Friday, Oct. 29
UK News - Officials with the newly formed Racing UK announced Thursday that 16,200 subscribers have signed up for the paid satellite channel in the last two months--a period in which it has switched from a free-air service to a paid subscription service. RUK began broadcasting May 29 after a two-month lapse of satellite TV racing following the closure of Attheraces and launched its 24/7 subscription-only service Oct. 1. The company has said that the new channel, which is owned by the 13 participating racecourses, needs 20,000 subscribers to break even, and its business plan is based on achieving the target within a year to 18 months.
P2P Developments- Irish betting exchange Betdaq launched a new financial markets P2P site this week. The site, "Trader Games," fuses P2P skill gaming with financial betting by enabling users to make virtual trades on the foreign exchange markets in direct competition with each other. It's the first of several planned sites to offer financial betting on a P2P platform.
Promoted -- Trevor Beaumont was appointed to fill the British Tote's chief executive vacancy today. Beaumont spent 27 years with the Coral Group and was also racing director of the British Horseracing Board. He is currently managing director of the betting and gaming division of ukbetting Plc, the AIM-listed sports content and gaming company.
Hackers Details -- More details have come to light on the Russian ring of hackers that targeted the online gaming industry through DDos attacks. The LA Times reports that the group was brought down after BetCRIS owner Mickey Richardson brought in Sacramento expert Barrett Lyon in the absence of help from the Costa Rican authorities. Lyon remotely tracked the crooks and inserted his fictional would-be DDoS persona into IRC channels, where he built up a profile as a bot program author from Vancouver who had 250 machines under his control. During hours of online talks between January and March of this year, Lyon ingratiated himself with the crooks and communicated with them often. He learned that most of the hackers were college-age students in their early 20s and led authorities to their homes in Russia. Armed with the results from the extorted money trail and Lyon's information, British authorities went to the Russian Interior Ministry and suggested several arrests. Police arrested three men in July and are looking for two additional suspects.
Making Deals -- PokersStars.com has announced a partnership with some leading European land-based casinos to launch the "PokerStars European Poker Tour." The first season of the EPT, sponsored by PokerStars, will include events in Barcelona, London, Paris, Vienna and Dublin. The final event will be held March 15-19, 2005 in the majestic Monte Carlo Casino in Monaco. Prize money is expected to be more than €2 million for the final event, with more than €1 million going to the winner. Each event will be televised in 2005 as a 90-minute program, and will culminate with the airing of the Grand Final in Monte Carlo. Winners of the preliminary events will win prize packages worth €15,000, including entry into the finals at the Hermitage Hotel in Casino Square, Monte Carlo.
Halloween Games – Slotland.com is in the Halloween spirit with the rollout of a new Halloween-themed slot. "Halloween Magic" combines bats, ghouls and magic lanterns with five reels, five paylines, a bonus feature and the a fast-growing progressive jackpot. The Halloween-themed slot will be available for a limited time.
Thursday, Oct. 28
New -- A new mobile gambling software provider, Cometa Games, has created a mobile gambling platform called "Arcadia," which the company claims ensures that players can compete at their own pace without waiting for connection or establishing a dedicated open line. The Arcadia platform can be used by online casinos and bookmakers and includes fruit machine games Golden Dragon, Spaced Out and Cop The Lot in addition to Royal Roulette, Jackpot Bingo, Triple Play Poker and a horse racing game called Pimlico Park.
Barn66 -- Online Enterprises, a subsidiary of Phoenix Interests, has purchased an interest in America Tab Ltd., an Oregon-licensed interactive account wagering hub and provider of simulcasting. The deal enables Phoenix Interests to begin offering pari-mutuel wagering through Online Enterprise's Internet site at www.barn66.com. Phoenix Interests, previously known as Thoroughbred Interests Inc., dealt mostly in pinhooking (acquiring undervalued yearling thoroughbreds and reselling them as two-year-olds in trading or as racing prospects), but last year the company began expanding within the thoroughbred industry and in March changed its name to reflect its broadened focus.
Tax Removed -- U.S. President George Bush has signed off on a law that should help the American horse racing industry by removing a 30 percent tax on bets on races in the States made from outside the country. The law also eliminates a tax on purebloods reported from the European Union.
Race Fixing -- City of London police have confirmed that champion jockey Kieron Fallon will again be questioned over allegations of race fixing. The police investigation made public at the beginning of September when officers arrested 16 individuals has resulted in six additional arrests in the past few days, but none of the six are jockeys or trainers. Much of the information being used by police investigators has been credited to the memorandum of understanding between Betfair and the Jockey Club. Police are reportedly examining over 80 cases of alleged race fixing.
