Owen's future draws in punters
With Michael Owen hinting at an exit from Liverpool if the Reds fail to qualify for the Champions League, Paddy Power is betting on the striker's next destination.
Owen, who has 18 months left on his current contract, told Shoot magazine: "It is impossible to say about my future at Liverpool. If they are winning the league every year, there will not be any decision to make about playing abroad. But I really need to be playing in the Champions League and that is something we have to remedy."
Paddy Power make a Spanish club the 1/5 favorite while it's 5/1 that his next move would be to another Premiership club. No specific clubs are mentioned in the betting, only which league the club is a part of.
All Blacks lead the way in betting action
SuperOdds, the Official Betting Agency for the Rugby World Cup, reported the majority of betting action on this weekend's Rugby World Cup semifinals is being placed on heavy favorite New Zealand.
SuperOdds has New Zealand hot 1.24 favorites to defeat Australia in Saturday night's semi in Sydney while the hosts are friendless in the betting at 4.10. The Wallabies are given +11 points start (paying 1.90) in SuperOdds' line betting.
In the outright market, New Zealand continues to firm and is even money favorites (2.00) to lift the trophy after some serious wagers.
England, who were joint 2.50 favorites with New Zealand earlier in the tournament, are now out to 3.65. France is steady at 5.50 while the Australians are 8.50 outsiders.
Despite some indifferent form, SuperOdds have installed England as 1.60 favorites to defeat France on Sunday.
BetWWTS launches wireless platform
BetWWTS.com released the world's first real-time wireless sports book application earlier this month.
BetWWTS Wireless is available for phones and PDAs powered by PocketPC (Windows Mobile) or PalmOS. BetWWTS Wireless allows customers to wager on all major international sports events from their mobile devices without any slow browsers.
Powered by Phantom Fiber, the market leader in wireless technology and mobile solutions, BetWWTS Wireless offers bettors true mobility where data wireless or Wi-Fi services are available.
Employing SmartStream technology, the wireless sports book software delivers a rich interactive environment allowing customers to wager for real money in real-time at Internet landline speeds on their mobile phone or PDA.
A future release of the product will allow customers to deposit and withdraw funds directly from their account using the wireless sports book software.
Finspreads upgrades Web site
Finspreads, the company that pioneered online spread betting in the UK, launched a new website with additional functions.
The new site offers instant 'streaming' prices. The price shown on screen is the price customers make deals at. This instant price is available both online and over the telephone.
The site also includes a live AFX news feed and an optional split screen layout - meaning the customer can view live tradable prices and manage other areas of their account simultaneously.
In addition, Finspreads has permanently cut the spread on the Wall Street daily cash to 6 points in hours, and 7 points out of hours.
Finspreads was launched in 1999. It offers contracts on individual shares, stock markets, currencies, metals and commodities.
Victoria leading efforts to ban betting exchanges in Australia
Victoria racing officials were among the chief opponents of betting exchanges at a meeting earlier this month in Sydney of state and territory racing and gaming ministers.
Victoria's Racing Minister John Pandazopoulos said that it was time to end the leaking of revenue caused by "free-loaders" on the Victoria's racing product.
He said that betting exchanges and interstate-based corporate bookmakers had been leaking revenue from Victoria's racing product for too long.
"Cross-border betting is responsible for approximately $340 million per year leaving Victoria to corporate bookmaking agencies in the Northern Territory and the ACT," he said. "And, if we have the same experience in Victoria that we've seen in Britain, up to another $30 million in direct contributions to the racing industry would be lost because of betting exchanges."
State and territory gaming and racing ministers are due to meet the federal Minister for Family and Community Services Kay Patterson on November 21 to discuss the issues.
Betfair launches new betting software platform
Betfair, the world's leading P2P betting exchange, announced late last month the launch of their new international software platform, Betex.
Betex is a more efficient and easier-to-use interface giving the punter greater access, more choice and even greater control.
This is the most significant new product in Betfair's international expansion and is reflective of how the largest betting exchange in the world is progressing on a global scale.
The roll out comes in a year when the company won the prestigious Queen's Award for Enterprise, in the Innovation category, for 2003.
The Chinese will be the first to benefit from this more efficient platform – accessible in traditional Chinese and Mandarin – which has been localized to benefit punters in foreign jurisdictions, allowing a 'punter friendly' environment in which to bet.
Tim Levene, Betfair's Commercial Director, said Betex marks a significant point in Betfair's evolution.
"In terms of business development this is highly significant in Betfair's technological advances and a product we are looking forward to offering our U.K punters in the near future," he said. "The company has invested millions of pounds in technology as it continually seeks to improve what is already the best quality of service being offered to the betting customer. This latest product highlights that on-going and very important process, and underlines the extent to which Betfair is the industry standard."
Within the next few months punters will be able to place bets globally, and in 12 different languages.
Las Palmas introduces betting exchange
Las Palmas - the premier online gambling sports book - become the latest sports book to launch a person-to-person betting exchange earlier this month using TradingSports Exchange Systems plc technology.
The launch of the Las Palmas exchange is part of a 5-year exclusive contract with TradingSports - the AIM listed supplier of betting exchange technology, which on Monday announced its maiden interim results since the Group's successful flotation in May.
Part of the Horizon20.com group, Las Palmas is located and licensed in Costa Rica.
The betlp.com site will enable sports bettors to bet directly with other bettors on a wide range of U.S. and European sporting events, including motor sports, baseball, basketball, hockey, football and soccer.
"Betting Exchanges are here to stay and we expect our new P2P offering to add to our business' growth," said Kevin Martin, CEO of Las Palmas. "The appeal of in-running betting is well documented and the share of the worldwide P2P gambling market is growing all the time."