Friday, June 25
Moving -- Technical Systems Testing Pty. Ltd. (TST), an accredited testing facility for both terrestrial and interactive gaming, is expanding its Australian operations by relocating its head office on the continent from Melbourne to a new, larger laboratory in Rosebery, New South Wales. The company's management thinks the close proximity of TST's Rosebery lab to NSW-based gaming manufacturers and suppliers should enhance its speed and responsiveness. TST, which will continue to maintain a staffed office in Melbourne to meet the needs of its clients in Victoria, also has offices in Vancouver and plans to open more in London this year.
Manchester Lottery -- U.K.-licensed lottery manager Million-2-1 today launched a mobile Manchester Lottery, the first of 10 regional mobile lotteries the company plans to operate within the next year. Million-2-1 would like to raise £100 million and donate 35 percent of its revenue to smaller, local charities that it says the National Lottery has traditionally ignored. Depending upon the uptake in each region, the company could raise the donation level up to 50 percent. Chris Sheffield, founder and chief executive of Million-2-1, plans to bid for a share of the National Lottery license when it comes up for review in 2009.
June Trends -- British bookmaker Ladbrokes said the first weeks of June 2004 have been the biggest in bookmaking history, thanks to the Euro 2004, the US Open and the Royal Ascot. Before the start of this week, the company had taken £300 million in wagers on football in June and £150 million in wagers on the Royal Ascot. Balthazar Fabricius, a spokesperson for Ladbrokes, said the company is noticing that horse racing--the traditional betting favorite--is drawing fewer bets, while soccer is now responsible for half of Ladbrokes' Internet turnover.
Busted -- New York police arrested six men this week for allegedly operating a $10 million illegal sports betting ring in the Long Island area. Investigators say bettors placed telephone bets with an offshore wire room in Costa Rica, which recorded their bets and then transmitted them to runners on Long Island. They also say the bust should make a significant dent in the illegal sports gambling business in Long Island. One suspect is allegedly a "soldier" in an organized crime family, although he denies it. All men will be charges with promoting gambling, a felony punishable by four years in prison. Police say more arrests will follow.
Memorandum of Understanding -- Betting exchange Betdaq last week signed a memorandum of understanding with the British Jockey Club, permitting the club to view certain punter records in cases where illegal betting is suspected. Betdaq refused to sign the agreement last year because of concerns for the privacy of its customers, but managing director Rob Hartnett now believes his company and the Jockey Club have reached a good balance between protecting the rights of customers and protecting the integrity of sports. The memorandum will not take effect until late summer after Betdaq's customers have been made aware of the agreement.
Welcome Aboard -- The Association of Remote Gambling Operators (ARGO), the new London-based organization whose membership is open to gambling operators, has appointed Clive Hawkswook as its general secretary. For the last three years, Hawkswood has worked for the Deparment of Culture, Media and Sport, where he has been a chief advisor to the government's remote gambling policy. He served as a betting office manager in the early '80s and joined the Civil Service in 1988 after receiving a degree in politics at Lancaster University. Hawkswood will begin his role with ARGO in mid August.
eScratch in Kansas -- The state of Kansas launched a GTECH-developed Internet game in May aimed at the 25-35 year-old demographic. Tickets for the game, called "eScratch," are sold at standard lottery retailers. After purchasing a ticket, the player enters the unique ticket number on the lottery's Web site and plays interactive games to find out whether he's won. State legislators have expressed concerns over the new game, but Kansas Lottery Director Ed Van Patten maintains that it is legal because no wagering occurs online; the Internet element, he said, is just for entertainment.
Thursday, June 24
Net Ent. in Austria -- Swedish I-gaming software provider Net Entertainment has licensed its no-download casino software to Admiral Sportwetten AG, an Austrian sports betting firm listed on the Vienna Stock Exchange. Admiral is part of the Novomatic Group, which operates land-based casinos and provides equipment to the gaming and leisure industry. The company, which currently offers sports betting in shops and over the Internet, will operate Net Entertainment's casino games over the Internet and through kiosk terminals.
Mobile Youbet -- Youbet.com, the largest provider of horse racing content and wagering in the United States, plans to launch a new wireless service near the end of July. Designed by Digital Orchid, the service will enable users to view real-time odds, results and entries and to place wagers. The user must be a customer of Verizon Wireless, however, and the package will likely cost $19.99 per month. The initial product launching next month will not support video streaming, but a later version planned for launch sometime next year should.
