Vietnam -- Despite a recent rash of match-fixing scandals, it looks like sports betting could be on its way to becoming legal in Vietnam. Nguyen Danh Thai, Vietnam's director of the National Sports and Physical Training Committee, on Thursday sent a document to the Vietnam Football Federation explaining that the committee will submit to the government a proposal for a soccer betting service that will at least partially fund local soccer and prevent illegal betting. Sports betting, though illegal, is becoming especially common in urban areas of Vietnam.
The Blame Game -- Sportech PLC Financial Director Gary Speakman blames the collapse of his company's partnership with ITV (the termination of which was announced Thursday) on ITV's failure to adequately promote its interactive services. The Sportech exec said the deal, signed in March 2002, has caused nothing but loss for his company, including an expected operating loss of £4 million in 2005. The termination, he said, will enable Sportech to eliminate the operating loss in 2006 and avoid potential payments of £22.2 million over the remaining three years of the contract. "The responsibility for getting the viewers was with ITV," Speakman said. "We provided the content, but ITV has not promoted the service. It is not as well known as the BBC's or Sky's interactive services." But a spokeswoman for ITV said legal constraints limit the promotion of gambling on air. "ITV does promote its interactive services," she said. "We provide a range of interactive services, and this is the first to ask us to terminate a contract." She also said that Sportech's products were not interesting to customers.
Combating Cyber Crime -- Clarion ATE's second annual Combating Cyber Crime in the Betting and Gaming Business Conference will be held Jan. 24 alongside the company's International Casino Exhibition (ICE) at Earls Court Conference Centre in London. Last year's inaugural Cyber Crime conference discussed DDoS attacks, blackmail, credit card and identity fraud, age verification and money laundering. Paul Webster, the organizer of the event, said "The decision to run (the Cyber Crime conference) with the globally acclaimed ICE event, with its ever growing iGaming component ICEi, will only add to its prestige and significance in the I-gaming event calendar."
Quoteworthy -- "Bookmakers cannot be the only ones sitting there doing the right thing while others operate illegally. If individuals are breaking the law, we'll be doing our best to make sure those laws are enforced."
- Australian Bookmakers Association CEO Time Ryan shares his opinion of betting exchange Betfair's services being offered in Australia in an article in the Australian. He warned that the ordinary "man in the street" could end up being prosecuted for illegal bookmaking.