Tracks Wired -- Electricnews.net reports that Eircom has finished connecting the Irish Greyhound Board to all of its 18 tracks via LAN/symphonyFrame, ISDN and broadband. The IGB central server can now update real-time results from any track onto the IGB Web site. The IGB is also considering race text messaging and an Internet betting platform with local betting pools and e-payment prize money.
Jackpot -- Orientgaming, an online gaming consultancy for the Asian market, has launched www.awesomejackpots.com, a portal that provides live data such as descriptions, analyses, history, and tickers for more than 70 online progressive jackpots from six software providers. Players can choose to receive e-mail notices about large or favorite jackpots with Awesome Jackpot's Alert Center.
Regulation -- On Sept. 9, Frank Fahrenkopf, president of the American Gaming Association, wrote a letter to Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., explaining the industry's objections to the Senator's bill that would outlaw online gambing. Fahrenkopf's primary objection is that the bill prevents states from legalizing online betting within their borders, which he claims is a violation of states' rights. Fahrenkopf hopes to have a follow-up meeting with Kyl's staff next week.
Thursday, Sep. 25
Enlistment -- Ukbetting has enlisted Trevor Beaumont to revitalize the group's betting division. Beaumont, who has over 30 years of horse racing experience, had been director of racing and trading for Coral, director of Eurobet, and most recently racing director of the British Horseracing Board. Alex Holt, formerly marketing manager for William Hill's casino and poker operations, has also joined the company and will manage new product promotion. Ukbetting's recently released interim figures attribute a 103 percent increase in turnover to a strategy of buying struggling sports content sites, including teamtalk.com and sportinglife.com, which attract around 3.45 million users per month.
Wireless -- Jockey Club Technology Services Inc. has designed a newly launched wireless version of Equibase Co.'s Web site at www.equibase.com. The thoroughbred racing site features entries, results, scratches, and more and can be accessed with any wireless Internet-enabled handheld device.
Skill Games -- SkillJam.com, which features pay-per-play head-to-head tournaments for cash and prizes, hosted over 1.7 million unique visitors in August, according to Nieslsen/NetRatings. The site's popularity has more than doubled since January, when 787,000 unique gamers visited SkillJam. The company that owns SkillJam, eUniverse, plans to consolidate it and all of its other online skill-based gaming assets and holdings into a newly formed subsidiary called GameUniverse, Inc.
NDS -- NDS now has 2 million active subscribers in the Asia Pacific pay-TV market. NDS, which has developed customized electronic program guides for all of its Asia Pacific customers, plans to launch interactive services such as iTV games, sports and gambling applications soon.
C4 -- England's Channel 4 has begun utilizing attheraces to offer interactive TV betting on its horse racing broadcasts. This is the first time the channel has offered online betting, and although it could extend its wagering applications to other programs, it says that the recent move doesn't indicate an opening of the floodgates. attheraces was previously only able to provide tote betting, but recent enhancements by its digital agency, TenTenDigital, have given viewers the ability to compare and place fixed odds bets with Ladbrokes, Littlewoods and SkyBet.
Wednesday, Sep. 24
Australian Stats -- The Australian Associated Press recently published several statistics related to gambling in Australia. The report says that on average each Australian lost about AU$1,000 (US$679) gambling last year and AU$15 billion (US $10.18 million) was gambled away nationwide in 2001-02. Compared to the year before, gambling turnover rose 6.6 percent to $125 billion (US$84.44 billion)…. Asia Pulse reports that Commonwealth Securities senior consumer discretionary analyst Derek Francis says that Australia could lose AU$240 million (US $163) in taxes each year if betting exchanges were legalized. He adds that competition from betting exchanges could lower the value of Australian TAB agencies by 30 percent.
Irish Turf Club -- Ireland Online reported yesterday that the Irish Turf Club has decided that it will not restrict jockeys from using cell phones during race meetings like the UK Jockey Club has. Turf Club senior steward Ray Rooney said, "We are not aware of any instances where the phones have been used to compromise the integrity of racing." Rooney did say, however, that the Turf Club was considering signing a Memorandum of Understanding with betting exchanges, which the UK Jockey Club has already done.
Anti-Spam -- California Gov. Gray Davis on Tuesday signed the toughest anti-spam law in the United States. Spam recipients can sue for damages of $1,000 per e-mail and $1 million per marketing campaign. Also, the state's attorney general and e-mail providers like Microsoft and AOL have been given powers to pursue spammers.
