For the Little Guys -- ABETA, a U.K.-based provider of betting products and services, has produced a transactional Web site product called NetBetty that gives smaller, independent bookmakers the opportunity to take bets over the Internet. NetBetty provides a Web site that can accept payment deposits through a number of bankcards as well as create risk profiles on the deposits. Bookmakers can also customize NetBetty to accept only the bets they wants to take. For example, a bookmaker can program NetBetty by inputting how much it is prepared to lose on any one event and whether it would like to split that amount up among several customers or allow one single customer to absorb it all. Based on Microsoft Web technology, NetBetty requires minimal IT support and is available for as little as £10,000.
Memorandum of Understanding -- The Rugby Football League is the latest sports organization to sign a memorandum of understanding with betting exchange Betfair. Like similar deals between Betfair and other sports leagues, the MOU states that the RFL can request and receive information that could identify illegal bettors if match fixing or other suspicious activities are believed to have taken place. The RFL's last Super League season was rocked by a match fixing scandal when two players from the St. Helens team admitted to betting against their team on a match in April. Those bets were not placed with Betfair.
Match Fixing? -- World Soccer News.com reports that officials with the German Football Federation are investigating possible match fixing in its second division after discovering suspicious betting patterns. Media reports indicate that betting exchange Betfair received around 500,000 euros worth of bets on Erzgebirge Aue to defeat Rot-Weiss Oberhausen--most of them by a score of 2-0, which was the final score.
Darts and Roulette -- William Hill has launched an exclusive new darts game that was designed in conjunction with online games developer Ashe Luecker. "Quick Bet Darts" combines elements of roulette and darts by allowing players to bet on a number of choices, including the number on which the dart will land, the number of doubles and triples and the total score of three darts combines. The game is available through William Hill's arcade section at williamhillgames.com.
BoS on Land -- BetonSports has finalized an agreement to operate a joint venture casino in Guatemala. The company will operate sports book facilities and a virtual casino at the Hotel Melia under the name Loteriadeportiva. The group is considering other opportunities in the region as well.
Welcome Aboard -- Lonny T. Powell, who is currently president and CEO of the Association of Racing Commissioners International (RCI), will join California-based horse race wagering and content provider Youbet.com Inc. in February to serve as the company's vice president-public affairs and general manager of the central region.
The Sunday Times reports that Camelot CEO Dianne Thompson will likely resign next year to allow a new CEO to prepare the company for competition in the next round of the U.K. National Lottery's licensing competition. Thompson also apparently refused the opportunity to replace Michael Grade as chairman of Camelot after he quit to join the BBC. The Times believes that Phil Smith, Camelot's commercial director, is the obvious successor to Thompson.
Randomness and Fraud -- The Sunday Observer recently revealed the existence of a National Lottery Commission report that was supposed to prove that the U.K. National Lottery's drawings were completely random, but instead found that quite a few anomalies exist in the frequency of which numbers are drawn. Completed in early 2002, "The Randomness of the National Lottery Report" discovered that certain numbers appeared with "unusually high" frequency, and others displayed a "major departure from randomness." In particular, the number 38 ball was drawn so many times that researches wondered whether there was a flaw in its physical composition causing it to be sucked out of the lottery machine so often. At the time of the study, 637 draws had taken place. Across that many draws, each number should be drawn between 70 and 86 times, but the No. 38 ball was drawn 107 times. The Lottery Commission never published the results and stated in an annual report that a Royal Statistical Society "confirmed that results were consistent with the draw being random."
Scotland Yard police arrested nine men this week on suspicion that they had defrauded National Lottery grants of over £1 million. The men allegedly submitted false applications for charity money to the Community Fund, which in June merged with other funds to form the Big Lottery Fund. The Investigators are exploring whether the culprits may have also delivered fraudulent applications to other charities, such as Children in Need and Comic Relief.
eLOT Patent -- eLOT, Inc., a company that provides Internet marketing and e-commerce for state and international lotteries, has received a patent the covers their system for purchasing state and government lottery tickets over the Internet. The patent extends to several different kinds of lottery games that are playable over the Internet, and permits payment on a daily basis or through subscription. eLOT's president, Edwin McGuinn, says he believes that U.S. legislators will eventually exempt state lotteries from any future prohibitory online gambling laws, and his company is therefore focusing on the state lotteries in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, California and Connecticut as possible partners. The company has maintained a fairly low profile since October 2001 when it filed for a plan of reorganization for itself and its subsidiary, eLottery, Inc. under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.