Armchair QB Guide -- Costa Rica-based sports book Betmaker.com has completed the fourth edition of its "Armchair Quarterback's Guide," a booklet that contains match-up information, team histories and game schedules for all professional and NCAA football teams. "Betmaker.com prides itself on its superior customer service, and part of that service is showing our customers that we appreciate their business," Betmaker's marketing director, Sean Jameson, explained. "This guide is essentially a 'thank you' to all of our customers for doing business with us." The company is optimistic for the 2004 football season, having recently relocated to new offices, revamped its Web site and hired and trained a new customer support staff.
SportXction Launch -- Interactive Systems Worldwide Inc. (ISWI) has successfully launched the SportXction play-by-play betting system on Victor Chandler's U.K. betting site at www.victorchandler.co.uk. Victor Chandler will initiate an online marketing campaign, direct marketing and promotions. ISWI's subsidiary, Global Interactive Gaming, will operate the system for Victor Chandler UK for betting on football, cricket, golf, tennis and rugby, with more sports (including darts, snooker and racing) to come.
No Authority -- A tribunal established to investigate illegal betting and match-fixing in Italian soccer convened for the first time on Wednesday but was immediately suspended after the Italian Football League's Disciplinary Committee declared that it is unable to punish any players, coaches or clubs who are not in the top two divisions (Serie A and Serie B). Thirty-four individuals and 12 clubs were to stand trial before the tribunal, many of them belonging to lower divisions, such as C1, C2 and amateur leagues. The tribunal will remain adjourned while the Italian Football Federation takes the matter up with the Federal Court of Appeals.
Coming and Going -- Racing giant Magna Entertainment Corp has announced that Bill Davis has retired as a director of the company because of personal and health reasons.
VirtGame Corp, which provides software solutions to the gaming and lottery industries, has appointed Vincent DiVito as an outside director to the company. DiVito is currently vice president, CFO and treasurer of Lonza, Inc, a global specialties chemical business.
Expanding -- Britain's Channel 4, which through a partnership with Sky Bet provides interactive TV wagering for broadcasts of cricket, horseracing, "Big Brother" and more, will launch wagering services on Internet and mobile platforms before Christmas 2004. According to New Media Age, Channel 4 is reluctant to obtain its own bookmaking license because it is a public service broadcaster. It is, therefore, searching for betting partners for the new ventures. The new services will remain linked to Channel 4's broadcast programming.
Quoteworthy -- "Anyone who thinks that good can come from turning millions of Australians into unlicensed bookmakers and encouraging punters to make money from horses losing rather than winning is grossly naïve."
- Andrew Ramsden, chairman of the Australian Racing Board (ARB).
"It's no surprise that they have rehashed their Canute-like position in this manner, but in doing so they have only succeeded in further upsetting plenty of people here who want their country's racing board to demonstrate that it can recognize opportunity, rather than being frightened by change to the long-term detriment of the sport."
--Mark Davies, spokesman for Betfair.
(Executives of Australian Racing met on Monday to develop a unified strategy to prevent betting exchanges from penetrating deeper into the Australian betting market. )
Affiliate Programs -- Gaming site Slotland.com has announced a new affiliate program that removes some of the risk factors for webmasters. While most casino programs pay affiliates based on the net losses for referred players, Slotland's program pays affiliates 25 percent of player deposits for the lifetime of the player. Slotland has also decided not to deduct the value of credit card chargebacks from affiliate earnings.
Income Access, a Canadian company that provides software for affiliate networks, has designed a new program for UltimateBet.com that gives affiliates up to 35 percent in commission on revenue earned from referred players.