Virtual Horses -- VIS iTV Ltd. has signed a multi-year contract to launch its virtual horse racing and management game, I-Race, on Youbet.com, the largest provider of horse race wagering and content in the United States. Real-money wagering on I-Race will not initially be available.
Quoteworthy -- "It's our very own D-day. Ladbrokes believes it has a fundamental right under European law to provide its services freely across borders."
- John O'Reilly, managing director of Ladbrokes eGaming, commenting on Ladbrokes' recent court victory in the Netherlands. He added, "Betting and gaming is virtually the only monopoly industry left in the E.U., and this judgment is another step towards free and fair competition."
First Maltese License -- WorldMatch, a company whose I-gaming system was designed to "give access to the gaming sector to other entities without any commitment in terms of management, technology, finance or legal matters," has become Malta's first licensee under the island's new remote gaming regulations. WorldMatch has so far signed six different contracts with companies wishing to use its services.
Mobile Chandler -- Gibraltar-based gaming company Victor Chandler is launching a mobile sports betting service that will work across all networks and offer all bets available on the bookmaker's Web site. The service will initially launch with only Java-based phone compatibility, but within a month technology should be in place to allow WAP-enabled phones to view the site. The service is now in a soft launch phase, and a promotional campaign is planned for early July. The company's development manager, Joe Coughlin, said users will find it easier to place bets with the new system rather than with the existing phone betting service.
Report -- Screen Digest, a London-based research firm, estimates that the online gaming market will double over the next four years. In its recent report, Online Gaming Markets to 2007: The New Growth Opportunities, the company also speculates that pay-per-play gaming is should grow at a compound rate of 40 percent between now and 2007, and that women are currently driving the casual gaming market, though men still remain the hardcore gamblers.
Survey Says -- The U.S.-based Computer Security Institute (CSI) says that distributed denial service attacks (DDoS) have replaced intellectual property theft as the costliest computer crime. In conjunction with the FBI's computer intrusion squad, CSI surveyed 494 computer security practitioners with U.S. corporations, government agencies, universities, financial institutions and medical institutions. Overall financial losses due to security breaches have dropped since last year's $202 million to $141 million.
Verizon Poker -- Verizon Wireless and games developer Atlas Mobile announced they are launching a multiplayer game called "Hold'em Poker for Prizes." Players using Verizon Wireless' "Get It Now"-enabled phones can compete against one another for prizes. The game is different from Texas Hold'em in that players are given a time limit in which to pick their own cards to build the best hand. Points are accumulated based on how quickly the pot it won. The game will be offered on a subscription basis of $2.99 per month.