Friday, April 4
US Tidbit -- The St. Petersburg Times reported that the National Collegiate Athletic Association is keeping an eye on the situation of Adrian McPherson, the former Florida State quarterback who is charged with gambling-related offenses. Bill Saum, the NCAA director of agent, gambling and amateurism activities, told the paper that while he couldn't comment on specifics, he could affirm that the organization is "aware of what's going on." "We review everything from A to Z, with or without law enforcement," Saum said.
Bit from the UK -- Person-to-person betting site Betdaq.co.uk said that it expects voluminous traffic this weekend and that overall, the betting exchange industry could handle $100 million on Saturday's horse races alone. Betdaq said it serves between 20 and 25 percent of the U.K. betting exchange market. "This one day will be the biggest in all our short lives," said Rob Hartnett, Betdaq's managing director. "We have win, place and special markets on the big race, Man United and Liverpool kicking off in the evening time for Asian customers, and the Premiership back after a break. It will be magic."
New Stuff -- In a press release issued Thursday, a group calling itself the International Gaming Industry Poverty Relief Project said it is interested in organizing the gambling industry to donate money to alleviate worldwide poverty. Visit www.igiprp.org for more information.
Thursday, April 3
Las Vegas Tidbit -- Will fear of SARS -- Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome -- the flu-like illness that started its spread in Asia, have an effect on Las Vegas travel? In Thursday's Las Vegas Sun, representatives from several of the city's hotel-casinos say that while a drop in visits from Asian high rollers could happen, the war in Iraq still weights more heavily on the minds of tourists than potential illness. "I think the issue of international tourism right now is far more tied to concerns about international travel due to the geopolitical situation than it is about SARS, said a spokesman for Park Place Entertainment Corp. Alan Feldman, spokesman for MGM Mirage, said he thinks SARS is probably a bigger issue for airlines than for Las Vegas casinos. "I would think that the impact based on where we are today going forward would be minimal, but it's too early to tell," he said.
Wednesday, April 2
US Tidbit -- The Las Vegas Sun reported Wednesday that Frank Han, the senior vice president of electronic commerce for Park Place Entertainment Corp. , left the casino and hotel operating company last week amid reports that Park Place is discontinuing its plans to develop an online gambling site.
Making Deals -- SureFire Commerce Inc. has completed the first phase of its merger with ebs Electronic Billing Systems AG. SureFire, which is based in Montreal, has issued about 2.7 million shares of its common stock to Munich-based ebs in return of 51 percent of ebs' shares. ... CryptoLogic is announcing a deal with ukbetting plc, the largest sports betting an online sports content provider in the United Kingdom. CryptoLogic's WagerLogic subsidiary will license Internet casino and poker software to ukbetting, which has 3.5 million users per month. Eric Semel, the CEO of ukbetting, said his group chose CryptoLogic software because it has a proven track record. "They are the obvious choice to bring online casino and poker to our large user base that will drive cross marketing opportunities and increase revenue from our sports content and betting business," he said. ... WorldWinner recently completed an agreement with Electronic Arts (EA) to provide cash tournaments for EA's online gaming site, called Pogo, which offers free information for game enthusiasts. On WorldWinner's Web site, the company offers online skill-based tournaments for cash prizes. ... Poker.com is entering a master license agreement with Pokersoft Corp. AVV of Curacao for the exclusive development of its skill-based poker technology. Poker.com will pay Pokersoft a licensing fee of $30,000 and 3 million shares of Poker.com common stock. The Curacao-based company will then receive 15 percent of the gross revenue generated by the software.
Tuesday, April 1
Making Deals -- Parlay Entertainment Ltd. , an Internet gaming software company that's part of the DCEG Group of Companies, announced Monday that four of its recent licensees are now online. Two of them, www.bingobilly.com and www.casinobilly.com, are operated by Sportingbet plc. Another, www.winwardcasino.com, is operated by Metagalaxia S.A. , which has been in the online gaming business since 1998 and also operates bingohall.com. The last, www.thevirtualbingo.com, is a sister site to www.thevirtualcasino.com. Parlay said it plans to open two more casino sites and one more bingo site with Sportingbet in a matter of months.
New Stuff -- William Hill is said to be close to launching a new Web site that will appeal primarily to bettors who only wager once year--on the Grand National horse race. The site will be unveiled later this week, reported Revolution UK Online. The company has also inked an agreement with NetNames, a domain name provider. William Hill's domain names now include williamhillgrandnational.com, williamhillcasino.com and williamhillpoker.com. The U.K.-based bookmaker reported a rise in e-gaming operating profits of 123 percent last year.
Monday, March 31
Making Deals -- CryptoLogic Inc. is announcing a new client relationship with Bingo Entertainment NV, the Cyprus-based online bingo operator and marketing company. Through CryptoLogic's wholly owned subsidiary, WagerLogic Ltd. , Bingo Entertainment will license Internet poker software. Lewis Rose, CryptoLogic's president and CEO, said online poker is one of the fastest growing game segments on the Internet. "Since its release last fall, our unique, centralized poker offering -- which directs different operators into a single room for enhanced liquidity -- already powers one of the top 10 poker rooms on the Web," he said. CryptoLogic estimates that table poker accounts for about 5 percent of the online gambling market.
Tidbit from the US -- Aside from a recent article that appeared in a Las Vegas newspaper, the world hasn't heard much from imprisoned Internet bookmaker Jay Cohen of World Sports Exchange in the last nine months. Expect that silence to be broken soon. Cohen's attorneys are preparing to file a post-conviction petition in an effort to overturn the March 2000 conviction that ultimately landed him in jail. An appeal was shot down in 2001 and a petition for a Supreme Court trial was denied last year. Expect the next petition to be filed within the next few weeks.
Tidbit from Denmark -- The first-ever conference on gambling addiction was held in Denmark recently, where participants head about the proliferation of gambling addiction that comes with online and mobile gambling. The country's National Center for Gambling Addiction estimates that about 150,000 Danes have a gambling problem and about 40,000 people have severe enough problems that it can be classified as an addiction. The conference hosted 100 Nordic gambling specialists and researchers from the United States and the United Kingdom. The Copenhagen Post reports that the Danish Tips Service along with companies in Norway and Sweden helped fund the event. "We dominate a large segment of the gambling market, and we're ready and willing to listen and learn," said Thomas Rorsig, the information chief for the Danish Tips Service. "We're not prepared to adapt our entire industry to the problem, but we acknowledge the importance of dialogue between ourselves and the treatment community."