Forbes has published its annual list of the world's billionaires. No. 743 on the list is Anurag Dikshit, the 36-year-old developmental engineer who wrote the original betting software for StarLuckCasino.com and PartyPoker.com. Valued at $1.6 billion this year, Dikshit has stepped down from PartyGaming's board and sold a chunk of shares, but he still retains a large stake. Also on the list are Dermot Desmond (No. 462; $2.5 billion), the Irish private investor who owns Betdaq, and Joseph Lewis (No. 368; $3 billion), an entrepreneur in the Bahamas who is rumored to hold a stake in Ladbrokes on behalf of Desmond.
William Hill has closed betting on this week's Crufts dog-show because of peculiar wagering on which category of dog will be declared Best in Show. Usually the winning dog is a pastoral, terrier, hound, toy, gun or working dog, but William Hill has received floods of bets that the winner will be a utility dog. (Dalmatians, poodles, bulldogs). William Hill opened the betting yesterday morning with 13/2 odds on a utility dog winning the show, but betting pushed the odds down to 6/4 within a few hours. By early afternoon the odds were adjusted to 1/2, making a utility dog the favorite.
"There must be an exceptional dog out there that we have not heard about," said William Hill spokesman Rupert Adams. "Normally in betting, when we shorten the price people start to back off a little and back other contenders, but that hasn't happened here and no matter how short a price we offer on a utility dog winning, people keep betting." It's essentially a seven-horse race with all the money going on one horse. We decided enough was enough and closed the book. The utility dogs will be judged today, and Best of Show contenders will return for judging Sunday.
CanAffco, the Canadian Affiliate Management Company, has signed Reefer Poker as a client. Launched at the beginning of February, Reefer Poker is "the first poker site to act as a gathering place for marijuana enthusiasts." CanAffco says it will provide its thousands of active affiliates with great incentives to work with and promote Reefer Poker. “We have done business with the owners of Reefer Poker in the past and know them to be ethical, honest businessman, and we expect them to have great success with this site,” said CanAffco President, Gian Perroni. “So far, they’ve shown us that marijuana culture runs deep with many poker players. We expect affiliates to find a whole new crowd to convert.” Reefer Poker is part of the Merge Gaming Network.
A new Website, currently in Beta, offers users betting contracts on themselves.... sort of. The idea is that people wishing to lose weight, quit a habit or fulfill any other type of long-term incremental goal can "bet" money on whether or not they will stick to the plan. For example, a person wishing to lose weight could bet a sum of money each week on whether he can stick to his diet and exercise plan. StickK.com is the project of two Yale professors, contract law expert Ian Ayres and behavioral economist Dean Karlan, who know from their fields of study as well as from personal experience that people are more inclined to stick to goals when a contract is involved. Ayers once bet Karlan $500 a week that he would lose 20 pounds, and Karlan never saw a dime. "What we know about incentives is that people work a lot harder to avoid losing $10 than they will work to gain $10," Ayers told National Public Radio. "So something that's framed as a loss is really effective at changing behavior." StickK.com donates any money it receives from losing bettors to charity.