Friday, Aug. 22
Ads -- Betfair is concentrating its marketing efforts exclusively on the Internet for the new soccer season. While the company targeted a lot of print publications last year, this year it has contracted Wheelhouse Creative to produce its online ads and All Response Media to place them. Betfair will feed live odds into their online ads and boasts that it has the only site that offers in-play odds on all Premiership matches.
Delayed -- Sky Bet and Global Interactive Gaming Ltd have adjusted the launch schedule for the SportXction system's three delivery modes. SportXction's Internet service will be released first, followed by a 1/4 screen interface offering on Sky's digital television service. The Sky Bet live service, which was previously scheduled to launch first, will be the last release and will feature commentary and other in-run wagering information.
Mad Punter -- u.tv.com reports that an angry punter from Cork has said that she will object to the renewal of Paddy Power's license. This is the legal process she is seeking after lawyers told her that a betting slip does not constitute a contract so she therefore cannot sue for money. The punter, Agnes Higgins, had accepted 33-1 odds that John Gardiner would be the first scorer in the All-Ireland hurling semi-final replay, but Paddy Power will not honor the docket because Gardiner scored a point, not a goal.
News Wager -- BerverlyHillsBookie.com is giving odds and taking wagers on which TV journalists will score the huge interviews. Bets are being taken on who will interview former POW Jessica Lynch, exiled Liberian President Charles Taylor, Kobe Bryant, and Bryant's accuser.
Poker Tourneys -- Ladbrokespoker.com will sponsor the Irish Winter Festival at the Merrion Casino Club in Dublin on October 23-26. Beginning August 26, Ladbrokespoker.com will host online tournaments that will give five of its online players the chance to participate with some of the best poker players in the world.
Move to Man -- According to New Media Zero, Fixed Odds Capital is considering the possibilities of moving its offices from Malta to the Isle of Man. Fixed odds is owned by the Hong Kong group iRegent and operates a financial betting service at www.betonmarkets.com. Fixed odds, which currently has licenses in Malta and the UK, is enticed by the new laws that will allow Isle of Man licensed operators to advertise in the UK while still maintaining low tax rates.
Quoteworthy -- "I have seen heart failure, amnesia, paralysis and many other severe medical conditions, and after many inpatient days and negative test results, the diagnosis is usually acute financial infarction," said Dr. Namin Chazin, who has been seeing psychiatric patients in Atlantic City for nearly 20 years. Dr. Chazin says he frequently sees a rarely diagnosed disease that he calls acute financial infarction, wherein patients suffer serious maladies that function to buy time to regroup. Dr. Chazin will present his findings to the 17th World Congress on Psychosomatic Medicine in Hawaii August 27.
New Stuff -- English Harbour has released the Platinum Edition of its online casino, featuring five new games, new playing features, and enhanced graphics. English Harbour will feature a Win Your Shoe Size In Platinum contest to coincide with the Platinum Edition launch.
Thursday, Aug. 21
Survey Says -- Guardian yesterday published the results of its 2003 ICM lifestyle poll of the United Kingdom. Out of a random set of 1,001 surveyed adults, 65 percent had played the lottery within the last year, 38 percent had participated in a raffle, and 17 percent had bet on a horse. Only 2 percent of those surveyed had gambled online.
Quoteworthy -- "There's no hope for growth unless you internationalize your product," said Mark Read, executive chairman of Australian gambling firm International All Sports. Read was commenting to the Australian Financial Review in support of P2P operator Betfair 's expansion into Australia.
ITVi -- British Sky Broadcasting has declared ITVi as the brand name of its new and improved interactive television division, which will have a constant 24-hour presence beginning next month. ITV's Premier League football program has already been updated and now lets users access statistics and match results, pose questions to the presenters, and vote on weekly questions. Champion's League and Pop Idol will also receive upgrades with betting at their core.
Bettor Ban -- According to NEWS.com.au, Australian bookmaker SportsTAB has put a punter's account on alert because he wins too much. Hamish Davidson, the successful punter who reportedly wagers around $2 million a year with SportsTAB, has been barred from making most online wagers, and he encounters much scrutiny from TAB representatives whenever he tries to place a wager by phone. Apparently SportsTAB's license does not require the company to accept all bets.
Makin' Deals -- Interactive Systems Worldwide Inc. 's wholly owned subsidiary, Global Interactive Gaming Limited, has signed an agreement with Sportingbet, whereby ISWI's SportXction system has been incorporated into Sportingbet's U.K. and European sports wagering Web sites. GIG will operate and provide the technology for the SportXction system, and Sportingbet will market it. A soft release was launched yesterday, and now SportXction's integration into Sportingbet is complete and service is fully functional.