Latin Soccer -- Soccer Development of America and Latin American Futbol Corporation have redesigned GoloLotto.com, a site that accepts wagers on all the top soccer league matches in Latin America. Available in both English and Spanish, the site donates a percentage of its profits back to soccer, supporting a range of projects like stadium development and grass root support. Costa Rica International Sportsbook operates the site.
Charity Casino -- Launched today, Casinoforcharities will donate 10 percent of its profit to charities in the UK. The site is operated by publicly-quoted Gaming Corporation, which says that funds will go toward charities' running expenses such as postage, rent, and utility bills.
Asian Poker -- Creator Capital Limited, through its subsidiary Action Poker, has entered into a licensing agreement with Las Vegas From Home.com to provide mulit-player Asian themed poker games at www.worldwidegaming-asia.com , which should launch within the next two months. Creator Capital also expects that its Chinese soccer betting site, www.worldwidelotteries-china.com will be taking live transactions very soon.
Tuesday, Sep. 23
South Africa -- South Africa had set its deadline to redraft its Gambling Bill and pass it through the national assembly for this Friday, Sept 26, but after last Thursday and Friday's hearings before parliament's committees on trade and industry, the fate of the bill is uncertain. The hearings brought several mistakes and omissions in technical definitions to light, and several major policy issues that have not been appropriately addressed emerged.
No User Info -- AVN reports that Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas has introduced a bill that would put an end to record companies' and other groups' attempts to make Internet service providers reveal information about their subscribers. Brownback's bill would make the copyright holders file John Doe lawsuits rather than serve subpoenas to obtain information about Internet users.
Scams -- Over the last month several residents from across the U.S. have been targets of a lottery scam by a group posing as "El Gordo Lottery." The operation has contacted potential victims by e-mail, phone and postal letters and asks them to send tax payments and processing fees before prize money can be received. . . . Another scam operation recently struck a man from Arroyo Grande, California. He received an e-mail that promised $86,000 worth of gambling vouchers in exchange for $10,000 in cash. He sent a check and never received a reply.
Monday, Sep. 22
Wembley -- Lincoln Park and its CEO, Nick Bucci, as well Nigel Potter, CEO of Wembley, appeared in court yesterday and pled not-guilty to charges of allegedly bribing a law firm to obtain approval of additional slot machines and to block a rival casino. Bucci was released on $50,000 bail and Potter was released on $100,000, while the company also had to pay $100,000.
Internet Stadium -- Toshiba, systems integrator Wireless Workplace and the British Football League are negotiating a deal that would equip 72 football club stadiums with Wi-Fi Internet access that can be used anywhere in the stadium, from the bleachers to the executive boxes. Reading FC and Nottingham Forest FC have already been set up as test sites, and installation should be complete in all clubs by January.
Quoteqworthy -- "The business isn't going away and the demand is growing at an exponential rate but the supply in terms of competition has diminished." -- Andrew Burnett, gaming analyst at Merrill Lynch. Burnett was explaining to the Financial Times that high-profile companies are becoming increasingly profitable as a result of several companies falling out of the interactive gaming industry.
Dealing -- GTECH Corp. has extended its deal with Dansk Tipstjeneste A/S, the operator of Denmark's national lottery, for two more years. GTECH, which has provided online lottery equipment and services to Dansk Tipstjeneste since 1989, will continue to provide support, maintenance and repair through Aug. 31, 2005. . . . Stanley Leisure has become the latest company to offerGlobal Interactive Gaming Limited's SportXction play-by-play betting software. The agreement between the companies is for an initial 12-month period and states that GIG will provide and operate the technology and Stanley Leisure will market it, provide customer support and process customer transactions. Interactive Systems Worldwide, Inc., GIG's parent company, has recently launched a new Web site at www.isw.com.
Free Games -- Casino de Castilla-León has signed a deal with Cirsa Interactive to offer Cirsagames' casino suite to new customers of its casino. Gamers can play casino games for free on a series of touch screen terminals that are connected to a central server. The system is designed for newcomers who are unfamiliar with traditional casino games and would like to learn the basic rules before placing a bet.
'Bowmans' not 'Bowman' -- Since the recent closure of the Bowmans land-based sports betting services, the online operation bearing the "Bowman" name, Bowman International Sports Ltd., has been inundated with "What the heck?" e-mails and phone calls from concerned and confused customers. To set the record straight, the online sports book is a separate entity, which remains fully operational.