Oh, Brother -- Chantelle Houghton, the winner of the British version of the hit reality TV show Big Brother, has cost William Hill a fortune, according to Graham Sharpe, a spokesman for the U.K.-based bookmaker. Houghton came in the house as an unknown at 16/1 to win the game, but she emerged victorious and famous Friday with final odds at 1/7. "The show was a very successful betting event, and we estimate that the best part of £2 million was gambled in total," Sharpe said. The company did not disclose how much it lost on the outcome. Unlike the recent fiasco in which William Hill cut off betting on Celebrity Big Brother because of suspected insider betting, the losses are not being attributed to suspicious activity.
Rank Appointment -- London-based Rank Group Plc, which owns Hard Rock cafes and Grosvenor Casinos, has hired the former head of Thistle Hotels Plc, Ian Burke, to succeed Mike Smith as chief executive officer, effective March 6. Burke, 49, is the CEO of Holmes Place Health & Fitness Ltd. and was previously managing director of Gala.
Sports IM -- Sport-IM.com is taking a different approach to connecting people with gambling Web sites. The sports and poker marketing service provides a free instant messaging platform that enables customers to import buddy lists from other messaging platforms like AOL, ICQ, MSN and Yahoo. Using the platform, customers can communicate directly with each other and have access to real-time news, odds, stats and other information on professional sports. "Sport IM will provide its users with a powerful tool to obtain all the sports betting information they need with the click of a mouse," said Chris Gafoor of The Cyber Success Group Inc., the company responsible for marketing the site. "We're very excited about the massive market appeal and the value it will bring to sports fans and recreational gamblers everywhere."