Wild On -- Brooke Burke, the hostess of E! channel's Wild On series who was named one of the 10 sexiest women in the world by FHM magazine, has joined Sportsbook.com as a spokesperson. The homepage of Sportsbook.com now features a one-minute video clip of Burke displaying a radiant smile as she divulges the company's betting and gaming offerings.
Pro Poker Tour -- WPT Enterprises, the now publicly traded creator of the World Poker Tour, has announced the roster of players for the five-tournament inaugural 2004-2005 season of the Professional Poker Tour. While the World Poker Tour is open to anyone able to meet the entry fee, the Professional Poker Tour is an invitation-only tournament that "ensures that the television audience will have a chance to consistently see the most exciting, skilled poker played by the sport's All-Stars," according to WPT Enterprises President Steve Lipscomb. The first year of the tour will consist of five $500,000 free-roll tournaments. It will debut at Foxwoods in November and then travel to the Bellagio, Goldstrike Casino, Commerce Casino and the Mirage. Among the 200 stars of the Professional Poker Tour are Doyle Brunson, Howard Lederer, Phil Ivey, Johnny Chan, Annie Duke, Phil Hellmuth, Men "The Master" Nguyen, Chris Moneymaker, Daniel Negreanu, Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, Jennifer Harman and David "Devilfish" Ulliott.
Credit Card Block -- American Express and Citigroup have blocked the use of their credit cards in the United Kingdom to pay for online gambling, citing fears of fraud and growing gambling debts. While credit card companies in the United States have been blocking gambling transactions for years, this is believed to be the first such incidence in England. The British government, meanwhile, is making steady progress on legislating new rules to revolutionize the gambling industry--rules that include legalized Internet gambling.
Turnkey Exchange -- Software development company UBA Technology Inc. has released a wireless event-trading platform to be packaged with its proprietary betting exchange software. The wireless platform enables users of Java-enabled mobile devices to place bets on the UBA betting exchange at ubetanything.com. UBA, which provides a turn-key betting exchange solution, has decided that rather than compete directly with Betfair and the other large betting exchanges, it will adopt a miniature exchange model that will provide select event betting to licensees worldwide.