LNG Acquisition -- Interactive betting and gaming company Leisure & Gaming (LNG) announced today that it has entered into a conditional agreement to acquire European sports betting and casino gaming business, BetShop Group Limited (BSG), for a total consideration of up to £32.06 million. The BetShop.com website operates in eight European languages on a proprietary sportsbetting software platform. The company also operates the GoalsLive.com online sports information and results portal and owns a network of 600 retail shops throughout Italy that are licensed by the Italian government and branded BetShopItalia. The acquisition is expected to be completed June 23.
PokerRoom Saves the Day -- Last week online poker site ChecknRaise.com reportedly reneged on a promise to 10 winning players to sponsor them at the next World Series Of Poker final, but over the weekend Ongame Network's PokerRoom.com offered to pick up the tab for its defaulted affiliate. After Check 'n Raise sent the unfortunate players an email informing them that it was unable to meet the cost due to cash flow problems, PokerRoom.com said it would provide the WSOP entry fee and spending money to any of the affected players that come forward.
Self Exclusion Database -- On Tuesday U.S.-based ID verification company Aristotle-- which is backed by Rupert Murdoch and US financial services group Hambrecht-- will launch its Global Self Exclusion Database, which is designed to enable individuals with gambling problems to register themselves to be banned from opening Internet gambling accounts. The Global Self Exclusion Database uses Aristotle's database of government-issued ID card records to ban problem gamblers who have registered for self-exclusion to in effect ban themselves from all participating sites. Gamblers can sign up for as long they like and, after a seven-day cooling-off period, can remove themselves from the database.
Making Deals -- Alderney-based mobile content technology newcomer, Interactive World Plc, has signed a contract with UK mobile gambling content provider Probability Games Corporation to promote its Java-based suite of casino and card gambling services. Under the agreement, the two companies will equally share the net revenues from games downloaded and played. This is the first major corporate deal for Interactive World since going public in early May 2006. The partners are also developing foreign language versions of these games.