Wheelin' & Dealin' -- Business has been great for British online sportsbook
Sportingbet.com since it opened up shop in Alderney a few months ago. This week, the company announced a marketing agreement that it expects will give the website access to over 500,000 subscribers. Pursuant to the agreement,
Virtual Internet Provider Ltd. (VIP), a wholly owned subsidiary of
Affinity Internet Holdings Plc, will provide marketing services for Sportingbet.com. VIP provides branded internet access to over 70 organizations, including
Arsenal Football Club,
Royal Bank of Scotland,
Prudentials' Egg,
The Open University and
Reed Business Information. The service allows organizations to offer Internet access to their customers and employees using their own brand. Sportingbet.com will be made available to all of VIP's customers.
E-commerce provider eConnect announced that it has formed a strategic alliance with Kanakaris Communications in which Kanakaris will deliver streaming entertainment that will be packaged as part of eConnect's Internet Cash Pay-Per-Play service. The streaming entertainment will include pay-per-view webcasts utilizing Microsoft Windows Media Technologies 4.0.
eConnect will provide content suppliers with the ability to be paid with Same-as-CashTM ATM card with PIN payments or enhanced credit card payments. Initial Beta tests are targeted for November. Meanwhile, Kanakaris announced last week that it's one of the companies chosen by Microsoft as part of the Microsoft broad band initiative to deliver broadcast quality content over the Internet. Kanakaris Communications CEO Alex Kanakaris explained, "With the partnership between Kanakaris Communications and eConnect, all the elements are now in place for Internet Same-as-Cash payments for major events ranging from charity, film, sports and other entertainment providers.''
Investors' Corner -- TV Guide, the parent company of Television Games Network, has been sold to Gemstar International Group, the creator of VCR Plus programming, for $8.6 billion in stock and $600 million in debt, a total package of $9.2 billion. TV Guide shareholders will receive .06573 shares of Gemstar for each share of TV Guide, and the deal should be completed by the second half of 2000. Gemstar founder and CEO Henry Yuen, will serve as chairman and CEO of the new company, to be called TV Guide International, with TV Guide's Peter Boylan III, serving as co-president with TV Guide chairman Joe Kiener, and Gemstar's chief operating and financial officer Elsie Leung,. How the deal will affect TVG, if at all, remains to be seen, but Boylan, commenting on the arrangement, said "You need to be a player in all fields." The sale ends patent infringement lawsuits between the two companies over some of their interactive TV listing technology. The market greeted the news with Gemstar's stock falling $7.43 3/4 to $76.18 3/4 and TV Guide's stock rising $4.41 to $45.93 3/4. It was the second time this year that TV Guide has been sold, News Corp., having sold it earlier in 1999 to United Video Satellite Group,, which then took TV Guide's name.
According to the Australian Financial News, Lasseters Casino may be considering a public stock offering after the new year. Lasseters operates the Alice Springs casino and Australia's first regulated online gaming site, Lasseter's Online. Owner Quilter Assets Australia Pty Ltd. is expected to keep a majority interest after the public offering.
Business is good for Go Call Inc. The company recently announced that $6,294,519 in gross wagers were processed by Go Cash, a transaction processing subsidiary of Go Call Inc., for September 1999 for GoCasino.com and ImperialDragonCasino.com. The company reports that gross wagers processed by Go Cash have totaled $42,838,380 from January 1999 to September 1999. It also announce that Go Cash is in the final testing phase of processing transactions for an Internet sports wagering system.
Youbet.com's co-founder and vice chairman, 36-year-old David Marshall plans to resign as an officer and director of the company at the end of the
year and become a consultant to Youbet in the international and regulatory areas. In another development, the company announced it had elected Charles Peebler Jr., former president of True North Communications, the world's sixth largest advertising agency holding company, and chairman and CEO of True North's Diversified Companies, to its board, replacing Jess Rifkind.
New Stuff -- Germany-based Q-Seven Systems Inc. announced Monday the completion of Wallstreet Online Casino, the first Internet site to use the company's online gambling software. The operating company, AMG, will use Q-Seven's User Management Software to run two online casinos. Work is proceeding on the second site and due to be finished soon, according to Philipp Kriependorf, president of Q-Seven,
Cyberoad.com Corporation has launched a faster, more user-friendly version of its free WiseGuy Contest at www.thesportsmachine.com. The most exciting new feature of the contest allows participants to select their bet choices and place them into a "shopping cart" called the Bet Builder. In addition, WiseGuy Contest participants can now place three new, dynamic bet types: parlaying and teasing across multiple sports, as well as buying points on a spread within a parlay. The new "Open Bets" section offers contestants an instantly updated game status report on all their open bets as the event is completed and graded, allowing players to check the real-time status of all bets.
Promotions -- Intertops.com, one of the Web's original sportsbooks, is taking bets on whether rapper/actor/sports agent Master P will fulfill his lifelong dream and make a regular season lineup in the NBA. Master P is trying out for the Toronto Raptors. Intertops set the odds of his making the team at 16 to 1.
The recently launched Flamingo Beach Casino (www.flamingobeachcasino.com) is going to give away a brand new Ferrari 360 Modena.
Policy -- An Australian Senate committee conducted a hearing last week in Canberra that probed the regulation of online gambling. The Senate inquiry examined the effectiveness of state and territory laws. Chairwoman Jeannie Ferris said the committee was also considering the possibility of establishing federal laws to regulate Internet gambling. "At the moment there is no federal legislation, as I say it's emerging technology, but we will be looking at whether there is a need for federal legislation," Ferris said.
Kyl Spotting -- Newsbytes reported this week that Arizona Senator Jon Kyl is confident that his Internet Gambling Prohibition Act will find its way to the Senate floor before the session ends in early November. Kyl says the main problem has been finding an open space on the calendar and not the fact that the bill has garnered fierce opposition.
Quote Worthy -- "The Productivity Commission needs to say to the government and to state governments, there can no longer be self-regulation by the (Intnernet Gambling) industry. The gaming industry, which cynically promotes gambling at every turn, is not in a position to self-regulate; it's like Dracula running the blood bank. This is completely inappropriate and we hope they'll make that recommendation."
-- Reverend Tim Costello, from the Victorian-based Interchurch Gambling Taskforce, speaking before Australia's Productivity Commission.