Friday, Oct. 10
TAB Talk -- According to the Sydney Morning Herald, UNiTAB has confirmed that it is in merger talks with NSW TAB. UNiTAB's CEO, Dick McIlwain said, " The idea of further consolidation in the wagering business is an irresistible concept that ultimately more will happen." He has given no indication of when, if at all, the merger could occur. UNiTAB operates 1,000 TAB outlets across Queensland, South Australia and the Northern Territory. The company is valued around AU$900 million; NSW TAB is valued around AU$1.5 billion. No final proposals have been made by either company yet, partly due to legislation in Queensland that would require UNiTAB's head office to be maintained in state. . . . Jupiters boss Rob Hines told the Daily Telegraph that he thinks sports betting will continue to grow and poker machine betting will begin to fall. "To some degree Tabcorp has missed an opportunity by having us divest Centrebet because that is in my view, a major growth opportunity internationally," Hines said. "I think the next trend in gambling is going to be sports betting; it already is sports betting." He added, "And although Tabcorp has a sports betting operation in Victoria, they don't have one in Queensland and they don't have one anywhere else."
Sportodds -- In its appeal to invalidated restrictions on advertising and publishing odds in New South Wales, Sportodds opened a new line of argument today before a federal court in Australia. The court will now take written submissions and consider them no earlier than Oct. 23. The solicitor general has been granted the right to deliver an oral argument, but Sportodds still wishes to open a new line of argument.
Taiwan Ball -- A weekly tabloid in Taiwan called Next Magazine has alleged that players from all six of the country's professional baseball teams are accepting money to intentionally throw season games. The magazine names two pitchers for the Chinatrust Whales that it says have received NT$1 million. Over the last two days, league officials and players have put out press releases to refute the claims and denounce them as sensational journalism.
Law Suit -- ODS Technologies, which does business as TVG Network, has been engaged in a legal battle with Magna Entertainment Corp, which owns a majority of Pimlico Race Course and Laurel Park in Maryland. Magna, the Maryland Jockey Club and Laurel Racing would like to terminate a contract that permits ODS to simulcast horse racing events from the parks because TVG has failed to achieve a three-month average of $230 million in gross simulcast bets, which it had agreed to do under the terms of the contract. ODS filed for a preliminary injunction Oct. 3 to prevent the other parties from terminating the contract. The group believes the other parties would like it removed so that Magna can install its own simulcast network, HorseRacing TV. The court will respond to the request for injunction by Oct. 20. If ODS is unsuccessful in obtaining the injunction, its contract will end on Nov. 1.
Thursday, Oct. 9
p align="justify">Stats -- According to New Media Zero, U.K. Games operator Vernons says that 10 percent of its lottery games sales come from the Internet, though hardly any came from the net two years ago. The company predicts that by 2006 Internet sales will make up 30 percent of its revenue. This week Vernons launched a new daily draw game called Florida 4, which it says is 15 times more likely to pay out its £30,000 prize for a £1 stake than is the National Lottery's new offering called Daily Play.
Bingoland -- Bingoland and Playtech worked together to develop a networked bingo solution that enables players to plug into an established game with existing traffic and to bring the immediate benefits of high prize values that are directly related to player numbers. Today Bingoland added two new games to the network, Kiwi Bingo and Tiki Bingo, both of which are independent offshore operations that are owned by the Christchurch Casinos Group. Both products include fully programmable games and patterns, full support for marketing offers and promotions, in-game player messaging, chat management tools, automatic, an integral referral program, multi-tier affiliate programs, online financial reporting and player tracking.
No Ads -- Paul D. Bernstein, a hearing officer with the Division of Special Revenue in Connecticut, has ruled that a TV channel may not broadcast horse racing and run ads for a telephone betting service because doing so would violate the state's moratorium on additional off-track betting parlors.
Quoteworthy -- "We have always had a good deal of sympathy for the principle of protecting the racing product and extracting the proper value that every jurisdiction is striving for. However, we do have a different regulatory and legislative structure to the Asian countries. Unlike them, we have no control over the betting operations in Britain. We also have to be aware that when the government changed the general betting duty structure to a gross profits system, it did so in the hope and expectation that Britain would expand into becoming a global center for betting."-- British Horse Racing Board Secretary-General Tristram Ricketts, as quoted in the Racing Post, responding to a request by Hong Kong Jockey Club CEO Lawrence Wong. At the 37th annual conference of the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities in Paris on Monday, Wong had asked jurisdictions in Europe and the Americas to join the Good Neighbor Policy, which seeks to eliminate off-shore gambling problems.
Wednesday, Oct. 8
Quoteworthy -- "Dear Minister, congratulations on your appointment as Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts. It is a big job but you have very small shoes to fill. Your predecessor left an unfortunate legacy and very many problems, which only astute policy-making can solve." -- Graeme Philipson, writer for smh.com.au. His words were intended for Darryl Williams, who will replace Richard Alston as Australian Minister for Communications, Information Technology, and the Arts.
