EC Action Postponed -- E.U. Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy of Ireland hoped to launch copyright infringement proceedings on July 13 against E.U. member states Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Hungary, Italy, Greece and Finland for denying gambling operators that are located elsewhere in the European Union from accessing their markets, but a lack of consensus among European commissioners has prompted the EC to postpone doing so until September or October. McCreevy now says that action would only be taken following a debate between commissioners. According to Europe Information Services, about 8 of the 25 other commissioners are opposed to removing national gambling monopolies in these states, including EC President Jose Manuel Barroso of Portugal, Development Commissioner Louis Michel of Belgium and Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot of France.
Tax Scheme -- Tasmanian Premier Paul Lennon told the state's three racing codes what percentage of Betfair's profits they could expect to receive if the betting exchange were to become licensed to operate in Tasmania. If licensed, Betfair would deliver 25 percent of its gross profit from racing revenues to the horse racing industry. Meanwhile, the Tasmanian government would receive 15 percent of Betfair's commissions on bets on Australian sporting events. The government would distribute one-third of its take to the racing industry, 4 percent to the community service levy and the rest to the consolidated fund. The Tasmanian Thoroughbred Racing Council decided Monday that it will request a full business case into the economic benefits of granting Betfair a license. The council would like to know whether estimates placing the industry's share of the annual product fee at $200,000 are correct because it finds that amount inadequate. Lennon reportedly believes the actual figure would be significantly larger.
Mobile Forecasts -- A new report by research and intelligence firm Informa Telecoms & Media predicts that mobile phone gambling will increase from a $1.2 billion industry to a $7.6 billion industry by the year 2010. The company expects Europe to remain the largest market, while the United States will provide about $1 billion. The report also predicts that computer games over mobile phones will be the fastest growing form of mobile entertainment and should rise from $2.6 billion to $11 billion by 2010. The overall mobile entertainment market is expected to rise to $42.8 billion by 2010.
Online Backgammon -- TrueMoneygames.com, a Curacao-based site offering real-money backgammon and poker, says the number of player registrations on its backgammon server has doubled to almost 40,000 since 2004. The company also estimates that more than 500,000 people play online backgammon globally. Dennis Carlston of the United States on Monday won the 2005 Backgammon World Championship at the Fairmont Monte Carlo, claiming $100,000 from a tournament that boasted a $320,000 prize pool. The tournament's final match between Carlston and another American, John O'Hagan, was streamed live on TrueMoneygames.com and watched by hundreds of backgammon players around the world. The match was automatically analyzed and commented on in real-time by "Snowie," a SnowieGroup-developed backgammon software tool based on artificial intelligence.
Trademark Protection -- WPT Enterprises announced today that it has won a number of legal battles regarding copyright and trademark infringement in recent months. Among those victories is a case against I-gaming software provider WagerLogic Ltd. for trademark infringement relating to four trademark applications filed in Canada (Interpoker World Poker Tour, Wagerlogic World Poker Tour, Interpoker World Poker Tournament and Wagerlogic World Poker Tournament). WPTE says it was also successful in litigating intellectual property violations by 5thstreet.proboards39.com for copyright infringement of four WPT episodes posted for Bit Torrent downloads; Playworldpokertour.net for trademark domain name infringement matter; Wpt.cl and Worldpokertour.cl for trademark domain name infringement in Chile; the Ultimate Poker Challenge TV show for copyright and trademark infringement for the use of WPTE footage and for superimposing the Ultimate Poker Challenge mark over the World Poker Tour mark; the Mid-Ohio Super Satellite No Limit Championship for trademark infringement relating to the tournament being falsely billed as an official world poker tour satellite tournament; and World Poker Productions, Inc. for trademark infringement for use of a name and a poker-related Web site and in connection with the sale of instructional poker videos. "World Poker Tour is a globally recognizable brand, and we will aggressively police the misuse of our intellectual property, to ensure the quality control of satellite events and products associated with our first class series of poker events," WPTE's general counsel, Adam Pliska, stated, "WPTE will protect our brands and goodwill to sustain the loyalty of our poker fans, television viewers and consumers."