Online Casino -- Cassava Enterprises, the Gibraltar-based operator of online gaming sites 888.com (Casino On Net) and PacificPoker.com, has launched another new gaming site called Online Casino at www.online-casino.com. The company is still planning to float on the London Stock Exchange this month, despite the sharp decline in rival gaming company PartyGaming's share price earlier this week.
Poker in Sweden -- The 14th annual Spelakademin (Gaming Academy) was held in Sweden this week, giving the country's legal gaming operators the opportunity to meet with politicians, public bodies, media representatives, suppliers and researchers to discuss different political, legal, economic and social aspects of the gaming market. Sweden's vice prime minister Bosse Ringholm stated at Speladkademin that he believed Sweden's gaming operators should have the same business opportunities as private foreign bookmakers. He was most likely indicating that the Swedish government will indeed grant the country's national lottery operator Svenska Spel a license to operate online poker on its Internet site. Svenska Spel applied for such a license in January of this year. It is estimated that foreign betting companies collect 84 percent of the revenue form interactive gaming in Sweden. Svenska Spel thinks it could get take 30 percent of the Internet poker market in the country and deliver US$40 million to the government in taxes if it were licensed. Other speakers at the Spelakademin discussed Sweden's ongoing study into a possible new gambling framework. The study will be published on December 15th.
Remote Tables -- DEQ Systems Corp., which provides auxiliary gaming systems that compliment existing casino gaming tables, has obtained a patent that completes its development of a remote betting system that will allow spectators not seated at the table to wager on the success of players sitting at the table. The system streams the table's action to the remote spectators and is currently compatible with blackjack, baccarat, roulette and poker. DEQ also plans to integrate multiple side betting and mystery bonusing. The company says its product is great for people who like to watch but not participate in live casino table games and for people who would like the chance to win progressive jackpots or random prizes while betting on their favorite players or those who seem most promising.
Floating -- Gaming operator Codere, which operates in Europe and Latin America and is considered possibly the largest Spanish group of gaming companies, has enlisted the aid of Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley in preparation for a potential float on a major market before the end of 2005. The company is reportedly considering a public sale of 30 to 35 percent of the capital of the company.
WhiteLabeling -- BetCorp Limited, operator of BetWWTS.com, has launched a white label partner program at WhiteLabelGaming.com, offering companies the opportunity to operate their own e-gaming site using the BetCorp model. Partners will be responsible for managing their own brand development, marketing and player acquisition while outsourcing all other aspects of operations to a trusted partner.
Team Sponsorship -- I-gaming software provider Las Vegas From Home.com Entertainment Inc. says that its subsidiary Action Poker Gaming Inc has signed an in-arena marketing deal with the NBA's Los Angeles Clippers that will allow the company to promote its two new brands—ActionPoker.com and ActionPoker.net—through courtside signage, promotional giveaways, print media and the presenting sponsorship of the Clippers' Spirit Dance Team. The deal also gives the company airtime for commercials during each of the team's KTLA television network broadcasts during the 2005/2006 season as well as radio ad time during each of the Clippers' pre-season and regular season radio broadcasts. Las Vegas From Home.com's president and CEO Jake Kalpakian says that in addition to the deal with the Clippers, his company will aggressively market the Action Poker brands over the next few months across the U.S. through traditional means and will also introduce unique marketing initiatives. The Action Poker brands send their player traffic to the Action Poker Network, which also hosts Las Vegas From Home.com's third party licensee's as well as its own flagship site, TigerGaming.com.
Mobile in Hong Kong -- On Wednesday the Hong Kong Jockey Club launched a new mobile service for betting on horse races, football matches and Mark Six lotteries. Developed in cooperation with wireless network provider SmarTone-Vodafone, the new service is called Bet to Win and provides customers with live television feeds of events and real-time statistics and information. The previous version of the Jockey Club's mobile service allowed punters only to place wagers via SMS text messaging.
Spam Bust -- Online casino operator 4's a Fortune Limited has reportedly become Ireland's first conviction under its European Communities Regulations of 2003. The company was found guilty of sending unsolicited marketing messages to five mobile phones.4's a Fortune allegedly contacted 165,000 O2 mobile customers, but authorities only investigated messages that became the subject of complaints.
Quickies -- Online poker software provider B2B Poker.com released a new web-based Java client that requires no download or installation and is also compatible with Linux and Macintosh operating systems in addition to Windows… Littlewoods Betdirect has launched a mobile casino suite using mobile technology from Mfuse and software from Boss Media. Betdirect already has a mobile sportsbook that has been in operation since March 2005… Mahjong gaming software provider Mahjong Mania has signed a deal to launch its Mahjong platform on the soccer betting website of Asian betting and gaming operator Betex… Mice and Dice Limited (formerly known as Gamesys Marketing Support Ltd), the marketing subsidiary of online gaming company Gamesys, has named Michael Braga as its new managing director. Mice and Dice provides marketing services for Profitable Play, which operates Jackpotjoy.com… Three players from the Chongqing Lifan football team in China's Super League have been fired on suspicion of match fixing. China's Super League has been filled with troubles in recent years, and began this season one month late because teams were struggling with ticket sales. Other alleged match fixing incident occurred in May when a coach who was fired accused members of his team of fixing games… Online skill games provider WorldWinner, Inc has signed an advertising deal with Facebook, an online social network directory that is popular and colleges and universities, that will create a WorldWinner-sponsored Facebook group where students can compete in online games to win merchandise such as Xboxes, Sony PSPs and laptop computers.