Friday, Jan. 30
BetonSports P2P -- Costa Rican betting company BetonSports.com launched its new person-to-person betting exchange platform today, just in time for the upcoming Super Bowl. AIM-listed TradingSports has supplied BetonSports with software that can handle 80,000 transactions per minute. According to BetonSports' CEO, David Carruthers, "There is currently no dominant online wagering company servicing American consumers that uses a person-to-person betting exchange. We believe that a tremendous opportunity exists to bring these capabilities to American consumers who are continually looking for more flexibility and control in their wagering experience."
Open Shop -- New Media Age reports that bookmaker Victor Chandler, which sold the last of its betting shops in 1999 upon becoming a Gibraltar-based Internet and phone operator, will soon open shops again in the United Kingdom. "We're open to building another chain," said the company's founder, Victor Chandler. "It's nice to have a high-street presence. It gives you marketing, a public face, and demonstrates that you're a real entity." Chandler plans to have his first shops open in London by April…. Bluesquare is also attempting to get a piece of high-street action and has this week applied for a license for its own bookmaking shop. Blue Square would like to open a sports book at what is now Rank's Grosvenor Victoria casino. The company plans to focus on interactive terminals and will let punters use the same accounts they use for Internet betting.
Super Deal -- Gaming software company Gamesys has developed a new game called Super Deal that incorporates elements of lotto, hi-lo, blackjack and poker. In Super Deal, five cards are dealt automatically every 60 seconds. Before each deal, players can make a variety of bets, such as which suits and numbers will be dealt, what the sum of the cards will be, whether a flush or strait will be dealt and more. A player can also place a bet for a large number of hands and then return to the game to check his progress. Super Deal is available at U.K.-based instant-win gaming site jackpotjoy.com.
Know Your Customer -- Isle of Man-based KYCOS Holdings, has announced its anti-money laundering due diligence solution program. The KYCOS (Know Your Customer Outsourced Services) solution eases the demands on gaming companies by anti-money laundering rules by introducing the KYCOS Card, an "international financial passport." KYCOS also uses its Harvestor service, an online process that checks a customer's identity against thousands of data services, and the KYCOS International Customer Due Diligence Registry, which stores images of customer identity records in its bank.
NFL Kills Screenings -- The Palms hotel and casino has canceled its sold- out giant screen broadcast of the Super Bowl after it was threatened with legal action by the NFL for copyright infringements. NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy claims that the NFL has sent cease and desist letters all over the U.S. to large venues that are turning the game into a pay-per-view event, although Palms officials think they are being singled out. McCarthey told the Las Vegas SUN that he wasn't aware of any other Vegas properties that had been sent similar letters.
CamelLot -- GoodLot, the fundraising betting site has introduced CamelLot, a Flash game of simulated camel racing that lets players bet on the winning camel for as little as 10 pence per race as they compete in a dash across the desert with odds set at 1-1, 2-1, 5-1, 10-1, and 100-1.
Thursday, Jan. 29
TAB War -- The Age reports that NSW-based Tab Ltd. has held "in-depth discussions" with the racing bodies in NSW and Victoria and plans to offer a share of TAB's Sky Channel profits as part of an agreement that would allow Sky Channel to renew its contract on the broadcast rights. Discussions are continuing, and Tab Ltd. emphasizes that no agreement is certain. Meanwhile, Sky Channel is still competing with five other groups for the media rights…. Tabcorp's board met yesterday to discuss the possibility of placing a higher takeover bid for Tab Ltd., which for now seems set to merge with Queensland's UNiTAB unless Tabcorp can trump UNiTAB's offer. A statement from Victoria-based Tabcorp today said, "The company continues to assess its position and a further announcement will be made in the event of any material developments." Australian analysts say another bid from Tabcorp is likely.
eCOGRA -- e-Commerce and Online Gaming Regulation and Assurance (eCOGRA), a U.K.-based non-profit organization backed by software providers to the online gaming industry, says it will award its first seals of approval to online casino operators within a few weeks. eCOGRA's independent directors are currently in the process of evaluating applicants to insure that each complies with the group's Generally Accepted Practices (eGAP), which includes player protections, fair gaming, and responsible conduct.
US-CERT -- To warn computer users about viruses, worms and other online security threats, the U.S. government has created US-CERT, a partnership between the Department of Homeland Security's National Cyber Security Division and the private sector. Internet users can register at www.us-cert.gov to receive e-mail warnings about emerging threats in addition to tips about how to protect their computers. The e-mails will not contain color-coded threat levels.
Wednesday, Jan. 28
TradingSports -- TradingSports Exchange Systems, a U.K.-based provider of "white label" person-to-person ("P2P") betting exchange systems, has appointed Andrew Tottenham as non-executive chairman of the company. Tottenham, 46, is currently president of the Internet Gambling, Gaming, and Betting Association (IGGBA), an organization that formed in January 2002 to provide an industry stance on legislation, regulation and commercial dealings. He also founded international gaming consultancy Tottenham & Co in 1987 and served as president and COO of Trans World Gaming Corp and director of Harrod's Online Ltd.
Quoteworthy -- "All we know for certain is that the pre-legislative scrutiny committee is set to report back by April 2004. Beyond that any dates are speculative. They are subject to a Parliamentary timetable."
- Tom Kavanagh, Secretary of the Gaming Board for Great Britain, discussing when the United Kingdom could expect to implement new gaming legislation. Most people estimate that the bill could become law sometime in late 2006, but Kavanagh pointed out that the upcoming British general election could postpone things a bit. Kavanagh spoke at the International Casino Exhibition in London this week.
