Land-based Expansion -- Tim Johnson-- CEO of Carmen Media Group, which owns several Gibraltar-licensed online gaming properties, including River Belle Casino, Jackpot City, Lucky Nugget, the Gaming Club and more-- recently told eGaming Review that his company is contemplating an expansion into land-based gaming opportunities. The company is reportedly testing poker tutorials and branded poker equipment but may have larger plans for traditional betting.
North American P2P -- New betting exchange site Matchbook.com hopes to find success by serving the North American market. The company provides a marketplace for predictions on sports, politics, financials and more and receives a two-percent commission rate on winning bets. A press release announcing the launch of Matchbook.com states that Antigua-based betting company World Sports Exchange "has been working with Matchbook management to identify possible areas of cooperation and thinks the exchange format may be ideal for some of its clients." Matchbook.com uses a proprietary trading platform, and its customer support offices are based in Ireland while its transaction processing servers are based in Antigua.
Levy Board -- UK Sports Minister Richard Caborn has announced that the British horseracing industry will continue to receive funding from the Levy Board until at least 2009. Caborn announced the extension of racing's funding through the Levy Board after an independent review group chaired by Lord Donoughue ruled that the sport needs more time to develop alternative commercial options in the aftermath of a European Court of Justice decision which stated that bookmakers are not obligated to pay the industry for the use of information, thereby seriously damaging the industry's plans to fund racing through the sale of database rights. Caborn said the extension of the Levy for another three years should "give all the parties involved the time they need to come up with a long-term, viable solution to the funding of racing."
GameAbyss -- GameAbyss.com Corp has relaunched both its GameAbyss.com online gambling reviews site and its GameAbyss.net gambling search engine with new designs and additional features.
Skill Games -- Fun Technologies (formerly CES Software), a provider of peer-to-peer skill gaming, betting exchange technology and online sports information, announced that its SkillJam Technologies Corp subsidiary has entered into a licensing agreement with Denmark-based games developer Certus A/S to operate and distribute Certus' multiplayer games through the SkillJam network. Certus has created over 30 java-based web games and nine mobile games based using its SYMFONI proprietary technology.