Doyle's WPT? -- Veteran poker professional Doyle Brunson-- who is often referred to as the godfather of poker—and a group of unidentified financial backers have offered an unsolicited $700 million cash bid for publicly-listed company WPT Enterprises Inc, the company that owns the World Poker Tour. WPT officers have confirmed the offer, causing the company's share price to skyrocket 59 percent to all time high of $28.20. The bid places a 100 percent premium over yesterday's closing price of $17.75, which valued the company at about $357 million. WPT's CFO Todd Steele stated, "We are going through the normal evaluation process for anything of this nature, and that will likely result in bringing it before the board. Just last week the company launched a World Poker Tour-branded real-money wagering poker site from Alderney.
Injunction -- Greek betting monopoly OPAP recently won a temporary injunction against three local newspapers that had been running advertisements for foreign Internet gambling companies.
Betfair Ads -- Betfair, the world's largest betting exchange, has hired advertising agency BLAC to handle its £2.5 million marketing operations. The company will try to raise Betfair's profile beyond its perceived core focus on horseracing and into other sports through sponsorships, viral marketing and below-the-line activity. Most of Betfair's future marketing will be handled by BLAC and will include the slogan "Live's unfair, but you can betfair."
MOU -- Interactive Systems Worldwide Inc, operator of the SportXction play-by-play sports betting platform, has signed a memorandum of understanding with Littlewoods Betdirect whereby the companies will work together in formulating plans in relation to interactive in-run sports betting. The companies intend to complete a formal agreement to launch SportXction on Betdirect's Internet site in the third quarter of 2005.
Football Bans -- The German Football Association (DFB) has provisionally banned six German soccer players who are suspected of being involved in the same match-fixing ring as former referee Robert Hoyzer, who also received a ban several months ago.
Quoteworthy -- "The progressive casinos ... acknowledge the industry for what it is. We are a large feeder system for the casinos and Las Vegas is the center of this space."
--Calvin Ayre, CEO of Costa Rica-based online betting company Bodog.com, which this week hosted the Bodog Sports and Poker Marketing Conference in Las Vegas.