Sealed Documents -- Police in the Northern Territory of Australia have not been able to view any of the documents that they seized Jan. 9 during a raid of online betting agency International All Sports' (IAS) offices in Darwin and Victoria. Claiming the documents contain privileged information, IAS' lawyers have prevented the police from viewing any betting records. The police, who are investigating Kim Faithful's stolen $19 million from a Karatha Bank, are hoping to reach an agreement for access. The documents will remain sealed until an agreement is made.
bet365 Growing -- English bookmaker bet365 is expanding its business by hiring 80 new employees immediately and 80 more over the next year. The company, which takes over 350,000 bets per week, also plans to open an additional 7,000 sq. ft. of office space to accommodate its growth. Currently employing 600 people, bet365 has experienced a 70 percent growth in betting in the last year, pushing turnover over £400 million. The company serves 120 countries and plans to launch services in seven more languages this year.
Tuesday, Jan. 27
Media Rights -- Graham Duff, the director of ThoroughVisioN, the company that holds the rights to all thoroughbred racing in Victoria as well as all events of the Australian Jockey Club and the Sydney Turf Club in New South Wales, said that ThoroughVisioN will make a decision in March as to who will receive the broadcasting rights. ThoroughVisioN has heard presentations from Perrin Legal, Telstra Media, Tentendigital, Sky Channel and John Singleton.
Virus Alert -- Antivirus and security companies say that "Mydoom," the new virus that emerged this week, is shattering records for computer infections. Also known as "Shimgapi" and "Novarg," the worm has spread to 144 countries and has been detected in one out of every 12 e-mails, according to Mark Sunner, chief technology officer at e-mail security company MessageLabs. The "Sobig.F" virus that struck in August was detected in only one of every 17 messages. Mydoom arrives in e-mails with various subject lines, but "Hello" and "test" are the most common ones. The body of the message is typically filled with technical computer jargon designed to mimic automatically generated messages from e-mail servers. Two common examples of message bodies are "the message contains unicode characters and has been sent as a binary attachment," and "The message cannot be represented in 7-bit ASCII encoding and has been sent as a binary attachment." The e-mails are accompanied by an attachment that is infected with the virus. Like Sobig.F, Mydoom contains a Trojan that gives hackers access to an infected system.
Mobile Stats -- Wireless experts EMC have released "EMC World Cellular Data Metrics," a report that estimates that the total number of mobile data subscribers in the world should surpass 115 million by the end of January. Most of the growth is occurring in Asia, where e-mail and messaging are the most popular services. Meanwhile, ringtones, logos, gaming and music are more popular services in Europe. EMC says that while adult content and gambling are still in their infancy in Europe, they are growing in popularity in Japan and Korea.
Round Two in the WTO -- A second World Trade Organization panel hearing began today as part of Antigua and Barbuda's dispute with the United States. The hearing is expected to last three days. Afterward, the panel will begin preparing its findings. The first hearing began on Dec. 10, with both parties presenting statements. Representatives from the European Union, Mexico and Canada also challenged U.S. anti-gaming policy by offering evidence of their own to the dispute panel.
DDoS Prevention -- Riverhead Networks, a company that specializes in detecting and blocking distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, has developed two new products, the Riverhead Guard XT and the Riverhead Detector XT, as part of their next generation of security. The Riverhead Detector XT monitors traffic flows and identifies DDoS threats immediately. The Detector XT alerts the Riverhead Guard XT which then diverts traffic addressed to the target and removes malicious packets while allowing legitimate messages to pass.
Monday, Jan. 26
North Korea -- As of Wednesday, the South Korean government has officially blocked access to jupae.com, a North Korean gambling site. South Korea's national Internet network operator, KT, says it has cut access to jupae at the request of the Information Communications Ethics Committee, which is responsible for censoring Internet content in the country. Last Monday the South Korean government also followed through on its threat to strip an inter-Korean business license from Hoonnet, the South Korean software developer that helped set up the site. 16 South Koreans face prosecution for gambling with jupae.com. Hoonnet claims the government knew all along that it planned to establish a gambling site.
State of the Union -- From an article in the Las Vegas Review Journal: "Legitimate casino operators in Nevada who otherwise would be interested in landing their fair share of what is projected to be a $6 billion to $10 billion a year pie by 2006 are stymied by the Bush administration's decision that online gaming is illegal and Congress' failure to resolve key issues, including whether to legalize and regulate the business." The article speculates that legislation to regulate I-gaming in the U.S. is very unlikely to pass in an election year, and "University of Nevada, Las Vegas professor and casino industry expert Bill Thompson said the online gaming business is too big to stop "without being Draconian," and he believes it will develop overseas because of the polices of the U.S. government."
Betting on the Pope -- After Pope John Paul II’s recent fits of ill-health, Betfair and Paddy Power have opened lines on which cardinal will become the next pope. The Catholic Church called the bookmakers' actions tasteless and immoral, and it says that speculation should wait until after the pope's death. Paddy Power said that opening a book on the next pope is in the public’s best interest, and Betfair said it has received more demands than complaints for the book. William Hill said it will not open a book on the next pope as a matter of taste.
Tennis -- Three months after the Telegraph reported that tennis players and coaches may be gambling on matches, the Australian Open now requires players and coaches to sign a release stating that they will not gamble on matches. According to the Telegraph, one coach of a top 100 player has been supplying inside information to a betting Web site, three coaches are suspected to have placed bets on their players' matches, and several players have stated that betting is common. One bookmaker said, "Last summer we were seeing two or three matches a week where the result was known before the players walked on court. It was so obvious." Shortly after the news of an alleged betting scandal was circulated, the Association of Tennis Professionals signed a memorandum of understanding with Betfair.
Research -- Problem gambling specialist, Ted Quan, manager of the Multicultural Problem Gambling Service in Australia stated that refugees and migrants are among the people in New Zealand who have the greatest risk of becoming addicted to gambling. Quan suggests education programs in many languages to alleviate the problem.