NEWS & NOTES

OpenSports hit a peak of 35,000 bets per minute for a single operator during the recent Melbourne Cup, Australia’s most famous annual thoroughbred horse race. At peak betting times, the maximum bets per minute was 35 percent higher than any in 21 years of taking bets on the race. OpenSports is a unit of SG Digital, which uses the platform for key sporting events across the globe. • MGM continued its sponsorship of the Lion Dance Championship at the Macau International Invitational 2019, held at MGM Cotai November 23-24. The championship was launched by MGM in 2010 as a way to promote this cultural event as an internationally recognized sport. Contestants from 11 regions performed including China, Malaysia, Singapore, Chinese Taipei, Indonesia, Myanmar, Thailand, the U.S., Australia, Hong Kong and Macau. • Cox Communications is expanding its service at Wynn Las Vegas to include the company’s new convention center expansion. Cox will support the two-level, 560,000-square-foot conference center set to open in February. The addition adds 300,000 new rentable square feet across 57 flexible meeting rooms, a 20,000-square-foot outdoor pavilion with a 20,000-square-foot adjacent lawn and four pillarless ballrooms. • William Hill Nevada sports app users who lost service on November 17 were awarded a $25 credit for their inconvenience, according to the company. The outage “prevented some Nevada customers from placing their bets,” the company read. “We fixed the issue and offered a free bet bonus to active mobile customers.” • Nevada transportation officials have announced plans to install a “Welcome to Nevada” monument sign along Interstate 11 at the Arizona border. The DOT says the $396,000 sign will stand about 20 feet high and 8 feet wide. • Macau’s MGS Entertainment Show 2019, held November 14-16, registered “nearly 20,000” total attendees, organizers said. The trade show was organized by the Macau Gaming Equipment Manufacturers’ Association. It occupied 20,000 square meters (215,278 square feet) at the Cotai Expo in the Venetian Macao. • An illegal gambling operation inside a Santa Ana, California smoke shop was uncovered by police during an early morning raid last week. More than 40 people packed the shop at 5 a.m. Video showed quantities of cash and illegal gaming machines. • The New York Gaming Commission has selected Spectrum Gaming Group to conduct a comprehensive study on mobile sports betting. A draft report will be submitted on April 1, the same day the state’s budget for fiscal 2021 is due. A final report is due on June 1. • Las Vegas’ Downtown Grand Hotel & Casino is now a member of Preferred Hotels & Resorts, an independent hospitality brand representing more than 750 hotels, resorts, residences and hotel groups across 85 countries. Membership enables the Grand to take advantage of a variety of services, including strategic group, corporate and leisure sales support, integrated marketing solutions, including a global rewards program, revenue management, global reservations services and individualized guest support. • Sands China plans to open a new interactive experience at the Venetian Macao in February. Developed in partnership with international art collective teamLab and titled “teamLab SuperNature,” the all-digital attraction will feature evolving “body immersive” spaces designed to “blur the boundaries between the human body and art,” the company said. • TD Ameritrade, stung by lost revenue when it eliminated trading fees last month, is assessing the potential to tap into the sports betting business. The fee cut resulted in a 15 percent drop in revenue. The brokerage collaborated with ESPN to provide fantasy football players a way to assess team performances.   • AT&T said it has sold its 42 percent interest in the Game Show Network to Sony Pictures Entertainment for about $500 million, giving the latter full control of the channel, which carries original and classic game shows and online and mobile games.