Angel Acquires -- AngelCiti Entertainment has purchased another online poker site, CityPoker.com, and plans to follow up with a heavy marketing campaign in the fall. One of the company's other recent acquisitions, Midas Entertainment, will soon begin trading under its own ticker symbol and is now pursuing financing and strategic alliance opportunities.
Totesport on Silk -- Totesport has signed a £150,000 deal with the Racehorse Owners' Association to become a two-year sponsor for racing silks, whereby owners will receive payments for the endorsements of their colors. The deal will grant owners £100 for each horse signed up to the sponsorship and an extra £650 if the horse runs in a Grade A race in the United Kingdom.
Hill Pays Anyway -- It seemed that British soccer player Sol Campbell had scored a game-winning goal in the 90th minute of last week's game between Britain and Portugal until a referee called a penalty and stripped the goal away. Bookmaker William Hill, however, said that it was so outraged by the decision that "we feel it only fair to pay off those punters" who picked Campbell to score. William Hill had offered odds at 8-1 for Campbell to score anytime in the game and 33-1 to score the final goal. Honoring the goal means that William Hill will have to pay about £100,000 to punters, which is much less than the £3 million they would have paid if Britain had gone on to win the tournament.
Anticipation in Australia -- Australia is buzzing with anticipation that the federal government's review of the Interactive Gambling Act will become public sometime next week. Rumors speculate that the Howard government does not plan to ban offshore betting exchanges. Rather than being dominated by foreign competitors, Australia's bookmakers and TABs say they would have no choice but to launch their own betting exchanges if the platform were to be allowed in Australia. Tim Ryan, chief executive of the Australian Bookmakers Association, said, "Bookmakers will not be left out of the biggest explosion in gambling in Australia since the introduction of poker machines. If the rumors are true of the Howard government's ringing endorsement of both cross-border gambling and betting exchanges on the basis of competition, then Australian bookmakers will be at the forefront of that battle for increased share of the entertainment dollar - and their share of the gambling dollar." The ABA, however, remains worried that the betting exchange business model would crush Australia's horse racing industry and therefore still hopes the government will ban exchanges. According to Ryan, an independent report from last year "clearly stated, beyond any shadow of doubt, that exchanges cannot match the TABs' contribution rates and that racing must suffer."
Racing UK -- Simon Bazalgette, former chief executive for Music Choice Europe, has joined Racing UK as executive chairman and Will Wyatt, former BBC director, has joined as an independent director. Also, through its rights agreement with South African betting operator Phumela, the television channel has entered deals to show its pictures in six different countries, the money from which will provide basic funding for the network. Racing UK still plans to become a subscription-based channel, although it is negotiating with betting operators for sponsorship deals that would allow it to remain a free-to-air station.