iGaming News Weekly – October 6-12, 2013

iGaming’s never-ending roller coaster ride made for plenty of meaty news nuggets this week. In Nevada and New Jersey operators are, alternately, roaring and stumbling towards regulated online poker. On the SEO front, Google launched an interesting new Panda update.
Here are the igaming headlines you need to know from the week of October 6-12, 2013.
iGaming
Borgata Get 1st Jersey Permit – The Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa was awarded New Jersey’s first-ever online gambling permit. According to reports,  Borgata is still the only operator to have filled out a complete online gaming permit application in the Garden State.
Paddy Power Facebook RMG – Ireland’s largest independent bookmaker will be bringing real money sports betting to Facebook sometime in the near future. The new app is still in development and is said to include a host of social features (if sharing your sports wagering habits with your Facebook friends is something you find appealing).
William Hill Profit Warning – William Hill officials are blaming a July heatwave for a revenue slowdown that’s put company profits about £20 million ($31.8 million USD) shy of expectations. Investors reacted to the news with a William Hill sell off that drove the company’s stock prices down by about 6.3 p.
New Jersey Confirms November Launch Date – New Jersey gaming officials have confirmed November 26 as the official launch date for regulated online casino gaming in the state. As of this writing, it’s not known how many operators will be licensed when the big day arrives.
Nevada Operators Delay Launch – MGM Resorts International, Boyd Gaming and Golden Nugget all asked, and were granted, launch day extensions by the Nevada Gaming Control Commission. All three operators cited testing difficulties as the reason behind the delays.
SEO
Google Launches Penguin 5 -Google announced a new Penguin update, despite saying they were no longer doing so. Penguin 5 impacted about 1% of all English language queries and, so far, doesn’t seem to have caused serious damage.
Online Ad Revenue Soars – Online advertising earned about $20 billion in the first half of 2013. That’s up $3 billion from the previous year. About 15% of that total came from mobile advertising.