Makin' Deals -- Sports Spread, a spread betting firm based in Dublin, said today that it has been awarded a US$20 million contract with Chartwell Technology Inc. to manage the sports betting business of a number of online
casinos. According to the Irish Independent, the casinos are "U.S. online casinos," but IGN could not immediately ascertain the names of them,as the Sports Spread managing director was not available to speak. Profits from the endeavor will be split 70-30, with the fixed-odds division of Sports Spread,
Supreme Odds, receiving 70 percent and Chartwell receiving 30 percent.
Bit from Asia -- The Home Affairs secretary of Hong Kong, Patrick Ho Chi-ping, is saying that public opinion polls will not be the government's only reference point when it decides whether to legalize soccer betting. Ho said he would try to
take the opinions of several different groups before coming to a conclusion, and that polls would not be his only consideration. "We will make reference to overseas experience and listen to views from individual groups, and hope to get to know, in a more in-depth manner, about the cause for their concern," he said, referring to groups that are against legalized soccer betting. During the last four months, the amount of Hong Kong residents who support legalized soccer betting has jumped 11 percent to 66.5 percent.
UK Bit -- The Independent Television Commission is releasing its new advertising standards code next week, and it won't contain a relaxation of rules for gambling advertisements on television. Bookmakers, casinos and other gambling operators are not permitted to advertise on British TV, and the Gambling Review Body had recommended that that rule be changed. However, the ITC has decided against relaxing the rule. The
National Lottery, bingo and football pools are the only betting operators allowed to advertise on television.
Quote Worthy -- "When New York went, I said to myself, 'We're done.'" --Thomas A. Grey, executive director of the National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling, in an Aug. 25 story in The Buffalo News about the increase in state legislatures considering legalizing gambling to fill budget gaps.