New Games -- Turnkey I-gaming software provider Microgaming has released another quarterly set of new and upgraded casino games for its Viper-powered casinos. One of the new games, "Secret Admirer," is a five-reel, nine-payline slot with romantic graphics designed to appeal to the increasing number of women gambling online. Another video slot game, "What a Hoot," presents the theme of an owl-party deep in the forest. Two of Microgaming's Jackpot Madness progressives, "Lotsaloot" and "Fruit Fiesta," now feature upgraded graphics, faster game play and more ways to win. The last new game of the quarter, "Deuces Wild Ten Times Power Poker," lets players play 10 hands of video poker at once with a different 52-card pack for each hand.
Quoteworthy -- "The sports bodies, I think, should unite to lobby the governments to bring in legislation that enables them to get a slice of the action. We have flirted with this a couple of years ago but now there are moves afoot with a united front of sports bodies--cricket, AFL, the whole lot."
- John O'Neill, chief executive of the Australian Soccer Association. O'Neill and others at the Australian Broadcasting Authority's annual conference discussed the prospect of extending TV betting beyond just the racing industry. Australia's Interactive Gambling Act prohibits all TV betting with the exception of race wagering, but Communications Minister Daryl Williams should soon table a report on the government's review of the Act, which should include its stance on TV betting and also betting exchanges.
Poker Search -- Internet search group Terra Lycos, which publishes a weekly list of the Web's top 50 search terms, reported that the term "poker" was the seventh most frequently searched for term for the week ending June 12, 2004. Terra Lycos attributed the term's high rank to the recent poker championship in Las Vegas. The most popular poker-related searches include "World Series of Poker," "online poker research," "poker lessons," "video poker," "World Poker Tour," "poker betting tips" and "Texas hold'em poker." The only six terms that received more searches than poker for the week: "Ronald Reagan," "Paris Hilton," "Clay Aiken," "Britney Spears," "KaZaA" and "Severina Vuckovic."
Wednesday, June 23
No Deduction -- Punt2Punt.com, the first online betting exchange from The Gaming Bourse, went live Monday with betting on soccer and tennis. The company hopes to implement wagering on horse races as early as June 28. Unlike most betting exchanges, Punt2Punt will not take deductions off of non-running horses, meaning someone could lay a horse to lose and then collect winnings if that horse does not run in the race.
Rob Harnett, managing director of rival exchange Betdaq, told the Racing Post that Punt2Punt's policy is "nothing short of crazy," and argued that "creating a level of deduction that is fair to both backer and layer is one of the hardest tasks for any betting exchange. But to remove it altogether is not the right way to go about it. The only punters it will tempt are those who can lay non-runners through inside information. It's like a builder deciding that he can construct cheaper houses by leaving the walls off." Punt2Punt Managing Director Hamish Raw said his company will work with the Jockey Club to police insider betting. He also stated, "The majority of racing trade is done in the final few minutes before a race anyway, by which time the non-runners are already known. There is a higher element of risk in betting without deductions, but that is the sort of punter we are looking to attract."
Back on Track -- According to Stanley Leisure's managing director, John Whitaker, the launch of two live horse racing networks has restored the level of telephone wagering the company had experienced before the original attheraces went off the air. Stanley Leisure's turnover from telephone betting plummeted 20 percent during the blackout period, while turnover in betting shops remained unchanged. Most of the business has come back.
Paddy's Mobile Power -- Irish bookmaker Paddy Power has launched "Paddy Power Mobile," a downloadable Java-based betting program for mobile phones. Developed by British software provider mFuse, the service works on any phone that is Java-compatible. Whereas many companies have relied upon WAP services, which are a bit slower, Paddy Power's service utilizes faster connections through GPRS. The service also features real-time pricing information and handset recognition, which simplifies the login process by requiring users to enter only a four-digit PIN code.
Scrutiny -- The British Parliamentary joint scrutiny committee has reassembled and asked interested individuals and organizations to again submit written evidence, this time in response to some of its recommendations for the Gambling Bill, specifically numbers 79-81 and 83-85, which deal with the size, definition and location of land-based casinos. The deadline for submissions is July 5.
In-Room Gaming -- Montreal-based Superclick, Inc., which develops the Superclick Internet Management System (SIMS) for use in hotels and universities, has released a beta version of "Hotel Casino Network" (HCN), an online gaming platform for the hospitality industry. Built with software from Playtech, HCN would offer customers the chance to play casino games in their hotel room and would enable hotels to provide their own user account management and database reporting.
