His identity remains a mystery to most, but an Australia-based bookmaker is in the middle of a price-fixing scandal. The bookie, whose name has been suppressed during court hearings but has been labeled "Mr. X," admitted to breaching racing rules by failing to record personal bets in his ledger. He also admitted to encouraging a fellow bookie to "wind out," or inflate, the odds on a horse. Mr. X said he only encouraged the inflation of the odds on the horse because a fellow bookie owned the horse and he knew it was unfit to win. Leading corporate bookmakers Michael Sullivan of Sportingbet and Mark Read of International All Sports on Monday accused Mr. X and two other bookmakers of conspiring to manipulate prices.
BlueSquare Broadcasts Tennis Tourney
Hoping to cash in on the popularity of in-run betting, British bookmaker BlueSquare is broadcasting the SAP Open. The tennis tournament, which got underway on Monday, can be watched for free online at BlueSquare's Web site. The group is offering a full and exclusive in-running betting service that enables wagering while matches are in progress. The matches will not be broadcast on British television. The company's press officer, Ed Pownall, said they'll broadcast similar events if demand warrants doing so.
Betfair Inks Deal with UEFA
UEFA has signed a memorandum of understanding with Betfair, the world's leading betting exchange. The agreement will enable UEFA to monitor football betting with the aim of ensuring the continued integrity of European football. The league will be able to request information that will identify individuals behind suspicious betting-related activity.
Anybets.com Offering Grammy Wagers
Betting on the Grammy Awards isn't anything new to the online betting industry, but Anybets.com is raising it to a new level. Not only can customers bet on who they think will win the top awards, but they can combine their favorites with side bets like what color dress Cheryl Crow will wear as she picks up the award for Best Female Pop Vocal performance. Crow is the prohibitive favorite with Anybets users, with 69 percent of them predicting she will win the award for her performance of "The First Cut is the Deepest" at odds of 1:1.25. Seventy-nine percent are betting she will be at the ceremony to accept the award , and 37 percent believe she will be wearing a black or gray outfit.
Sportsbook.com Wants the Mientkiewicz Ball
Sportsbook.com has offered to buy a controversial piece of World Series history.
The Boston Red Sox ended 86 years of a championship drought in October when they swept the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series, but the club never had ownership of the ball that clinched the title for them. The team's reserve first baseman, Doug Mientkiewicz, kept the ball used for the final out and has refused to hand it over to the team. Mientkiewicz told the press that the ball was his retirement fund and that it would be cool "if we have kids some day to have it stay in our family for a long time. But I can be bought. I'm thinking, there's four years at Florida State for one of my kids." Sportsbook.com offered to buy the ball, with the intension of giving it back to the team, but Mientkiewicz later agreed to loan the ball to the team so fans could see it as part of a winter tour.
More High Street Betting Shops
A new report from ATE Intelligence indicates that the number of licensed betting offices in the United Kingdom could rise from 8,200 to more than 8,800 over the next two years. The report, "UK Betting & Gaming 2005," suggests that the number of betting shops will grow, but the number of independent shops could decrease. Extended opening hours, a record number of scheduled race meetings and ancillary products (such as virtual racing), coupled with the more established boost given by the roll-out of FOBTs and the lowering of betting taxes are expected to contribute to the growth.