Growing Empire -- Online gaming marketing firm Empire Online has purchased online casino and bingo operator Club Dice and online poker operator Noble Poker (both of which use Playtech software) for a total of £40 million. Club Dice operates Club Dice Casino, MonacoGold Casino, Carnival Casino and YouBingo, which together serve 70,000 registered real-money customers. Noble Poker is the largest operator on Playtech's iPoker network. Empire says the acquisitions will enable it to enhance its product offering and achieve its objective of diversifying its technology providers. The company will gain greater control of its casino product offering through the ownership of a gaming license. It also plans to launch a real-money backgammon site, 65.com, in the near future.
Reverse Takeover -- Interactive Gaming Holdings PLC has purchased London-based fixed-odds bookmaker Premier Bet Ltd. in a reverse takeover deal for a consideration of £1 million in shares and convertible loan notes. The purchase includes the Internet and telephone wagering operations and assets of Premier Bet, including the Web sites and customer databases of Premeirebet.com and PremierbetCasino.com. Premiere Bet launched in May 2002 and has over 36,000 registered users. The company reported gross betting turnover of £24.7 million in 2004. It does not take bets from U.S. citizens.
Using the API -- British betting operator Ubet2win Plc, has signed a licensing deal with Betfair that will enable it to access the Betfair Application Programming Interface (API) to manage its business more efficiently and profitably. The company, which began trading on the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange on Thursday, will be able to take bets on a number of sports under the Ubet2win name. It will also be able to place and hedge its own bets via the Betfair API.
Lottery Discussion -- England's National Lottery Commission has published a discussion paper setting out the areas that need further work to ensure that competition for the lottery license takes place on a level playing field. Topics discussed in the paper include whether a separate competition should be held for gaming technology, whether dividing the bid process into two stages would help reduce costs for bidders and how to ensure the structure of the competition is designed to maximize the money for good causes. The commission has received 20 responses and has met over 150 interested parties since completing the discussion paper in January and will continue to seek responses from interested parties until September.
Quoteworthy -- "What we're trying to do is reflect this huge revolution that has been taking place in gambling in the U.K. sport is the new religion, but there isn't a daily paper that reflects that."
- Jeremy Deeds, former CEO of the Telegraph Group, explaining to the International Herald Tribune why he believes the launch of his new daily gambling newspaper, The Sportsman, will be successful.
Stoichima -- Greek lottery company OPAP will submit a proposal next week asking the Greek government for permission to include betting on Greek football matches in its flagship betting game, "Stoichima," for the 2005-06 season. Only wagering on foreign matches is permitted at the moment. The inclusion of Greek football is one of many new changes being brought about to upgrade Stoichima, and the company will establish a subsidiary to handle and operate the game. Greek Finance Minister Giorgos Alogoskoufis has stated that the Greece will try to maintain OPAP's monopoly on the country's betting market.
Catholics' Party -- The Secular Clergy Common Fund, a charity for ill Roman Catholic priests, is among investors who profited from the float of PartyGaming. HSBC, which manages the charity's investments, purchased 22,403 shares for the fund before selling them all back within five weeks, during which time the company's stock soared from its listing price of 116p to 150p. Michael O'Shea, who runs the charity, stated, "As a Catholic charity, we can't be seen to be involved (with PartyGaming). It's not ethical is it, really? It was only for such a short time. We pulled out very quickly."