Fair Gaming Advocate -- Tex Rees has been appointed as Fair Gaming Advocate for player protection body e-Commerce and Online Gaming Regulation and Assurance (eCOGRA) by the organization's board of directors. As Fair Gaming Advocate, Rees is responsible for handling all player disputes with casinos that hold the eCOGRA seal of approval. She is experienced in customer relations and management of land-based and online gambling companies.
Downtime -- Betting exchange Sporting Options was struck by a DDoS attack that rendered it inoperable for 40 hours the weekend of the Grand National. Customers were unable to access the site from about 8 p.m. Friday night when the attack began until about noon on Sunday. Sporting Options estimates it lost between £10,000 and £15,000 during the downtime. Before the attack began, extortionists demanded that £26,500 euros to be delivered to them via Western Union, but Sporting Options refused payment. Britain's National Hi-Tech Crime Unit is now investigating the matter.
Trading Status -- The British Horseracing Board submitted a letter to Parliament's Joint Scrutiny Committee on the draft gambling bill to complain about actions taken by betting exchange Betfair, who last week placed full-page advertisements in national papers and sent letters to every member of Parliament in attempts to defend its case. The BHB says Betfair "gave the wrong and damaging impression to millions of readers, that horseracing was corrupt" It continued, "To compare laying on a betting exchange with the technical possibility which existed in theory before the advent of betting exchanges is disingenuous and reveals Betfair's true intent: to maintain their current business model, untouched in any way, no matter the cost to horseracing's reputation." The Joint Scrutiny Committee must deliver its recommendations to Parliament in a written report later this week.
Sponsorship -- Ladbrokespoker.com will initiate a six-figure online marketing campaign in July to promote the Sky Sports' Poker Million championship, which the company is sponsoring. Ladbrokes says it wants to "own the online poker space" while the tournament takes place. Ladbrokespoker.com is responsible for attracting 36 new players to the Poker Million tournament, for which first prize is $300,000.
Cross-Border Gambling -- Within the next few days the jockey clubs in Macau and Hong Kong plan to sign a pact that would permit bettors in Macau to wager on horse racing Hong Kong. Both clubs will need to obtain approval from their governments before such as agreement may take effect.
Poker Division Spins Off -- AngelCiti Entertainment's board of directors has given its online poker operations permission to spin-off from subsidiary Worldwide Management to form a separate publicly traded company. The goal is to allow the poker division to more fully exploit the quickly growing online poker market.
Quoteworthy -- "A major issue with the racing industry has always been its integrity and the probity of the industry. That's the thing that brings the industry undone. What we've seen over in Great Britain, which is the home of the racing industry, we're seeing a great cloud go over that industry as a result of internet betting and betting exchanges."
-- Grant McBride, Gaming and Racing Minister for New South Wales. McBride is pushing for a ban on Internet betting, claiming that it costs the racing industry A$10 million per year. He also advised the Federal Government to finalize a year-long inquiry into betting exchanges.
Gambling Watchdog -- Victoria's government rejected proposals to give independent powers to a new gambling watchdog--the Advocate for Responsible Gambling. A panel of social bureaucrats advised that it was not necessary for the advocate to be independent and warned that it could turn into an uncontrollable critic.
No Warrant -- TVG Network has decided not to exercise a warrant that would have allowed it to obtain 51 percent ownership and control of Youbet.com by purchasing $36.5 million worth of Youbet.com stock at $1.69 per share. TVG will instead receive 1 million shares of Youbet common stock, bringing its total ownership up to 5 million shares. In September a subsidiary of TVG Network, ODS Tecnologies, filed for injunctive relief to stop Youbet from holding a shareholders meeting that would attempt to alter the company's charter and by-laws, thereby denying TVG the opportunity to obtain a majority control in Youbet by exercising the warrant. In February Youbet agreed to withdraw its proxy proposals, and TVG agreed to drop all pending litigation. Youbet, the largest provider of horse race betting and content in the United States, will continue to carry TVG's horse racing signals.