Sydney Racing -- Tabcorp, which acquired television network Sky Channel as part of its purchase of TAB Ltd, has reached an agreement with ThoroughVision (TVN) that will permit Sky Channel to again broadcast races from Sydney. Racing in Sydney has been blacked out since March when negotiations between Sky Channel and the Australian Jockey Club and the Sydney Turf Club broke down after the expiration of the channel's broadcasting license. Coverage for Sydney races should return to the channel by Saturday. The broadcasting rights agreement is only part of a joint venture between Sky Channel and TVN that will produce a new thoroughbred racing and sports channel for PubTAB and ClubTAB operators that will launch near the end of the year. There will also be another thoroughbred and sports channel that will be available to domestic customers.
At the Races Files Suit -- At the Races, the joint venture between British Sky Broadcasting and Arena Leisure, has issued High Court proceedings against the Racecourse Association and 30 racecourses in the UK in an effort to recover rebates the company believes it is owed after the collapse of their original media rights deal at the end of March. At the Races believes it should recover £51million. At the Races canceled the media rights agreement in March, just one week before the Office of Fair Trading declared the racecourses had aligned in an uncompetitive way in order to have better bargaining power.
Poker Network -- London-based sportsbook Betsson has launched a poker room with Ongame poker software from Poker Network, which offers software in downloadable formats and also in non-download Java versions, thereby allowing Mac, WebTV, and Linux users to also participate in the games. Poker Network plans to feed all of its licensed poker rooms into PokerRoom.com, a Kahnawake-licensed operator under the same management as Poker Network. Poker Room.com boasts that it has the fifth largest online poker room.
ABB admits Tote -- Two major online bookmakers, Australia-based International All Sports (IAS) and UK-based Canbet have announced a merger deal. As part of the deal, Canbet will become a subsidiary operating under the IAS banner. IAS will provide Canbet with a $1 million line of credit to assist with its immediate working operations. IAS will also purchase 51 million shares of Canbet at $2.04 per share, constituting a $1.04 million deal. IAS will take over the management and operation of Canbet next Monday, and the merger should take about two months to complete.