Ladbrokes Defeat -- The Supreme Administrative Court in Stockholm, Sweden has rejected an appeal by British bookmaker Ladbrokes, which was attempting to gain permission to run gambling operations in Sweden. The Swedish government argued that the country's monopoly gambling operators, Svenska Spel and ATG, can be maintained as long as profits are used for the common good. Although the Supreme Administrative Court harshly criticized this argument, it inevitably ruled in favor of the Swedish government by stating that EU law allows countries to regulate gaming industries in order to protect players and maintain social order. Ladbrokes says it will file a complaint with the European Commission.
Welcome Aboard -- iGGBA (interactive Gaming, Gambling and Betting Association), a trade body for the European online gaming industry, last month welcomed the membership of River City Group-- publisher of Interactive Gaming News and producer of the Global Interactive Gaming Summit and Expo-- to its organization. In the last month iGGBA has also accepted the membership of Manches LLP, Bell-Fruit Games, Betting Jobs and Kroopier. iGGBA, which now has close to sixty members, believes that by supporting a broad and diverse membership base, every necessary issue can be addressed.
Viper Additions -- I-gaming software provider Microgaming has added four new game titles to its Viper gaming platform-- Jungle Jim, a 5 reel 15 payline jungle-themed slots game, Elementals, a 5 reel 20 payline super hero-themed slots game, a new jacks or better variant to the new 50 Play Poker Power, and a new Casino War offering.
Fred's Casino -- Betfred, the largest independent bookmaker in Britain, has launched a casino and poker site using Playtech software. The company first launched its Internet presence in September 2004 with a sportsbook product that was developed in-house over 18 months.
Ukbetting Slots -- A deal between British bookmaker Ukbetting and gaming software providers Orbis Technology and Electracade Ltd. will expand Ukbetting's online games portfolio by ten. Electracade's SlotEngine enables the company to build any format of slot machine from any one skin and gives a client the ability to customize the slot machine by pay-tables, number of reels, multiplier reels, fonts, sounds banks, activated features (nudges, holds, reel pickers), and frequency of feature occurrence.