SkyBet Meet Tote
SkyBet has signed a deal enabling customers to bet on the full range of totepool products by pressing the interactive red button on the Sky remote control. Punters will be able to watch the action on TV while placing bets into tote pools through Sky Bet's "picture in picture" facility allowing viewers to monitor totepool prices at the same time as placing a bet. Sky Bet said it plans to offer this option for telephone customers and for skybet.com Web punters in the near future.
World Cup Wagering Results
Preliminary figures indicate that the World Cup 2006 generated more wagering than any other event in history, with total global wagering thought to be close to US$2 billion. The early eliminations of favorites England and Brazil insured that a great deal of the cash flow remained in the hands of bookmakers.
British bookmaker William Hill said its customers collectively wagered an average of £350 per second on the World Cup, more than £20,000 per minute, almost £1.5 million per hour and over £30 million per day on betting propositions ranging from the winner of the tournament to England captain David Beckham's haircut.
William Hill also revealed that it earned £17.5 million (US$32.6 million) from punters betting on the World Cup. The company said it benefited from the latter part of the tournament when Brazil and Argentina were knocked out along with England and a high proportion of matches ended in draws and penalty shoot-outs. The World Cup takings helped William Hill increase overall winnings by 25 percent to £478.3 million (US$891.7 million) in the six months to June 27 while pre-tax profits lifted 23 percent to £133.5 million (US$248,9 million), the company said.
Greek press reports indicate that Greek lottery and sports betting operator OPAP received 450 million euro (US$573 million) in bets through its fixed-odds Stihima game during the tournament.
The Prague Daily Monitor reports that residents of the Czech Republic spent over CZK 1.5 billion ($67 million) on World Cup wagering with the country's licensed bookmakers. Fortuna received the largest amount of bets, CZK 700 million ($31 million), while Tipsport received CZK 500 million ($22 million), Chance and Sazka received about CZK 100 million ($4.5 million) and Synot Tip and Victoria Tip received about CZK 50 million ($2.2 million). Betting over the Internet is illegal in the Czech Republic, but it is thought that as much as CZK 225 million ($10 million) may have been wagered online by Czech residents.
The New Zealand TAB reported turnover of AU$21.6 million (US $16.5 million) on the World Cup. Overall the TAB took more than 1 million bets.
Tabcorp Will Finally Have an Answer
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, is scheduled to release its decision Wednesday on whether to allow Victorian-based Tabcorp's hostile $2.1 billion takeover of Queensland gaming group UNiTAB. The decision was expected on July 19, but was pushed back for additional findings, which forced UNiTAB to postpone a shareholders' meeting to Aug. 21 to vote on a merger deal with Victorian lotteries giant Tattersall's.
Skybook Upgrades to LiveHive
I-gaming software developer LiveHive Systems has announced that Costa Rican online sports wagering company Skybook is replacing its current in-game betting system with the LiveHive NanoGaming Solution, which enables real-time wagering on sporting events and pop-culture competitions, in time for the 2006 National Football League (NFL) season. HivePoint, a wholly owned subsidiary of LiveHive Systems will also be launching its Speed of Sport Web site, a NanoGaming play-for-fun site in time for the NFL preseason.
Scandal in Belgium
The Belgian soccer season kicked off this weekend under the cloud of a police investigation into alleged match-fixing launched in November 2005 after betting exchange Betfair logged heavy betting patterns. A number of players, coaches and club representatives have already admitted to being involved and are facing charges. A spokeswoman for the public prosecutor has said that there is a lot more action to come after the summer break.
A Change of Identity
Online sports betting and entertainment brand betandwin has officially changed its name to bwin. Parent company BETandWIN.com Interactive Entertainment AG decided the former name was no longer suitable for the full range of entertainment options the brand had to offer, including sport betting, poker, casino games and soft games as well as live audio and video streams. It also wanted to distinguish itself from companies branding themselves with the word "bet" (Betfair, Betinternet, etc.).
Problem Gambling Training for Betfair
Mission Australia, a Christian-based charity that deals with the aftermath of problem gambling among other things, has signed a deal to train staff for Betfair's new Tasmanian operation, according to the Mercury. The charity said it had no qualms about training people to work for a gambling company such as Betfair because the contract is about giving Tasmanians new job skills. The staff will be trained in office and administrative skills, which are transferable skills. The contract would initially involve about 15 staff members but could grow to about 100. The training deal would also qualify for a government subsidy under an agreement with the state Education Department.