New Stuff -- Sky New Zealand last week launched its interactive television betting service, which enables customers to bet on horse racing, rugby and soccer events through TAB. Jim Leach, the TAB transition general manager, said the service was in development for the last two years by Holotype New Media and was online for the last two weeks as part of a trial. During the trial, the betting service generated NZ$40,000 in revenues.
Making Deals -- The Mercury News reported today that Yahoo has added betting to its horse-racing page through a deal with Penn National Gaming's eBET USA. The story also states that ads for the online betting service have run on Yahoo email service pages. A spokesman for Yahoo told the Mercury News that the ads on the e-mail pages "were placed before they completed our ad review process, and for that reason we are taking them down. We will evaluate the ads for their appropriateness." Penn National Gaming did not comment in the story.
Names and Faces -- The South China Morning Post said today that one of Stanley Ho 's longtime friends and business partners was found shot at the Lisboa Hotel in Macau on Friday. A spokesman for Ho's casino properties said that Ho is furious about the murder of Chan Sai-yin, a Thai-Chinese businessman and that the matter is under investigation by Macau police.