DEAL MAKERS Neteller, payment solutions provider, and Born Group, a holding company that owns and operates BornForSports marketplace, have signed a five year payment and joint marketing agreement.
The agreement features exclusive use of Neteller Payment Suite on Born Group’s merchants and brands, which includes a co-branded e-wallet called Born Express powered by Neteller. The e-wallet will become standard method of payment across the Born Group's networks with focus on the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy and China.
“We see this agreement with BORN Group as one of the Neteller’s key initiatives to generate a step-change in the number of active consumers using the Neteller Payment Suite,” said Ronald D. Martin, president and chief executive of Neteller.
NEW ADDITION On Friday, the Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association, or iMEGA, announced that Stephen A. Saltzburg had joined its legal team.
The trade association has bolstered its team with the law professor at George Washington University as it plans to challenge the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act in the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
In addition to being a professor of law at George Washington University, Mr. Saltzburg is a former deputy assistant attorney general in the Criminal Division of the Justice Department and chairman of the American Bar Association Criminal Justice Section from 2007 to 2008.
“Professor Saltzburg is simply one of the best,” said Joe Brennan Jr., chairman and chief executive of iMEGA, in a prepared statement. “His experience speaks for itself. We are fortunate to have a true heavyweight advocate in our corner.”
BIG SPENDERS Data released by Kreutzer Fischer & Partner, a market research firm, shows that in 2007 Austria's gross gaming revenues were at 15.4 billion euros or 12.4 percent more than the year before.
It reports that the sports betting market is the most dynamic, with an average growth rate in the past three years at 50 percent, and three quarters of operations are now online. The annual game operations grew by almost one billion euros in 2004 to 3.2 billion euros in 2007.
According to the study, this pace of online growth will decelerate in Austria during the next two years with growth at 13 percent in 2008 and 8 percent in 2009.
PLAY ON PurePlay, a United States play-for-cash poker site, has attained the 1.5-million player goal, it announced on Monday.
During that time, the gamer destination doled out $4 million in cash prizes.
"We are committed to staying at the forefront of legal online poker, and that means pulling out the stops in giving our members the excitement of competitive play and generous cash prizes without exposing them to the risk of losing their own money," said Jason Kellerman, PurePlay chief executive, in a prepared statement. "No other poker site has implemented this approach as successfully as we have in attracting players at all levels and delivering an online gaming experience that keeps them coming back."
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