Floater -- Fairground Gaming Holdings began trading on the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange today. The company raised £3.8 million through the sale of 7.6 million shares at 0.5 pence each, giving it a value of £10.7 million. The company's primary intentions are to build a broad portfolio of online gambling properties through acquisitions and then consolidate. Its initial targets will be smaller companies, and it is reportedly working with I-gaming software provider Microgaming to identify acquisition opportunities. The company is headed by CEO Evan Hoff, who worked for Price Waterhouse as a chartered accountant before founding forwardSLASH, an outsourcing and marketing provider to the online gaming industry. Hoff is an executive of Quest Limited, a London-based due diligence and intelligence firm that services major U.K. corporate and professional firms. He also serves on Fairground Gaming's board as an executive director. Other board members include executive director Richard Akitt, non-executive director Jonathan Morley-Kirk, non-executive director John Webster (who is a director of NETeller) and adviser Michael Hirst (who is chairman of eCOGRA).
Mobile Security Deal -- Magna Entertainment Corp (MEC) has selected Diversinet Corp, a mobile verification and security solutions company, to provide its services to MEC's mobile betting transactions. Diversinet's solutions will enable MEC to secure all betting transactions through is XpressBet Internet and telephone account wagering systems while protecting users from identity theft and phishing threats.
Partnership -- Hilton Group, owner of British bookmaker Ladbrokes, has confirmed that it is considering forming a partnership with Greek lottery technology provider Intralot to bid for England's next National Lottery license. The current license is held by Camelot and will expire in January 2009. Several other major companies in the gaming space are known to be interested in the license, including Gala, Sportech and Sir Richard Branson's People's Lottery.
Racing Woes in North America -- The International Simulcasting Conference kicked off Monday afternoon in San Diego with discussions focusing on the future trends in gambling and the growing presence of Internet wagering. In his welcome address, Thoroughbred Horseracing Association Executive Vice President Chris Scherf pointed out that the racing industry faces major competition from online wagering sites that are luring bettors away from the racetrack, but are not contributing financially to the sport. Regarding future trends in gambling, Eugene Christiansen, founder of Christiansen Capital Advisors, drew parallels between horseracing and poker and challenged industry leaders to follow the imagination and creativity found behind the explosion of television and online poker games in the past few years. Christiansen said the pari-mutuel industry needs to embrace a new kind of business engine that involves Internet working with television, but most of all it needs to listen to its customers. He added that online wagering companies like Betfair have been successful despite legal issues because they are answering customers' calls for lower prices. "Loyalty should be with customers and not an aging business model," he said. "The customer is always right." . . . New York Racing Association (NYRA) is in such financial trouble that it will "go bust" by the end of November unless it sells land, an official said Tuesday. NYRA president Charles Hayward told Gov. George Pataki's new NYRA oversight board that his association needs $15 to $20 million from the sale of property near Aqueduct racetrack to survive. . . . Western Fair's chief operations officer says that dealing with the problematic issue of offshore gaming (which, he contends, is stealing millions from Ontario tracks) is one of his top priorities as the raceway gets set to open next week. Hugh Mitchell told the London Free Press that the track's handle of about $2.5 million for the meet ending in June was down almost 8 percent from the 2003-2004 meet. Mitchell, who was senior vice president of racing with the Woodbine Entertainment Group until April when he accepted his post at Western Fair, said the problem was definitely more pronounced at Woodbine. It's estimated that as much as $100 million is being lost annually to offshore operations at Woodbine alone. "They'd come and literally poach customers on site," Mitchell said. "They'd sign them up and . . . the more they wager, the more they rebate." The onus, he added, is on every track to make sure they are sending their simulcast product to legitimate receivers. "We need to go the extra mile to know and understand whose receiving the product and ensuring that they're paying their respective horsemen accordingly," he said.
IFHA Kitemark -- Members of the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities (IFHA) have introduced a "kitemark" standard for which online betting operators can apply. The kitemark is a certification mark that offers proof that a product or service complies with the relevant publicly available specification(s). To gain the IFHA Racing Trust Mark, which will cost €1,000, operators will have to prove they adhere to the two principles set out in Article 28 of the International Agreement, which was thrashed out and signed at last year's annual Paris conference. The agreement says that gambling services should not be offered to residents of countries where doing so is illegal, and that no operator should use a country's horseracing product for betting purposes without the express consent of the race organizer or its rights holder. Britain's two IFHA members, the BHB and Jockey Club, signed up to the agreement, but were aware that home-based operators would still be regarded as beyond the pale in many countries whose residents bet on U.K. racing on several home-based online sites. IFHA president Louis Romanet said the body would treat each application on its merits, while pointing out that awarding a Trust Mark would require unanimous support among members. "None of the music operators has any interest in sustaining the product," Romanet explained, "and that applies equally to illegal bookmakers, who pay nothing for the product but gain all of the benefits."