Approval -- The European Commission has approved Italian lottery company Lottomatica's acquisition of its competitor, U.S. gaming company GTECH, under the EU Merger Regulation. The Commission decided that the deal would not significantly impede effective competition in the European Economic Area or a significant part of it. Lottomatica last week reported a drop in wagers for April, amounting to 529 million euros, compared with 748.3 million euros in March 2006 and 545.6 million euros in March 2005.
Independence -- Online sports betting company Blue Square on Wednesday began generating its own price offering, independent of the traditional single starting price common to all bookmakers. "Customers will still have the choice of taking starting price or of taking Blue Square prices," Martin Belsham, CEO of Blue Square, said. "However, this will reflect the Blue Square market position and not the combined risks of Ladbrokes, Coral and William Hill." It is also a response to the changes betting exchanges have made in the betting landscape.
Acquisition -- Online gaming company BetonSports plc announced last week the acquisition of two China-facing sports books, Hooball and 777ball, each of which will be fully integrated into BoS's Malaysian sports book, EasyBets.com. The initial consideration of US$22 million will be fulfilled upon completion of the acquisition by $10 million in cash and the issuing of 3,859,089 ordinary shares of 1p each in the capital of the company. A further deferred consideration of up to $16 million has been agreed upon, to be paid in cash depending on the profitability of the business in the year after completion. Online sports betting is illegal in China, but David Carruthers, BetOnSports' chief executive, said that operators can freely target the country if they are based in other jurisdictions.
Release -- Sportech PLC has announced the release of the first significant new product added to its Littlewoods football pools portfolio in more that 50 years. "Goal Rush," a World Cup-themed game with a £3 million prize, requires players to guess the eight highest scoring matches in the first 49 games of the World Cup. Trinity Mirror plc, publisher of more than 260 U.K. newspapers, will be promoting the game through its papers, the Daily Mirror, the Sunday Mirror, The People and the Racing Post, as well as through its Web sites.
Skill -- Online skill games network GameAccount unveiled last week at the Global Interactive Gaming Summit and Expo in Montreal two new products: no-download gin rummy site RedHotRummy and skill game affiliate network Red Hot Partners. GameAccount, which powers leading online partners such as Sportingbet, Victor Chandler, Betcorp, Paddypower and SkyBet, recently announced other partnership deals with the Racing Post, Guardian Media Group and the SPILL Group's skill game media network. . . . British gambling group Ladbrokes last week launched an online backgammon game that features rich graphics, sound effects and translation of about 20 phrases to facilitate multilingual communication. The service will initially be offered in the Northern European leather-board style but will shortly be available in a wooden format popular in the Mediterranean region.
Underachievement -- England's new online lottery, Monday, which donates a portion of its revenue to designated U.K. charities each week, raised less than £150,000 in its first draw--significantly less than operator Chariot's target of £2.8 million a week. Meanwhile, Chariot has disputed recent media reports that it has awarded directors shares and bonuses worth £10 million.
Performance -- Ten prominent I-gaming operators will be invited to participate in the 2006 KPI Summit at the London Stock Exchange on June 30. The summit, which will be chaired by financial services firms Baker Tilly and Canaccord Adams and British law firm Berwin Leighton Paisner, is aimed at defining the key performance indicators (KPI) for the next year for the gaming sector. Following the summit, the definitions of the KPIs will be published in industry journals.
Hosts -- World Poker Tour Enterprises has announced the names of the hosts for its latest venture, "Professional Poker Tour," slated to debut on Travel Channel July 5. Poker pro, WPT Finalist and two-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner Mark Seif will team up with actor and poker aficionado Matt Corboy behind the mike for commentary on the new series, which will showcase poker's 250 leading stars battling throughout a 24-week season.
Shadow -- U.K. gaming law firm Harris Hagan in April welcomed the addition of former Shadow Gaming Minister Nick Hawkins. Hawkins played a prominent role in the committee stage of the U.K. Gambling Bill, which became the U.K. Gambling Act 2005. He served in Parliament as a Conservative MP from 1992 to 2005.