IGC Board -- The Interactive Gaming Council, an international trade association now in its eighth year of existence, has elected a new team of officers and directors. Longtime board member Mark Stone, a lawyer and chief financial officer of Creative Edge Enterprises, will take over the chair position previously held by co-founder and original chair Sue Schneider. Two new directors--Flaviano Fogli, general manager of Azur Media and CEO of Gambling Federation, and Alfred (Freddie) Ballester, managing director of iGlobalMedia subsidiary Bay Management Ltd.--will fill the vacancies left by Bryan Abboud, founder and managing director of Interactive Gaming & Wagering, and Alistair Assheton, managing director of VIP Management Services. Directors of the board who were re-elected to serve another two-year term include Robert Vermuelen, John Chalmers, Murray Marshall, Martin Thorvaldsson and Roger Raatgever. Continuing in their terms as board members are Micki Oster, Nancy Chan-Palmateer, Howard Yegendorf, John Anderson and Michael Lipton. The board elected Chalmers as vice-chair and Paul Sudolski as secretary, while Joanne Assheton was re-elected treasurer.
In-Sourced Call Center -- Bet Direct, the telephone and online betting arm of Littlewoods Gaming, has ended its outsourcing contract to bring its entire U.K. call center operations in house. The company has selected CCT (Call Centre Technology) to design and implement an Avaya-based call center solution to accommodate over 100 service agents. The solution integrates Q-Max's workforce management software, which should enable Bet Direct to optimize the use of call center agent resources and ensure a consistent high level of customer service.
Affiliate Service -- New affiliate service Casinofeed.info enables affiliate sites to display the most recent bonus offers and promotions the moment they are published. Casino groups that enroll in the service gain access to an administration area that enables them to publish and manage their latest deals. Affiliates can sign up to receive the information for free. The service is already being used by 32Red Casino, ReferBack and Vegas Partner Lounge. A full launch is planned for January.
Interactive TV? -- On Sunday, American cable game show network GSN will introduce an interactive programming segment called "You Win Live," which will let viewers log on to GSN.com to compete from home while watching episodes of "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?," "Win Ben Stein's Money" and "Weakest Link." In addition to the questions featured in the programs, viewers will also answer questions presented in live studio segments. Both cash and non-cash prizes worth over $30,000 will be awarded.