GameAccount, Gala Partner Up -- Skill games provider GameAccount has agreed to supply Gala Coral with its head-to-head online games suite, which includes gin rummy, blackjack and backgammon. "Head-to-head games broaden the demographic appeal of our online destination sites," said Gala e-commerce product development head Joe Coughlin.
Strong Year for IG Group -- IG Group, the financial and sports spread-betting group, released full-year results this morning, which show significant growth in group revenue (up 36 percent to £122 million) and sports revenue (up 35 percent to £12.2 million). IG said its fixed-odds sports-betting business and its Extrabet operations had both benefited from an increased "ability to deal with clients who want to bet in large size."
Betfair to Sponsor England's RFU -- Betfair has inked a two-year sponsorship deal with England's Rugby Football Union (RFU), whereby Betfair will become the RFU's official betting partner.
Three More for Barney -- The Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act, introduced by Massachusetts Democrat Barney Frank, picked up three additional sponsors late last week. Reps. Steven R. Rothman, D-N.J., Michael M. Honda, D-Calif., and Albert Russell Wynn, D-Md., bring the current number of co-sponsors to 32.
ATG to Sue Unibet -- Swedish horse-betting monopolist ATG will reportedly sue Unibet for alleged theft of the company's horse-racing database. Swedish media reports say that ATG will argue that Unibet's online betting service would suffer without the help of ATG's proprietary database, which Unibet has allegedly "misused" since 2000. As part of the suit, ATG will seek £17.6 million ($35.2 million) in compensation.
Dare to Be True -- The Times carries a report on the allegedly dodgy way flotation prospectuses are composed in the United States. Sir Callum McCarthy, chairman of the U.K. Financial Services Authority, told the paper the British standards were much higher. "Our prospectuses are shorter and they've got less boilerplate," he said. (Boilerplate, the paper explains, is the legal term for pages of standard legalese included in float documents to protect the company and its advisers.) Callum singled out PartyGaming as one London-listed company that made clear to its investors the "huge legal vulnerability"--in other words, that it was providing an arguably illegal service to U.S. residents--of its business.
Stock Watch -- On the LSE, 888 was up 2p to 118.50, Sportingbet was down 1.25p to 52 and PartyGaming remained even at 31p.