SportOdds -- According to an inside source, Australian bookmaker SportOdds has obtained an expedited appeal hearing before the full bench of the federal court next Monday. The hearing was originally scheduled for late November. SportOdds is appealing a decision that denied its motion to invalidate restrictions on advertising and publishing odds in New South Wales.
Stanley Hill? -- The London Telegraph reports rumors of a merger between Stanley Leisure and William Hill, both of whom experienced a rise in share price yesterday, with Stanley Leisure rising 3.5p to finish at 352.5p and William Hill rising 4.5p to finish at 335p.
Gambelli News The European Court of Justice is scheduled to give its verdict Nov. 6 in the criminal proceedings against Piergiorgio Gambelli, who along with 100 other defendants ran data transfer centers in Italy that were linked to an English bookmaker. Criminal charges were brought against Gambelli because such activity in Italy is reserved by federal law for the state or state-licensed undertakings. The decision will have a huge bearing on the future of cross border gaming provisions in the EU.
Sweden Online -- Svenska Spel, Sweden's state-owned gaming and lottery company, has launched Internet versions of the instant scratch-card games popularly known in Sweden as Triss, Tia, Skrap-Bingo and Skrap-Pyramid, as well as Internet versions of three new bingo games. All of the games use Flash technology, and the bingo games are offered in both single and multi-player versions. Developed by Boss Media, which also provides Svenska Spel's casino software, the games are located at www.svenskaspel.se.
Tuesday, Oct. 7
p align="justify">Quoteworthy -- "I welcome the innovation that betting exchanges bring to the betting market. And I believe that the proposed Gambling Commission can regulate them effectively. But there is potential for consumers to be exploited. Exchanges do present an opportunity for those with 'inside information', acquired improperly, to make a profit from the uninformed punter."-- U.K. Gambling Minister Andrew McIntosh. Addressing the Future of British Gambling Conference in London today, McIntosh said that the government will propose giving the new Gambling Commission the authority to freeze and void bets in situations where the punter has received an unfair deal. He added, "Of course, information and intelligence is at the very heart of betting. But some information is obtained improperly or is used improperly. So the Government will bring forward proposals for the Gambling Commission to have powers to void bets that it believes to be unfair. We are acting now to help sports regulators root out any cheating or improper conduct."
Telemedia Conference -- The World Telemedia Conference, scheduled for Nov. 3-5 in Prague, will feature discussions about emerging markets created through new content, billing, and technology opportunities such as gambling, games, dating, chat, pictures, and music. The conference could attract leading online and mobile content providers, cable and mobile operators, online billing and credit card companies, e-tailers, information providers, ISPs, gaming companies, software developers, consultants, and more.
ukbetting -- Peter Dubens, executive vice chairman of ukbetting, recently provided an interview to The Wall Street Transcript. Dubens explained that part of the company's strategy is rolling out more products and widening its offerings. He said, " When we bought the betting sites, they only really provided fixed-odds betting on horse racing and football in the U.K., and only online. We now provide the ability to bet both on mobile and through a call center and we have started offering different products to our customers like casino, poker and numbers games." The company's first goal is to make the business profitable, and to do that they have hired Trevor Beaumontwho they hope can raise their fixed-odds betting margin up to the industry standard.
Operation Black Jack -- Operation Black jack, an Italian investigation into illegal online gambling that took a year to complete, has identified109 illegal sites. Eighty individuals are under investigation for participation while 83 others are in the process of identification. Five hundred officers participated in the investigation, which was based in the Catania tax police headquarters and was assisted by the Technological Anti-Crime offices in Rome. Police mapped an illegal online gambling ring by following the pop-up ads, banners, and links they encountered while navigating sites of online casinos.
Monday, Oct. 6
Antigua -- The government of Antigua and Barbuda on Oct. 1. delivered its first submission to the World Trade Organization dispute panel that has been appointed to mediate its case against the United States. The United States has been given one week to respond to the initial submission, and the panel is scheduled to deliver a final report on the dispute in February.
Malta's Bill -- Tax-news.com reports that Dr Joe Zammit Maempel, Malta's Chairman of Lotteries and Gaming Authority, recently told a seminar that government officials will circulate the country's draft gambling bill to members of the industry to obtain feedback on the document before it's published in the Government Gazette. The country last year declared itself an online gaming jurisdiction.
Legal Ads? -- The New York Post reports that BetonSports' recent ad campaign that put the company's logo on 250 New York City buses has caused a disagreement between the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, who was paid $300,000 by BetonSports, and the state's attorney general, Eliot Spitzer, whose office has taken action against Internet gambling in the past. City Councilman Leroy Comrie is quoted as saying, "The MTA is giving them a sanction. They should take [the ads] down." Meanwhile, MTA spokesman Tom Kelly said, "Unless they have broken the law, they are entitled to advertise." And David Carruthers, CEO of BetonSports, said, "They took my check. There is the First Amendment in the United States. I have the right to advertise our product." Carruthers added that the attorney general has yet to contact him.