IAS Purchase -- Australian bookmaker International All Sports Ltd (IAS) has completed an acquisition of 50 percent of Internet Betting Co Plc (IBC), a Gibraltar-based Internet betting firm. IAS says that by providing expertise in international racing and sports wagering it will be able to provide additional value to IBC, whose results so far have been driven by soccer betting.
Centrebet Attacked -- Australia-based Centrebet, a bookmaker that does 95 percent of its business online, was hit by a distributed denial of service attack Saturday evening. The company received a ransom letter at about 9:30, and within 10 minutes, the site was attacked and brought offline. The company stated that it was prepared for an assault and was surprised it had not been targeted before now. Nevertheless, the company's Web site was brought down for an undisclosed amount of time, and Centrebet estimates that it lost $2 million in turnover as a result.
Betfair Attacked -- British betting exchange Betfair was also struck by a DDoS attack this week. The site was bombarded beginning at 5:35 on Monday, forcing the betting service to shut down. But according to spokesman Tony Calvin, they "had procedures in place for such an attack and were up and running again an hour later." The attack persisted into Tuesday and even amplified a bit. The site was slowed, but remained online. Calvin said Betfair received the standard threatening e-mail from the attackers, but was never sent a financial demand.
AftertheRaces -- Trading on in-running markets for horse racing has fallen by 25 percent on Betfair's exchange network since the closure of attheraces on March 29. Tony Calvin told the Racing Post, "The in-running market accounted for 10 percent of our overall business, and this area has been affected more than pre-race trade, although that's down too. There's a marked difference in trade on in-running markets, you have only to look at the Web site to see that. It's blatantly obvious. Mind you, there are still big six-figure sums being traded, for instance on Serengeti Sky and Soviet Song within the last week. Irish betting exchange Betdaq, however, recently issued a trading bulletin claiming it has experienced only little effect from the attheraces fallout. Said Betdaq's Rob Hartnett, "Our overall turnover figure of £6.4 million on Easter Monday was five times that on the equivalent day last year, which belies the stories of gloom elsewhere. Our registrations, deposits and overall racing turnover have all risen since the start of the month, and while televised racing is a definite plus in the long run, we are not experiencing any falling off in the short term and remain very positive about the sport's long-term health as a betting medium."
Quoteworthy -- "We are hopeful that the United States will work with us hand-in-hand to ensure that our gaming operators have fair access to the huge United States market while at the same time dealing with any concerns the United States may have. In the first instance the United States, as the primary proponent of the [General] Agreement on Trade in Services, as well as being a vocal advocate of the participation of developing countries in the GATS and the WTO dispute-settlement procedure simply cannot be expected to ignore this decision. What kind of message would that be sending to other WTO members? Secondly, the United States has been a significant beneficiary of the WTO dispute-resolution process. It is clearly in the best interest of the United States to keep the WTO dispute-resolution process vigorous and credible. We have no doubts that the United States will stand by its obligations and honor the decision of the WTO."
-- Antigua and Barbuda's new foreign minister, Harold Lovell, expressing the view that the new Antiguan government, headed by Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer completely supports the initiative taken by the previous government, which was headed by Lester Bird.