MOU -- UEFA (European Football Association), the European State Lotteries and Toto Association (EL), and the European Football Pool have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding, whereby the EL and the 74 lottery and tote companies which it represents will create a common code of conduct for betting on football. The three organizations will continue to discuss ways to find new profitable and constructive ways to cooperate for good of their members.
It's a Deal -- Britain's Channel 4 announced on June 16th that it had reached a one-year sponsorship deal to cover 74 days of live horse racing in 2006. The Tote will contribute £3 million, the Levy Board £1 million and Betfair £150,000, while a group of racecourses will waive over £800,000 in rights fees. The terms of the agreement will see the Tote become official sponsor of Channel 4 Racing and pre-race program The Morning Line beginning January 1st, 2006. Racing will remain free to air every Saturday and on selected weekdays, and Channel 4 has offered an option to renew the deal for 2007. Ten racing days, or 12 percent of this year's schedule, have been cut in the deal, and not everyone is pleased about the agreement. According to John Brown, former chairman of bookmaker William Hill, "Racing has made a serious mistake. It was a knee jerk, panic response. Exactly what is the BHB's and the racecourses' strategy in agreeing to pay Channel 4 to show racing's pictures, and in waiving their data rights—if they have any? Where to they go from here?" He continued, "Racing has now conceded that their data rights have zero value in a commercial marketplace and that racing's pictures have a minus value because racing is prepared to pay to have them shown."
Quoteworthy -- "We can confirm that as of last night the book is covered, fully endorsing our price range. We fully expect more order to follow and we have no intention of cutting the price."
--spokesperson for Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, the investment bank handling the initial public offering of PartyGaming. If all goes according to plan, PartyGaming will raise between £996 million and £1.139 billion through the selling of shares at a price between 111p and 127p.
Joint Venture -- GTECH Global Services Corporation Limited, a subsidiary of lotteries company GTECH Corporation, has entered into a joint venture agreement with Veikkaus Oy, the operator of the Finnish national lottery, to develop and market new games and solutions for the lottery and gaming industries. The primary focus of the venture is the development of government-sponsored games and solutions, particularly for sports betting, over interactive channels such as Internet, mobile telephony and interactive television. GTECH will hold an 81 percent equity stake in the joint venture while Veikkaus will hold the remaining 19 percent. The operation will be headquartered in Finland and will initially be staffed by Veikkaus personnel. It is expected to begin running in the third quarter of 2005.
Mobile Lottery -- In China, the Guangdong Welfare Lottery has implemented a system that will allow subscribers of China Mobile's Go Tone service to buy lottery tickets through their mobile phones.
Appeal Rejected -- The TAR (court) of Italy's Lazio Region has rejected gaming company Lottomatica's appeal against the Italian Competition Authority's decision to enforce an 8 million euro fine against the group for alleged violations of restraint in trade. The company was charged with the fine last year after an investigation launched in July 2003 determined that Lottomatica and rival company Sisal-- which was also fined 2.8 million euros-- had formed a market sharing deal in order to keep two competing operators, Formula Giochi and G-Tech, from entering the contest to manage games that were previously managed by state-owned provider Coni. Now that the TAR of Lazio has rejected its appeal, Lottomatica intends to file an appeal with Italy's Council of State.
Marketing Agreement -- Gaming Transactions Inc, a developer of games and solutions for the I-gaming industry and operator of the Keno.com gaming site, has contracted Eclipsicom Media Inc to manage the interactive marketing of Keno.com. Eclipsicom, which specializes in building and managing websites Asia and Europe, will provide online marketing, media planning, ad buying, search engine optimization and content management.
Welcome Aboard -- Lotteries company Scientific Games Corporation has appointed Michael Chambrello as president and chief operating officer of the company. Chambrello has served in a variety of roles through nearly 20 years in the lottery industry, and has previously served as president of GTECH Corporation and executive vice president of GTECH Holdings Corporation.
Sportsbook.com Tour -- Sportsbook.com, a Sportingbet brand that targets North America, has purchased Barry Bonds' 700th home run baseball for $85,000 through a public auction in New York and now intends to offer the ball to the baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. Sportsbook.com hopes to schedule an official presentation with the Hall of Fame later this year, but until then the company plans to take the ball on a tour across major U.S. cities. The company says it will announce more details about the tour soon.
WSOP Stats -- Harrah's Entertainment, owner and organizer of the World Series of Poker, has predicted that the total prize pool for this year's tournament will exceed $100 million, more than doubling last year's record of $45 million. The 36th annual WSOP, which consists of 45 different events, has grown so large that it has been relocated from its home in downtown Las Vegas to the Rio All-Suite Hotel, where 60,000 square-feet of gaming space and 200 poker tables can be utilized. In 2003 the WSOP attracted 7,572 participants, and in 2004 number rose to 14,054. So far this year, after just the first 19 events, total registrants are already over 13,500 and total prize money has risen beyond $23.5 million. The WSOP's main event, No Limit Texas Hold'Em, begins on July 7th.
Fantasy Acquisition -- Fantasy Sports Acquisitions, a subsidiary of skill gaming provider FUN Technologies, has acquired Fanball Interactive, LLC (www.fanball.com), a provider of fantasy sports league-hosting software, content, statistics, and advice. Fanball has exclusive white-label distribution agreements with AOL, NASCAR.com and more, and also owns Fanball.com Radio and produces print publications Just Cheat Sheets, Fantasy Racing, and Fantasy Football Weekly.
Launched -- CYOP Systems International, a provider of online gambling software, has launched its non downloadable, cash play Texas Hold'em game at TenSeatPoker.com. The website is operated through CYOP's British subsidiary Red Felt Software Inc.… Senticore, Inc, a publicly-listed holding company, announced that it has terminated its use of the PokerBook brand of software and launched new site, LoboPoker, through its own LoboGaming subsidiary. Senticore says it experienced numerous issues during the beta testing phase of PokerBook's proprietary software package, and therefore decided to go with a tested and proven software solution.