Blackout -- Tab Ltd.'s Sky Channel will begin blacking out horse racing at Sydney race tracks on Saturday because it was unable to negotiate an agreement with the Sydney Turf Club (STC) and the Australian Jockey Club (AJC) over an extension of the broadcasting rights, which expired two weeks ago. The STC and AJC wanted to sign a 14-month contract so that they could later renegotiate with the collective bargaining power of Victoria Racing, but Sky Channel's Warren Wilson said it was not in the best interest of his company's shareholders to parallel the end dates of the contracts with Victoria Racing and Sydney Racing. Sky Channel and the Sydney clubs are terminating a relationship that existed for 16 years. The clubs plan to begin airing their own racing channel on the Foxtel Satellite network within six to eight weeks.
Sharp Minds -- Betfair will attribute most of the £20 million it plans to raise from a repositioning toward direct and online communications. The company wants to emphasize to the public that it allows betting on almost anything. Betfair also plans to increase its sponsorship deals. Just this week at the Cheltenham festival, the company unveiled a new logo and slogan: Sharp Minds Betfair.
Sky News -- The China Post reports that 20 residents of Taiwan were questioned by police yesterday for illegally betting on the presidential election. Those questioned placed their bets with Easybets.com, which is licensed in the United Kingdom and Costa Rica. According to the China Post, "Police investigators said the cross-border online betting, which is illegal in Taiwan, started two months ago, when a Hong Kong bookmaker, identified as Mo Hsiao-mei, came to Taipei to set up the betting scheme." An inspector said he will ask Interpol to help Taiwan's police catch Mo Hsiao-mei and two other bookmakers operating online, though he is not sure if Interpol will help.
Continued Hacking -- Totalbet was down for the second day in a row today due to ongoing DDOS attacks. Parent company ukbetting saw its shares drop 2.5 percent as it was unable to process hundreds of thousands of pounds in betting on the Cheltenham Festival. Two other ukbetting sites, sportinglife.com and ukbetting.com, were also temporarily brought down by the massive 900 megabit attack.
NETeller Float -- Market analysts speculate that NETeller's flotation on the AIM could raise about £50 million. The Isle of Man-based transaction processor might try to float by the end of the month and may be worth around £200 million, which would make it among the AIM top 10 companies. The company earned £700,000 income in the last financial year. NETeller has dealings with William Hill, Ladbrokes, betandwin.com, Poker Stars and Casino on Net.
Virgin Games -- Optimistic of upcoming changes to England's gambling legislation, Virgin Group plans to launch an online gaming portal, Virgin Games, in June. The site will offer a casino, instant-win games, arcade games, bingo, and more powered by WagerWorks. Virgin's casino is licensed in Alderney and the company's betting license is with the UK. Virgin plans to implement many crossover promotions with the gaming portal and some of the company's other web sites, like Virgin Atlantic. Oscar Nieboer, vice president of MGM Mirage Online, will serve as managing director for Virgin Games.