War -- Financial Times reports that the U.K. Levy Board is meeting today to consider proposals from its bookmakers' committee on ways to raise money from P2P betting exchanges. A number of bookmakers, most of which are based in England, are concerned with what they perceive to be an extremely unfair advantage for P2P exchanges, which are able to offer punters far better prices by enabling them to bet against each other instead against the bookmaker. The controversy has escalated for months, and with leading P2P firm Betfair.com "matching" an estimated £50 million per week, it is quickly turning into what bookmakers consider an emergency situation. Bookmakers are pushing a proposal that would make punters who lay bets (as opposed to taking them) liable for a 10 percent levy on their gross profits. If the proposal is accepted, Betfair's customers would end up paying prices comparable to traditional sports books.
New Stuff -- attheraces, the joint horseracing venture backed by BkyB, Channel 4 and Arena Leisure, today launched its interactive television betting facility on Sky channel 418. Viewers of the channel can place bets on horse races using their remote controls. . . . The list of online poker solutions on the market continues to grow, with CryptoLogic being the latest software provider to take a crack at it. The Toronto-based virtual gaming technology company today announced the rollout of its multi-player table poker software, CryptoLogic Poker. The game follows the central-poker-room concept in which Crypto-licensed casinos feed into a single poker site. This creates a poker community of sorts, but more importantly, enables CrytpoLogic to quickly achieve the volume of players necessary to maintain a successful online poker service.
Makin' Deals -- Internet games giant Flipside Inc. has inked a distribution deal with RealNetworks Inc. through which RealOne(TM) Arcade users will have instant access to Flipside's cash competition tournaments. Content consists of puzzle, arcade and strategy games. Flipside CEO and President Jeff Strief called his company's partnership with Real "a significant milestone in our strategy to aggressively capture the leadership position in skill-based online gaming."