Wednesday, Aug. 20
Problem Gamblers -- A study that observed 96 Southeast Asian refugees from Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam suggests that nearly 60 percent are pathological gamblers, according to Nancy Petry, an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Connecticut Health Center. Petry, whose study was published in the August issue of the American Psychiatric Association's journal, says that social workers attribute the refugees' high problem gambling rate to trauma that they faced when leaving their native countries and to a lower degree of bias among Asians against gambling. Forty-two percent of the participants bet at least $500 within two months of the survey, and over 60 percent typically wagered more than $100 on a given gambling day.
Tourney Games -- Everyday nearly half a million people play Gamehouse's Collapse! and FreshGames's Cubis, and now the two companies' partnership with Worldwinner will let players engage in competitive tournaments for cash and prizes at worldwinner.com. WorldWinner facilitates over 2 million tournaments per month and awards over $100,000 each day in cash prizes.
Makin' Deals -- Poker.com, Inc. will launch and operate its second poker license for its Skill Poker system www.poker.cc. Poker.com, located in Vancouver, Canada, has nearly finished internal beta testing for the system, which has a patent pending and will launch in next few weeks with a series of promotional campaigns.
Tuesday, Aug. 19
Rat Race -- The Alaska attorney general's office is reviewing an opinion that could put a stop to a state fair tradition called the "rat" race. In a rat race, a gerbil is placed on a slowly turning wheel with several colored holes, and bettors try to guess which hole the gerbil will use to exit the wheel. If Palmer Elks Lodge, the group that hosts the game, is able to prove that it has been holding the races since before Alaska became a state in 1959, then it might be permitted to continue the tradition.
Dealing -- OpenTV, a provider of interactive television technology, today acquired all assets of BettingCorp Ltd. OpenTV projects that it will invest $3 million to $5 million in BettingCorp's operations and product lines within the next few years. BettingCorp. is currently developing a remote betting and gaming platform that will offer traditional lottery, pools, and casino operators a single platform that can be operated by any betting product over the Internet, iTV, and wireless devices. . . . Prism Affiliate today announced the re-launch of its affiliate programs with a new staff of marketing experts and member pages that are easier to navigate. Prism's affiliate programs provide an online casino, bingo entertainment and a sports book to webmasters who would like to earn commission on advertising the products.
Lawsuit -- British bookmaker Ladbrokes has filed a complaint against the Finnish government, which it claims has actively sought to harm Ladbrokes' marketing programs. Finnish official argue that their practices are consistent with Finnish gaming laws.
Launches -- Recently released GoddessPoker.com is designed to appeal to the growing female demographic in the I-gaming scene. The site features multiplayer Texas Hold'em, Omaha, Omaha Hi Lo, Seven Card Stud and Seven Card Stud Hi Lo and offers a $1,000 free roll tournament, a $25,000 progressive jackpot, and a 100 percent match-play bonus. . . . Olympic Sports is launching a new sports book at BetJamaica.com. Located in Montego Bay, Jamaica, Olympic Sports offers 24-hour access to BetJamaica. The minimum bet via Internet is $2; the minimum bet via phone is $10.
Monday, Aug. 18
WTO Dispute -- On Tuesday and Thursday of last week World Trade Organization representatives from the United States and the island nation of Antigua and Barbuda met in Geneva to establish a dispute panel that will settle the islands' grievances against U.S. policies on interactive gaming. Caribbean Media Corporation reports that the parties were not able to agree upon the members of the panel, so the Director-General of the WTO must now choose the members of the panel. The panel is expected to be established by August 24.
Asian News -- Bank of Asia has signed an agreement with the Mobile Payment Club that will enable the bank's customers to use mobile handsets to pay for products and services. The bank's IT system utilizes short message servicing in order to settle payments, and is able to support automatic callback, items processing and personal code checking. Companies joining the bank in its M-Pay services include Thai Ticket Master's, TV Direct, Miss Lily, Tohome.com, Internet Thailand, and BM Media.
Arnold Odds -- Bookmakers everywhere are taking wagers on Arnold Schwarzenegger's success in his run for governor of California. The latest sports book to get in on the fun, BoDog.com, has him listed as a heavy 1-10 favorite.
African News -- A trial is underway in Johannesburg, South Africa to determine whether 1.15 million Rand confiscated at Cape Town International Airport was being laundered in connection with an alleged online lottery scheme. The R1.15 million in cash, which belongs to Gary van der Merwe, was detained after a man tried to take it through an X-ray security check on March 20. Court papers speculate that the R1.15 is just a portion of the R20 million that was obtained through the online lottery.