Cockbetting -- Philweb, an Internet service provider in the Philippines that operates online casinos and sports betting services, has stated that it would like to launch an online betting site for cockfighting within the next few weeks. Cockfighting, which is massively popular in the Philippines and considered by many to be the national sport, already has an established Internet presence. One cockfighting site, Sabong.net.ph provides news, contest schedules, links to feed makers and pictures of the fighters. Philweb estimates that by offering wagers on some of the tens of thousands of cockfights held annually in the country it should generate 60 million pesos ($1 million) in yearly revenue. The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation, which regulates gambling in the country, says it is not yet committed to launching a cockfight wagering site, however.
Mobet -- Rapid Mobile Media has developed Mobet, a mobile betting and gaming platform that offers lottery, scratch-card and sports book solutions. The system provides four levels of security and protects transactions by using techniques that comply with banking standards. The company says it has worked with banks and telco's in the past and therefore uses "security methods that are tried and tested in the commercial real world." Rapid Mobile is offering the system to operators as a plug-and-play white-label product to operators.
Quoteworthy -- "I never in any way stated the races were fixed or dodgy. What I said was they all had suspicious betting patterns, linked to under-performance, and I recommended the Jockey Club investigates each one of the cases and also look at the overall pattern I had highlighted between jockey and trainer. By investigating them, the Jockey Club would have been able to eliminate those with justifiable reason for under-performing."
-- Clive Reams, boss of Racefax, a company that monitors betting exchanges. Reams delivered a report to the British Horseracing Board and Jockey Club, claiming that there were 235 suspicious races in a 16-month period. It is believed that Reams' report was a major factor that lead to Ladbrokes CEO Chris Bell stating he believed that at least one race per day in Britain is fixed.
Reams says horses that met four criteria were included in his report and explained to the Racing Post that the criteria "are that the horse has drifted by 10 percent against field-book price; under-performed by 20 percent against BHB ratings; the volume matched is in excess of £20,000 per horse; and that there had been either an unusual riding tactic or change of equipment like blinkers or tongue-tie. Under these criteria, each of those 235 horses had aroused our suspicions, but we are not accusing anybody of being guilty (of any offense), we are just making them suspect."
Censorship -- The Chinese government has established a committee to review and censor any video and online games that threaten state security, damage the nation's glory or infringe on other's legitimate rights. Games that contain objectionable material, such as sex, violence, gambling and misrepresentations of gambling, are to be censored. All games currently on the market must receive the committee's approval by September, and all future releases must also obtain approval.
Virtual Lottery Museum -- To commemorate the 30th anniversary of the first secure instant lottery ticket, Scientific Games Corp has launched the Scientific Games Lottery Museum on its Web site at www.scientificgames.com. The virtual museum provides a history of the developments in lotteries and features images of Scientific Games' instant lottery tickets from 1974 to 2004. The company says it has made more than 10,000 pieces of memorabilia available to the public via the online museum.
Improving Customer Service -- Betting exchange BETDAQ has implemented Talisma's Multi-Channel Customer Interaction Suite to provide its 40,000 active users from 152 different countries with multiple channels of customer communication. BETDAQ's customers can now contact customer service representatives immediately via a new chat function. The Talisma products also enable BETDAQ to define and measure its service across its communications channels (phone, e-mail and Internet chat) and lets its customer service team initiate co-browsing and desktop-sharing capabilities to help customers fix PC problems and optimize Internet browsers to take full advantage of the BETDAQ Web site's functionality. Talisma, a provider of multi-channel CRM solutions, also has Microsoft, Citibank, Dell, Sony and others as clients.
SportXction -- Interactive Systems Worldwide Inc.'s (ISWI) SportXction in-running betting system launched today at www.totesport.com. Totesport will begin an aggressive online marketing campaign to promote the SportXction System in time for the Euro 2004 soccer championship beginning June 12. Global Interactive Gaming, a subsidiary of ISWI, will operate the SportXction system for Totesport.