerging markets is also easier as we have end-to-end control of the product so in general wherever you see bet365 gaming you’ll usually see the ‘Originals’ brand too.

Importantly we very much view ‘Originals’ as something which should be complementing the overall gaming experience we offer. That is to offer the best in class suppliers across the industry plus our own unique content which can’t be found anywhere else.

Q: You recently launched your newest in-house title, Mercenary X, featuring a range of mechanics from Nolimit City. How important is this release to you and why?

We were looking for an opportunity to do something different, something which isn’t out there yet and would give us a chance to give our players an experience they’ve not had with us so far. Nolimit City is one of the most innovative and entertaining suppliers around. They’re renowned for developing potent features such as their xWays®, xNudge®, and xSplit® mechanics to produce some of the very best content in the industry right now. We’re delighted to have the chance to bring these proven features into our own games, it’s been a great experience and one which we’ve tried to maximize.

Included in this game is our new multi-feature bonus buy which is available in markets where permitted. This allows the player to buy both Free spins, and Super Free spins features and also to activate ‘Mercenary Bet’ which at a cost of 3.5x stake will guarantee an xWays and/or xNudge landing on each spin as well as significantly increasing the chances of triggering Super Free Spins (by over 10x!). It’s a really fun way of playing the game.

Mercenary X has been live for over two weeks and the feedback is very positive.  We’re close to launching our next game featuring xMechanics. ‘Apocalypse Returns’ is a sequel to a game we released a few years ago called ‘Underground Apocalypse’ and is a Zombie/Survival themed slot that will focus on xWays and infectious xWays as well as having an extremely entertaining feature. This game will also utilize our multi-feature bonus buy so players will already have some familiarity here.  

Q: What does the future of the “Originals” brand hold?

We’re really excited about the future for ‘Originals’, learning from results, and using data to help formulate some of the best exclusive and localized content out there. It’s an extremely fast-moving industry, whether that’s player requirements, technology advancements, industry trends, or regulatory landscape it’s important we don’t take our foot off the pedal.

It’s been a really fantastic journey so far and we’ve learned a lot along the way which we continue to apply to our products going forwards so watch this space!

Fast-growing geolocation technology services provider Xpoint added another partner to its roster of geolocation partnerships after signing an agreement with online sports betting and casino platform operator BET99.

Xpoint Verify to Enhance Customer Safety

As a provider of geolocation and compliance services to the sports betting, iGaming and fantasy sports markets in North America, Xpoint will provide Canadian-based operator BET99 with its Xpoint Verify product to ensure a safe, secure and fraud-free customer engagement for the operator.

Commenting on the agreement, Paul Nyzuk, chief technology officer at BET99, outlined that Xpoint is the perfect choice for a geolocation and geoverification services provider, offering more data points that can be used to detect fraud and “offering more data than other major geoverification services.”

“The partnership also fits with BET99’s mandate to leverage innovative technologies to deliver an online betting experience like no other,” Nyzuk concluded.

Following the partnership, Xpoint Verify is now live with BET99 in Ontario as the product has been embedded within the operator’s sports betting and online casino gaming platforms, allowing Ontario players a higher level of security in their engagement with the operator.

Growing List of North American Partners

Marvin Sanderson, chief executive officer of Xpoint, was delighted “to add the Canadian market-leading sports betting platform” to Xpoint’s “growing list of live partners” and help the operator continue with its rapid progress in expanding their brand’s reach in North America.

“As we expand our North American footprint, we’re building more tools and systems specifically designed to help our partners utilize their location-based data for fraud analysis and micro geofencing services,” Sanderson added.

Providing two geoverification technology products, Xpoint Lite and Xpoint Verify, Xpoint has already partnered with a number of operators in Canada and the US and is one of only two geolocation technology services providers holding a vendor license in New Jersey.

Among the list of its recent partners are fantasy sports platform Underdog Fantasy which inked an Xpoint Lite deal last week, Toronto-based sports, esports and casino operator Rivalry which hired Xpoint as its geolocation and compliance partner in November, iGaming operator PlayStar, and others.

To engage with sports fans in Canada, BET99 announced a partnership deal with former Toronto FC soccer player Sebastian Giovinco ahead of the FIFA 2022 World Cup. The agreement expanded BET99’s roster of popular sports personalities adding to the names of UFC Hall of Famer Georges St-Pierre, Toronto Maple Leafs’ young star Auston Matthews and two-time Olympian Alysha Newman.

Last month, BET99 became the latest member of the International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA), willing to contribute to the organization’s efforts to protect sports integrity to the benefit of both consumers and businesses.