MOU -- UEFA, the European football league, and betting exchange Betfair have signed a memorandum of understanding similar to agreements Betfair has in place with other sports' governing bodies in that it will allow UEFA to request information that could identify individuals behind any suspicious betting activity. The MOU would have been very useful to the league had it been in effect in early December when the Panionios vs. Dinamo Tbilisi match took place. Betfair, as well as several traditional bookmakers, reported suspicious betting patterns on the match that Dinamo Tbilisi was leading 1-0 at halftime but eventually lost 5-2. Britain's Data Protection Act prevented Betfair from providing specific customer betting data that could have helped the league's investigation, but now that the MOU is in place, the company can share specific information in the future if the league ever has reasonable suspicion that illegal betting has taken place.
Chinese Banks -- China's Banking Regulatory Commission has asked the country's banks and financial institutions to monitor accounts and fund exchanges more closely to crack down on gambling. The commission will soon set up special mechanisms to monitor abnormal transactions and blacklist accounts suspected to have funded gambling activity. Police in Beijing recently discovered 22 accounts at five different banks involved in eight Internet gambling cases.
Online Gambler -- Future Publishing will introduce a free monthly magazine next month called Online Gambler. The company plans to distribute 500,000 copies by packaging them in plastic bags with its other monthly publications: PC Format, PC Gamer,PC Zone and T3. Online Gambler will include site reviews, tips from established online gamblers, directories of gambling Web sites and more.
Offline Venture -- Online gaming software provider AngelCiti Entertainment has entered into a letter of intent to acquire Carib Gaming, the largest land-based casino company on the Turks and Caicos Islands. Carib Gaming owns and operates slot machines in several locations on the islands and recently acquired the islands' second-largest gaming operator. AngelCiti President George Gutierrez said Carib Gaming is profitable and will immediately add considerable revenue to his company's top line. AngelCiti also announced this week that it is doubling its marketing budget and launching a marketing campaign that will run in the United States in the next six months.
Russian Stats -- A new 250-page report by ATE called "Russia: Opportunities in Gaming," estimates that the Russian gaming market will double in size within three years and become the world's fastest growing slots market . The Russian State Sports Committee has awarded 4,200 licenses since July 2002, and the number of slot machines doubled to 35,000 from 2002 to 2003. Russia now has over 800 casinos; 77 of them are located in Moscow.
UBA Marketing -- UBA Technology, a company that has developed a turnkey betting exchange solution, says its market research has found that "a large percentage of potential bettors are overwhelmed at the thought of trying to navigate a large betting exchange site." To address this problem, the company is privately branding betting exchange sites that suit its licensees' requirements. UBA owns numerous URLs--including "UbetTennis.com," "UBetNBA.com," "UBetNFL.com," "UbetGOLF.com," "UBetCRICKET.com," "UBetFORMULA1.com," "UBetREALITYTV.com" and "UBetCURRENCIES"--that can be purchased and branded. The company also offers a white-label online poker solution through one of its affiliates, and both the betting exchange and poker products are supported by a UBA wireless solution.
Quoteworthy -- "We are calling on the German government to introduce suitable security standards with immediate effect in order to prevent such a situation. It is unacceptable for Oddset to persist in offering anonymous betting and cash payment of winnings simply in order to maximize its profits. This just opens the door to all manner of manipulation of bets."
-Manfred Bodner, Co-CEO of Austria-based bookmaker BETandWIN.com Interactive Entertainment, shortly after the revelation of a broad match-fixing scandal in Germany that so far involves at least 10 manipulated matches and 25 suspects, including 14 players and four referees. According to Bodner, the national German sports betting provider, Oddset, has not considered maximum security standards for its betting offices.