Net Ent. in Austria -- Swedish I-gaming software provider Net Entertainment has licensed its no-download casino software to Admiral Sportwetten AG, an Austrian sports betting firm listed on the Vienna Stock Exchange. Admiral is part of the Novomatic Group, which operates land-based casinos and provides equipment to the gaming and leisure industry. The company, which currently offers sports betting in shops and over the Internet, will operate Net Entertainment's casino games over the Internet and through kiosk terminals.
Mobile Youbet -- Youbet.com, the largest provider of horse racing content and wagering in the United States, plans to launch a new wireless service near the end of July. Designed by Digital Orchid, the service will enable users to view real-time odds, results and entries and to place wagers. The user must be a customer of Verizon Wireless, however, and the package will likely cost $19.99 per month. The initial product launching next month will not support video streaming, but a later version planned for launch sometime next year should.
New Games -- Turnkey I-gaming software provider Microgaming has released another quarterly set of new and upgraded casino games for its Viper-powered casinos. One of the new games, "Secret Admirer," is a five-reel, nine-payline slot with romantic graphics designed to appeal to the increasing number of women gambling online. Another video slot game, "What a Hoot," presents the theme of an owl-party deep in the forest. Two of Microgaming's Jackpot Madness progressives, "Lotsaloot" and "Fruit Fiesta," now feature upgraded graphics, faster game play and more ways to win. The last new game of the quarter, "Deuces Wild Ten Times Power Poker," lets players play 10 hands of video poker at once with a different 52-card pack for each hand.
Quoteworthy -- "The sports bodies, I think, should unite to lobby the governments to bring in legislation that enables them to get a slice of the action. We have flirted with this a couple of years ago but now there are moves afoot with a united front of sports bodies--cricket, AFL, the whole lot."
- John O'Neill, chief executive of the Australian Soccer Association. O'Neill and others at the Australian Broadcasting Authority's annual conference discussed the prospect of extending TV betting beyond just the racing industry. Australia's Interactive Gambling Act prohibits all TV betting with the exception of race wagering, but Communications Minister Daryl Williams should soon table a report on the government's review of the Act, which should include its stance on TV betting and also betting exchanges.
Poker Search -- Internet search group Terra Lycos, which publishes a weekly list of the Web's top 50 search terms, reported that the term "poker" was the seventh most frequently searched for term for the week ending June 12, 2004. Terra Lycos attributed the term's high rank to the recent poker championship in Las Vegas. The most popular poker-related searches include "World Series of Poker," "online poker research," "poker lessons," "video poker," "World Poker Tour," "poker betting tips" and "Texas hold'em poker." The only six terms that received more searches than poker for the week: "Ronald Reagan," "Paris Hilton," "Clay Aiken," "Britney Spears," "KaZaA" and "Severina Vuckovic."