Tuesday, June 22
What Happens Next? -- Global Interactive Gaming has launched the new competition version of its SportXction product in partnership with Sportinglife Limited in preparation for the 10-day "Tri-Nations" series between England, New Zealand and the West Indies beginning June 24. The new game, which will be promoted on sportinglife.com as "What Happens Next?", does not provide real money wagering but enables users to compete against each other for points by predicting the outcome of events. They receive points for correct predictions and bonuses for strings of successful predictions. They can also earn points by answering trivia questions, and points can be redeemed for a variety of prizes. Players in the Tri-Nations predictions games will compete for a grand prize two-week trip to South Africa and many other prizes.
Welcome Aboard -- British gaming group Gala, known best for its bingo and casino properties, has appointed Matthew Roberts to replace Blair Sinton as finance director on July 5. Roberts previously served as finance director for department store chain Debenhams, where he assisted the company in de-merging from another company and then later listing on the London Stock Exchange. Analysts speculate that the appointment of Roberts could indicate that Gala plans to float on the stock market.
No Jail For Streaker -- The GoldenPalace.com-sponsored Super Bowl streaker, Mark Roberts, was found guilty of criminal trespassing by a jury in Houston on Monday. The jury apparently didn't buy the argument that Roberts wasn't aware that stepping onto the field was illegal. Though he could have gotten a maximum sentence of three months in jail and a $2,000 fine, on the jury opted to give him a $1,000 fine and no jail time.
Monday, June 21
p align="justify">eCOGRA Meets Regulators -- Senior executives from eCommerce and Online Gaming Regulation and Assurance (eCOGRA) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) recently met with officials from the International Association of Gaming Regulators, including representatives from the Isle of Man, Alderney, the United Kingdom and Kahnawake, to brief them on eCOGRA's Generally Accepted Practices (eGAP) during online gaming software supplier and operator reviews and on the outsourced software verification methodology used by PWC. According to Andrew Beveridge, CEO of eCOGRA, serious regulators must cooperate to insure meaningful and consistent regulation of the online gambling industry to bring about a safe and reputable environment.
P2P in Australia -- While P2P exchange Betfair continues to lobby Australian state and territory governments for a gambling license, three major welfare organizations in Australia have asked the federal government to ban Australians' access to foreign betting exchanges for fear that exchanges would create more problem gamblers. Odyssey House, the Salvation Army and Wesley Mission have all pleaded to the Howard government to institute a prohibition on foreign betting exchanges. John Dalziel, a spokesperson for the Salvation Army, said, "It is bad because it takes gambling into the home and in the home any number of people can use it. This is going to be much, much bigger than anything that's occurred in Internet betting in the past if we are to judge by what's occurred in England."
From Thailand -- The Metropolitan Police Bureau in Thailand reported that it arrested 445 people (41 of them bookmakers) for illegal football gambling and seized $4,500 during the first week of the Euro 2004. . . . After disabling cable television access in prisons to prevent prisoners from gambling on the Euro 2004, Thai officials on Sunday organized a game of soccer between a team of elephants and a team of prisoners. Nathee Chitsawang, director-general of the Thai Corrections Department, explained, "We expect that people will support the idea that we can get fun from playing football, not gambling on football." The game eventually ended in a 5-5 tie.
Replacement -- TradingSports Exchange Plc, an AIM-listed company that supplies white-label betting exchange platforms, has appointed Roger Mitchell as interim chief executive officer. Mitchell, who is replacing Joe Tighe, was CEO of the Scottish Premier League from 1998 to 2003. Tighe will remain a consultant to TradingSports, but is resigning as CEO so that he may spend more time on his other company and personal interests.
GoldenPalace Racecar -- After its successful introduction at the Canadian Grand Prix last weekend, GoldenPalace.com has signed a deal to become a commercial partner of the Faenza team for the rest of the Formula One World Championship season. The GoldenPalace.com logo will prominently appear on the cars of Gianmaria Bruni and Zsolt Baumgartner of Wilux Minardi Cosworth as well as on the car of official test driver Bas Leinders.
Camelot Upgrade -- Camelot Group, operator of Britain's National Lottery, has installed a new storage networking solution from McDATA Corporation. Camelot's interactive department incorporated the new system to meet the new availability, disaster recovery and data protection objectives associated with its increasing Internet presence. The company should now be better equipped to manage, store and retrieve large volumes of data generated from the online transactions for marketing purposes.
Operation Dribble -- The Johannesburg Sunday Times reported that a South African police investigation into soccer match-fixing called Operation Dribble has resulted in the arrest of nine referees and the breaking of a sophisticated cartel that had been able to systematically and efficiently rig Premier Soccer League and First Division matches.