Morning Brief: Gibbering and Learning

In a telephone interview with IGamingNews this morning, Edward J. Ware, the chief executive of 32Red, said the following of the company's nigh two-year Betdirect debacle:

"Very disappointing -- but there's two ways to deal with it, isn't there? You either lick your wounds and become a gibbering wreck the rest of your days, or the next time you do something like that, you do it differently and learn from it."

Visit IGN today for a recap of 32Red's first-half turnaround with commentary from Mr. Ware.

Leisure & Gaming, the online betting and gaming operator, has swung to a first-half profit of 1.3 million euros from a loss of 900,000 euros the previous half.

CryptoLogic Ltd., the Dublin software developer, announced this morning that its minority-owned subsidiary, Mahjong Time, recently signed a licensing agreement whereby it would be given access to 50 percent of China's Internet cafes.

IGN's Take: The deal does not look to have made much if any impact on the markets, and analysts tell us that, dead-horse beating though it may be, poker liquidity should be addressed imminently via acquisition or network-sharing agreement.