Friday, Dec. 5
Anti-Spam Attack -- At least three variants of a virus dubbed Mimail has begun circulating the Internet, targeting anit-spam organizations. Mimail executes distributed denial of service attacks that flood the bandwidth of anti-spam networks with such a large amount of inbound junk mail that no outbound traffic can escape, making the websites inaccessible to visitors. The South China Morning Post reports that Spamhaus Project, SpamCop, and Spam Prevention Early Warning System-- organizations that provide the addresses of known and suspected spammers so that ISPs can filter out junk e-mail-- have all been hit by the attacks.
Online Bingo Awards -- WhichBingo, an online bingo portal that features bingo-related links, monthly free competitions, site reviews, and more, is looking for candidates to whom it can award the inaugural Online Bingo Site of the Year and the New Online Bingo Site of the Year. All pay-to-play bingo sites are qualified for the Site of the Year award, and all sites that have launched during 2003 are qualified for the New Site of the Year award. The winners will be decided by player voting, which will run until December 31. WhichBingo is promoting the awards through online advertising, press, direct mail, and other means.
Lottomatica -- In an effort to raise its profile in non-gambling sectors, Italian lottery operator Lottomatica is planning to acquire all the capital of Totobit Informatica Software e Sistemi SpA, an Italian online services company. The Italian competition authority has already given Lottomatica permission to pursue the deal.
Thursday, Dec. 4
Bet on the Move -- Sports spread betting company Sporting Index has partnered with technology provider mfuse to create Bet on the Move, a mobile extension to its online spread betting service. Consumers with color java-enabled handsets can access sports betting options and updates, paying only for mobile web access and incurring no further costs from Sporting Index.
Cigital Approved -- JetSetPoker's random number generator that shuffles and deals cards on its online gaming site has been certified by Cigital, Inc., a software quality management firm that conducted a thorough analysis of JetSetPoker's procedural methods and the generator's data stream and entropy sources.
Tasmania -- The Tasmanian Gaming Commission's annual report shows that Tasmanians gambled over AU$2 billion in the last financial year. As a result, the state government took in more than $70 million from license fees and taxes, which is 8.5 percent more than it had in 2001-2002. Revenue for clubs and hotels has more than doubled in the last five years as they took in over $1 billion, while casino revenue rose slowly to $926 million.
Wednesday, Dec. 3
Sportingbet on iTV -- London-based betting company Sportingbet plc and interactive digital TV and games provider Yoomedia plc have signed a three-year deal to bring fixed-odds games to British digital interactive TV platforms. Sportingbet will provide the odds setting, customer services and transaction capabilities, while YooMedia will develop and launch the gaming products. Each company will accept its own costs, but the revenues will be shared between them. YooMedia is now in negotiations with digital platform providers and expects the first launch to be on cable in first half of 2004 with satellite and DTT games following soon after.
Legal Issue -- William Hill has applied for a judicial review of the Glasgow licensing board's decision to let Easibet open a betting exchange shop that would be part bookmaker and part Internet cafe. Easibet offers punters higher prices if they agree to pay 5 percent of their winnings to the shop. William Hill's legal action also questions the Edinburgh City Council's right to grant a license to another betting shop in the Tollcross area. Easibet owner Henry Spurway says he plans to open around 100 betting exchange shops across the United Kingdom.
Quoteworthy -- "Lost revenues from Internet gambling could be a budget-buster issue in many states. As state legislators continue to face severe revenue shortfalls going into 2004, the dollars illegally siphoned by offshore gaming platforms demand that public policy makers seriously address Internet wagering issues in their own states, and that they begin to interface and work in concert with Congress on the issue. And, it is not simply a question of lost revenue. It is a question of social costs because important state programs can go unfunded. It is also, in balance, a question related to the social and individual costs of Internet as well as other types of gaming."-- Steven Geller, Florida State Senator and president of the National Council of Legislators from Gaming States (NCLGS). The NCLGS's 2004 winter meeting will take place in Las Vegas on January 9-11, with I-gaming being one of the highest priorities.
TradingSports -- Betting exchange software provider TradingSports has signed a five-year deal to supply SBG Global with a person-to-person betting platform. SBG already has an online sports book and casino, which it claims have over 125,000 active users. TradingSports now has partnerships with nine sports books to provide exchange its exchange platform.
Patent Licensing -- I-gaming software company CasinoWebcam has reached a licensing agreement with Home Gambling Network to use its U.S. patent for a method of remote wagering on live events using electronic transactions. The same patent is also pending in Europe, Australia, and Canada. CasinoWebcam may now sub-license the patents to gaming operators. Home Gambling Network and CasinoWebcam will work together to enforce the patent.
724sportsbook -- Market System Inc., Chimera Technology Corp.'s first licensee, is preparing to launch after delivering Chimera's first ever revenue. Market System hopes to launch Chimera's sports book platform on its site www.724sportsbook.com within the next month, while other platforms, such as poker, blackjack, roulette, and slots will soon follow.
Neptune's Megaspin -- The new Megaspin slots at King Neptune's Casino let users play up to nine slots games at the same time. Powered by Microgaming, Megaspin offers users the chance to play Double Magic, Fantastic 7's, and High 5 slots in a combination of four, six, or nine games.
Tuesday, Dec. 2
Mobile Gambling Research -- Juniper Research, an England-based provider of business intelligence, recently completed a detailed study on mobile gambling services and their potential for growth. Juniper predicts that by 2006, the mobile gambling industry could reap around $5.7 billion, with casinos taking $0.9 billion, mobile lotteries and competitions taking $2.8 billion, and mobile betting taking $2 billion. Juniper conducted similar research for the mobile adult content industry, projecting that it should earn around $791 million by 2006.
