New Stuff -- A live, in-game betting service on cricket matches was introduced today by ukbetting.com and totalbet.com. The services will allow punters to wager on a range of incidents throughout individual games, including whether a run will be scored off a particular ball or whether a wicket will fall in a particular over. Eric Semel, the CEO of ukbetting plc, said the product is unique in the betting world. "I see cricket as the perfect sport for the in-run betting product," he said. "Although playing our service while watching the match on TV is the best way to enjoy the service, players could simply follow the event on live scoreboards on sportinglife.com and play along, fully informed about the match situation." ukbetting owns totalbet.com as well as sportinglife.com. ... Be the Dealer recently announced the launch of its private label casino software licensing program. The platform, available at www.privatelabelcasino.com, allows both casino operators and Webmasters to offer a branded casino as either a stand-alone entity or as part of an existing online gaming site.
Making Deals -- Rimpac Resources Ltd. has signed a one-year marketing agreement with Hi-Tek Multimedia, which will be promoting Rimpac's lottery portal, www.InternetLOTO.com.
Oscar Odds -- Oscar nominations were announced yesterday, and it didn't take bookmakers long to compute odds on who will win. Ladbrokes is already declaring "Chicago" its favorite in the Best Picture category and has placed the odds at 4/7 that the musical will take the award. The U.K.-based bookmaker is putting odds of 1/1 that Nicole Kidman will win a statuette for Best Actress. BetWWTS.com agrees, apparently -- it is also laying 1/1 odds that Kidman will win. The Antiguan site has slightly less faith in "Chicago," however, given its assignment of 1/2 odds that the film will take Best Picture. The Oscars are awarded on March 23.