The EUFA Euro 2004 soccer tournament begins in Portugal on Saturday. One of the largest sporting events of the summer, the Euro is certain to draw huge numbers of wagers. A few bookmakers have launched new services and promotional plans to catch new players. Most, however, are likely more concerned about another potential round of attacks from hackers. Meanwhile, authorities in a few Asian jurisdictions where betting on the tournament is illegal have taken precautions to limit and punish betting on the games.
ITVi Betting -- Sportech, the British owner of Littlewoods Gaming has launched the first fixed-odds betting service available within ITVi. Viewers can access Littlewoods Bet Direct by pressing the red or text button on their television's remote control, and programming remains within a quarter of the screen.. The system allows in-game betting on several sets of possible outcomes of the game, such as who will win the game, which player will score the first goal, and how many corners will be awarded. A national press campaign promoting the service will begin on Saturday.
Upgrading -- Anticipating growing traffic due to new customers and more wagers during a summer that will feature both the Euro 2004 soccer championships and the Summer Olympics in Athens, Ladbrokes at the end of May contracted Sun Microsystems to install new server systems to manage the impending influx. Ladbrokes is also receiving 24 servers to support its Web site application layer, 10 servers to support is Web layer and a more sophisticated disaster recovery facility.
BetEuro.com -- BetEuro.com, the new site managed by VIP Management Services, is trying to attract new punters in time for the Euro 2004 by offering several promotions. The site is offering punters guaranteed prizes of 2,500 euros and a grand prize of 50,000 euros in its Euro Football Challenge prediction game. New customers will be entered into a draw for 20 copies of the UEFA Euro 2004 video game. Customers can try the BetEuro.com system for free or for real money. The site will be based at the company's headquarters in the Netherlands Antilles and will at first focus on sports betting but will gradually increase its scope to include gaming services.
DDoS -- According to research and analysis firm Netcraft, which has been monitoring the performance 20 Internet gaming sites, a new wave of hacker-launched DDoS assaults is already underway. Capital Sports has suffered the worst, having been offline for at least 15 hours, beginning on Wednesday. Bluesquare, which also went down for about two hours on Wednesday, verified that it received a ransom demand for $30,000 in order to remain attack-free. Netcraft reported that Ladbrokes and William Hill may also have been offline for about 15 minutes each.
Quoteworthy -- "With the approach of Euro 2004, football gambling is again a social issue of public concern. We hope the Web site can help students better understand the influence of football gambling on their finances, studies, emotions and future and that they will refuse to take part in gambling activities, and 'say no to football gambling'!"
- Cheung Wing-hung, Chief curriculum development officer of Hong Kong's Education and Manpower Bureau, which has launched the "Say No To Football Gambling" section of the Moral and Civic Education Web site. The site offers learning and teaching resources and games.
Combat Around the Clock -- A "metropolitan police center" has been established in Bangkok to combat illegal soccer betting around the clock on Euro 2004 games. A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police Bureau said they expect to begin arresting bookies gamblers on Saturday, especially around the Ramkhamhaeng University, where soccer gambling is widespread.
Malaysia -- Police in Kuala Lumpur said last week that they were aware of at least 15 illegal football betting Web sites that have been established by Hong Kong-based syndicates in preparation for the Euro 2004. Investigators are attempting to extinguish the betting sites through assistance from the National ICT Security Emergency Response Center. To prevent the sites from being tracked by authorities, computer programmers and webmasters for the sites have created mirror site that lead trackers to false locations, such as porn sites. Police speculate that syndicates have raised billions of Malaysian ringgit in the last year.