UKBetting Inks Deal with Chartwell
One of England's leading online gambling brands, UKBetting, announced a new agreement on Wednesday with online gambling software supplier that will see the Canadian-based tech firm bring flash-based games to the UKBetting site.
As part of the deal Chartwell will include the games across a number of UKBetting's online gaming sites.
Lee Richardson, Chief Executive of Chartwell Games said the deal is important to the company as it tries to grow its business in the UK and throughout Europe and align itself with a " growing betting, gaming and sports-content client base."
New Pool-betting Site Goes Live
A new sports betting site aimed at bringing the concept of pari-mutuel wagering to the wider sports betting public.
The new site, AnyBets.com, went live this week and allows the market to set the odds and derives its profit from a cut taken from the aggregate wagers before winnings are distributed. The concept, also know as pool betting, is a risk-free system for operators since revenues are taken on the amount bet rather than the amount lost.
To broaden is market appeal even more, AnyBets.com isn't focused just on sports betting. The site offers betting on politics, finance, entertainment and society.
BetWWTS.com and WagerOnSports.com Offering Lower Juice
Online sports books BetWWTS.com and WagerOnSports.com announced the companies will offer lower vigorish (vig or juice) specials to customers on Wednesdays and Thursdays throughout the month of November.
Each Wednesday, customers can bet sides and totals on all college and pro football games on the board for the week at a five-cent line. For basketball bettors, both BetWWTS.com and WagerOnSports.com are offering seven-cent lines on sides and totals for college and pro hoops games every Thursday.
The reduced juice specials will provide substantial savings from the traditional 10 percent vigorish bettors are charged for placing wagers on sporting events.
U.S. Presidential Elections Inspire Betting
Two leading betting exchanges saw different patterns from its punters in the days leading up to the U.S. Presidential Election last week.
Officials with Betdaq saw a late flurry of action on Democratic challenger John Kerry. The Senators' odds off winning the election went from 2.35 down to 2.30 while incumbent George W. Bush saw his odds slip from 1.73 to 1.76 the day before the election.
The high point of the Kerry campaign came in the wake of the party Convention a full three months ago when he traded as low as 1.95. The low was four weeks ago when he touched 3.10 and appeared friendless in the Betdaq betting market.
The incumbent was available at odds of 2.0 pretty much throughout August but since traded as short as 1.46.
On Betfair, however, Bush had a 60 percent probability of winning – a clear margin over Kerry. Of the £3 million of bets that were matched on Betfair's U.S. election winner's market, Bush received a massive £2.3 million of support from gamblers, with Kerry only attracting £680,000 of bets.
Bush was backed as low as 1.20 (1/5) for a second term in office, whilst his rival Kerry was laid by Betfair's customers at odds as high as 3.00 (2/1).
Betfair to challenge Dutch government
Betfair, the leading online betting exchange, is set to challenge the Dutch government's decision to grant an exclusive license to De Lotto, the Dutch monopoly gaming and betting operator.
Betfair believes that EU law requires the Dutch government to properly consider Betfair's request for a license.
Betfair is turning to the courts after the Dutch Ministry of Justice sat on its license application for more than a year and then rejected it. The legal proceedings are likely to be filed this week.
The exchange is also fighting moves by De Lotto to have Betfair permanently excluded from accepting sports bets from Holland.
Sportingbet Leaps Into Poker Market
Thanks to a massive £170 million acquisition of Paradise Poker last month online gambling brand Sportingbet quickly became a major player in the online poker world.
Paradise, regarded as one of the largest online poker sites in the industry, was sold to Sportingbet and a full integration of the two companies is expected sometime in 2005.
Links were already placed for the new poker site on the various Sportingbet brands, Sportsbook.com and Sportingbet.com chief among them.
Paradise launched a billboard advertising campaign in the UK starring the scantily clad model Caprice while Sportingbet only had a small online poker division before the deal.
Intertops Offers Odds on Miss World Contest
After offering odds on the upcoming Miss World Contest punters at Intertops.com have quickly installed Sayali Bhagat of India as a 7/1 favorite to win the crown.
The tropical island of Sanya in China plays host to this year's pageant of the world's most beautiful women.
Miss Brazil, Albania and Dominican Republic are all coming in at 9/1 odds right behind India as other contenders to win the crown as part of the 54th annual event.
At the bottom of Intertops.com's betting are Miss Turks & Caicos at 100/1 and Miss Kenya at 150/1.
Mystery Winner Finally Comes Forward
A punter who set a new record for winnings at a UK betting shop finally came forward after days of mystery.
The punter, from Salford, claimed a £1 million jackpot after gambling £480 on the Tote Scoop 6 at Betfred bookmakers in Greater Manchester last week.
The man, known only as Ken, won £1,132,657 but the prize went unclaimed and his whereabouts remained a mystery to both the Tote and Betfred. He finally came forward this week to registered for this Saturday's bonus race just a day before the deadline. If he wins again, he will pocket a further £754,452.
Scoop 6 is a game run by the Tote, which selects six Saturday races for people to bet on. Punters have to pick the six winning horses to scoop the jackpot. Even if Tom misses his pick in the bonus race he still will collect is original winnings.