Float Delay -- E-payment system company NETeller was scheduled to raise £50 million through a flotation on the London Stock Exchange's Alternative Investment Market (AIM) today, but the company's prospectus was only published on Monday so the float will probably be delayed until next Thursday. NETeller's 20 million new shares are likely to be valued around 200p per share. The Telegraph reported that shares were allocated last night and oversubscribed by 1.3 times. The company will place 5 million more shares with existing shareholders through Canaccord Capital and joint broker Durlacher. The upcoming flotation should give NETeller a market capitalization of £250 million.
Quoteworthy -- "This is more likely to be a bunch of smart kids in Taiwan than any organized criminals. Criminals would be more organized and efficient. Today we know of no one who has paid [the blackmailers], and no one that has been attacked more than once."-- David Hook, William Hill's head of public relations, providing an atypical reaction to the wave of DDoS attacks that have been plaguing the industry for the last half-year. A spokesperson for Britain's National Hi-Tech Crime Unit expressed the opinion that the media has blown the situation out of proportion and claimed that bookmakers should have no fear of being shut down for the Grand Nationals this weekend. Contrary to most reports, the spokesperson said, "We've received no intelligence about UK betting sites being targeted ahead of any sporting events. The only time this has happened in the past was when the Super Bowl took place."
Streaker's Plea -- Online Casino News reports that Mark Roberts-- the Golden Palace Casino-sponsored streaker who crashed this year's Super Bowl after halftime wearing only a thong-- plans to plead innocent to trespassing violations at his upcoming court hearing in Houston. According to Online Casino News, the world's most prolific streaker plans to plead innocence because no one told him he could not do what he did.
Cereal Linked to Casino -- Kellogg's Australia is being investigated by the Department of Communications and Information Technology and Arts because a promotional CD-ROM included in boxes of Nutri-Grain cereal supplies a link to an online casino. When installing Moto Racer 3, one of the games on the sampler disc, users are asked whether they would like install a link to an online casino. It is illegal for Australians to provide interactive casino gambling, so the department is trying to determine whether Kellog's broke the law by supplying the disc.
Betfair Lite -- Betting exchange Betfair has launched Betfair Lite, a site that allows PDA and mobile viewers to view all bet prices in all markets on Betfair. The site does not yet support account log-in or wager placement, but those abilities will be implemented in the future. The company also notes that Betfair Lite can not yet be accessed by WAP enabled phones, and prices do not automatically refresh for PDAs, saving customers money on bandwidth costs. The site is already online at http://lite.betfair.com.
New Owners -- Canbet Sports Bookmakers UK (www.canbet.com)-- a subsidiary of Canbet Ltd, which is publicly traded on the Australian Stock Exchange-- has agreed to purchase Queen's Club Casino (www.queensclub.com) from Boss Media. Canbet will also receive a poker application that will connect Canbet's customers to the Boss Poker Network and a Bingo application that will link customers to the Boss Bingo Network. Boss's gaming system will fully integrate with Canbet's system, and all customers will use Canbet's proprietary payment solution.