Bingo World Championship -- Bingo Entertainment, an online gaming marketing and management company, will sponsor the third annual Bingo World Championship online at www.bingoworldchampionship.com. The size of the tournament has doubled since last year, with 144 final contestants and 12 games participating this year, including Bingo Gala (bingogala.com), Bingo Splash (bingosplash.com), Bingo Empire (bingoempire.com), and more. The first of three qualifying rounds begins Friday, with 12 contestants from each game advancing to the finals on March 1. Five thousand dollars in cash and prizes will be paid out during the March 1finals.
Condolences -- Gary Hoyle, Marketing Director for SportingBet's North American division, passed away while sleeping last week. Doctors suspect a heart attack, but an autopsy has not yet been completed. Hoyle had apparently seemed to be in fine health, and the sad news is taken by Sportingbet as a complete shock.
Affiliate Site's New Languages -- AngelCiti Entertainment announced today that its affiliate Web site, www.CasinoPaycheck.com, is now available in Chinese, Spanish, and English. AngelCiti says that over 1,100 affiliates have membership to Casino Paycheck, driving tens of millions of dollars to AngelCiti sites in net handle. AngelCiti expects the implementation of the two languages will lead to many more affiliates in the expanding Spanish and Chinese markets.
LegalPlay in Europe -- LegalPlay Entertainment Inc, the Vancouver-based operator of SkillPoker.com, says it's seeking a license in European jurisdictions so that it may launch a poker site targeting the E.U. market. The traditional poker site, www.PokerPass.com, will not accept bets from U.S or Canadian citizens.
Gambling Research Center -- The Australian National University in Canberra will soon open a research center that will study gambling habits. The research center is the result of the Productivity Commission's recommendation after reviewing gambling on the continent and finding that Australians spent $169 billion on gambling last year.
Law Suits -- The AFP in South Africa reports that the Association of Tennis Professionals will begin developing a system to prevent the spread of inside information. The decision is a response to rumors six week ago that speculated that match fixing was threatening the integrity of the sport. The new system will be designed to affect anyone who might obtain and then spread information, such as guests, media, medics and VIPs.
Internet Explorer Flaws -- Internetnews.com reports that Liu Die Yu, a Chinese security researcher has discovered five serious flaws in Microsoft's Internet Explorer versions 5.0, 5.5, and 6.0. Yu posted information about the flaws on a newsgroup called Bugtraq, warning that the errors could lead to system access, exposure of sensitive information, cross site scripting and security bypass if hackers were to exploit the vulnerabilities. Secunia, an independent security consultant, calls the flaws extremely critical and advises IE users to disable active scripting until Microsoft issues a patch. Microsoft regularly releases fixes on the second Tuesday of every month, but says it will release them earlier if active exploits are circulating and causing major damage.
Monday, Dec. 1
Tote License -- As expected, the U.K. government has given the Tote only seven more years to operate its monopoly on pools betting before other competitors may enter the market. The government is also selling the Tote to the Racing Trust. Sports Minister Richard Caborn says the seven-year extension will give the Racing Trust enough time to establish itself in the market and thereby protect racing's revenue. He also says the opening of the pools-betting market is in the public's best interest.
Littlewoods Poker -- U.K. gaming company Littlewoods Gaming has entered the online poker market with its new poker site at www.littlewoodspoker.com. Using software from WagerLogic Limited, a subsidiary of Toronto-based CryptoLogic, Littlewoods' poker room enables customers to play Texas Hold'em, Omaha, and 7-Card Stud against other players from around the world.
Quoteworthy -- "In my view, exchanges have been more damaging to horseracing than any other concept in my racing lifetime. They have caused damage to owners and trainers; to professional and semi-professional punters; to bookmakers; to the funding of racing; and, worst of all, to the image of the sport."
-- Julian Wilson, former BBC TV racing correspondent. Wilson, who last week contributed a column to the Racing Post that has become the center of much controversy, claims to know that some owners have had horses stopped when they are not able to get the best prices on betting exchanges.
Wilson also said, "In a nutshell, small players on Betfair are ruining the market for those entitled to a decent bet. Owners still pay the bills - up to £400 a week - but they cannot get on without dishonesty or deception. Worse still, certain owners this year, having missed their price, have given instructions that the horse be 'blocked' for another day."
iSportsTV -- The Gaming Channel, which operates Avago, has launched its second iTV project with iSportsTV, a new channel that will feature a variety of sports as well as some other content designed to appeal to a young male audience. iSportsTV, which has gone live on Sky Digital at EPG slot 431, is subscription-free and transmits a live broadcast show from 10:00 a.m. to midday every weekday while Setanta and other sports footage providers supply content for the rest of the day. Most of the content is not live, and the channel's focus is interactive gaming, rather than sports betting.
GamCare Certified -- All of Betfair's employees who deal with the public are now required to attend workshops run by problem gambling charityGamCare, which will establish a code of conduct to help the employees understand how to identify and deal with problem gamblers. All of Betfair's customer-facing staff will be "GamCare qualified and registered" by the end of March 2004, and from then on, no new employees will be allowed to deal with the public without having completed the GamCare program. Betfair spokesman Mark Davies said, "One of the government's keynotes in their approach to the regulation of the gambling industry is the protection of the vulnerable. We have been working closely with GamCare for some time and we are absolutely delighted to be able to launch this initiative. It will increase the understanding of a key issue for our employees, and is a positive, defined step in ensuring there is protection for those who need it."