Idol Betting -- Betfair found itself in a bit of a mess last week when it left the betting lines open on an event that had already finished. Apparently many Queensland punters were not aware that Australian Idol was broadcast in their state one hour later than it was broadcast in other eastern states, so they continued to place losing bets with gamblers from eastern states who already knew the outcome. Punters in the eastern states who capitalized on the mistake are of course delighted, while the Queensland punters who lost unfair bets are outraged.
LassetersEuro -- Publicly listed Australian casino company Lasseters has launched LassetersEuro.com, its third online casino. The new site features 27 Flash games and enables players to use the euro as their currency of choice. The launch follows the success of Lasseters' other two online casinos, Lasseters.com and AusVegas.com.
King of Poker -- Victor Chandler Poker and Dennis Publishing, which produces men's magazines Maxim and Inside Edge, have signed a six-figure cross-promotion deal whereby Maxim will host the Maxim King of Poker Tournament in London in June 2005. Maxim plans to supplement its offerings with poker content and will allow its readers to enter online tournaments for a chance to qualify for the final tournament event.
Quoteworthy -- "There is no question whatsoever that the industry has already started to consolidate. There is a very substantial number of deals that are being looked at by various players in the industry out there today. . . . There are a lot of people talking to each other, and frankly I think the acquisition of Paradise Poker has spurred a number of those people to further their thinking a bit."
--Nigel Payne, CEO of Sportingbet, in an interview with AFX News. Payne also noted, "We've had a great first quarter, the best ever."
Search Engine Ads -- Although Google, Overture, MSN, LookSmart.com, AOL and several other U.S.-based search engines no longer accept advertising from online gambling companies, at least one search engine, GenieKnows.com, continues to enter revenue-sharing partnerships with online gambling operations. GenieKnows.com is the Web search solutions division of privately held Canadian Internet technology firm IT Interactive Services.
Plan B -- Despite announcing yesterday that it would continue a national lottery system with only one licensed operator, the U.K. government today stated that it might award several National Lottery licenses for different parts of the lottery if all bids for the license are unsuccessful. Noting problems with the awarding of the last license in 2001, Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell stated that the government would include a fallback option "in the extreme circumstance of an unsuccessful competition." The new plans, published yesterday in the National Lottery Bill, include a two-stage bidding process, the design for which the National Lottery Commission has already begun work on. Some analyst suspect that large gambling operators like Ladbrokes, Rank and Virgin will apply for the license.
Ads in Russia -- A draft law restricting gambling advertisements has passed the first of three readings in Russia's Lower House of parliament. If signed into law, the bill would ban casino and gambling advertisements on television between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. It would also require that ads do not project the idea that gambling could help a person attain personal success and higher social status, and no one under the age of 35 could be shown in the ads.