Survey Says -- A British Amusement Catering Trade Association-commissioned poll of 1,000 adults in the United Kingdom shows that 74 percent of respondents believe that an increase in regional casinos will encourage people to gamble more than they can afford, and 53 percent are opposed to the introduction of new casinos. Meanwhile, 11 Labour MPs have stressed their opposition to the recently introduced Gambling Bill, which would increase the number of casinos in England. Nevertheless, Culture Minister Lord McIntosh insisted today that the bill has the support of the whole government.
Paddy Poker -- Irish bookmaker Paddy Power plans to add an online poker room to its Internet gambling offerings. A spokesperson for the company said the new poker addition should be complete within a few months.
Making Deals -- GWIN Inc., a publicly traded sports handicapping company, has entered into a strategic agreement with Players Network, a publicly traded producer of gambling content for TV, DVD and Internet, to develop a broad range of sports handicapping and gaming programming for sale and distribution through television, broadband, retail and interactive television. New programming will include reality-based shows, game shows, how-to programs and more.
Lame Duck Session -- U.S. Congress will return for a lame-duck session after next week's election, but its highly doubtful that Sen. Jon Kyl's prohibitory online gambling bill will get any attention. Legislators are likely to be too busy working on next year's budget to address anything controversial, such as online gambling.
Wednesday, Oct. 27
New Extortion -- DDoS attackers targeting U.K. sports book operator Blue Square have added a new twist to their routine. The attackers warned the company that if they don't pay up within two days, bulk e-mails containing child pornography in the company's name would be distributed. The extortion attempt began on Monday with a DDoS attack followed by an e-mail demanding that Blue Square pay 7,000 Euros (much less than the amount demanded by the gang busted in July in Russia) or face a more intense attack. On Tuesday the company received the threat of child pornography spam through a phone call. "The thing that has distinguished this is the seriousness of the threat," Peter Pederson, chief technology officer at Blue Square, explained. "He's threatened to send mass email containing child porn from Blue Square accounts. That changes the stakes of these things from being apparently financial extortion to something that has a different kind of impact." William Hill also came under a DDoS attack yesterday and the British Tote and Sportingbet were attacked on Thursday, but none of those sites received threats regarding child pornography.
First Class Cyberslot -- Online games and slot machines Web site Cyberslotz.co.uk has launched "First Class," a bingo-like game that can pay up to £7,000 on a £2 bet. After a stake is placed, 46 balls are drawn from a pool of 90 and are automatically matched to the numbers on the five-by-five-line bingo card, the center of which is a "wild" auto-hit every time. To win, the balls drawn must form one of 17 winning combinations and patterns on the card including verticals, horizontals, full card, the outside box, inside box, cross pattern, I-pattern, H-pattern and X-pattern.
Japanese Soccer Lottery -- Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology hopes to raise sales of soccer lottery tickets by increasing the chance of winning a prize and by making tickets available for purchase over the Internet beginning in April 2006. Totocalcio tickets went on sale in March 2001 for 100 yen, giving players the opportunity to bet win, lose or draw on 13 league games--making about 1.6 million possible combinations. A top prize of 100 million yen is awarded for correct answers in all 13 games, and if no correct answer is submitted, the prize carries over to the next rounds of games. Ticket sales amounted to 64.3 billion yen in 2001, but the figure has since declined to only about one-fifth of that total, due mostly to the soccer lottery's reputation as being un-winnable. Also plunging alongside the sale of soccer lottery tickets is the amount of funding to sports organizations and facilities.
Declaratory Judgment -- The U.S. Department of Justice has requested and received an extension for the deadline in which it is to respond to Casino City's filing for declaratory judgment regarding its right to carry advertisements for online gambling sites. The new deadline is Oct. 29. The government is expected to file a motion to dismiss the claim.
ITV Campaign -- ITV has launched an ad campaign in England to promote its interactive service, "ITVi Anytime." The campaign features ads on all ITV channels and encourages viewers to press the red button at any time to access ITVi's interactive services. Among the variety of content offered through ITVi is Sportech's Littlewoods Bet Direct and Littlewoods Game On, which provide special bets and games themed around popular programs such as "X Factor" and "This Morning."
IG in Ireland -- Financial spread betting company IG Index has decided to proactively target the Irish market. The company has begun advertising in several national newspapers to introduce its wide-ranging services.
Tuesday, Oct. 26
WTO Dispute -- Officials in Antigua and Barbuda announced that they have been unable to come to a resolution with the United States regarding the countries' World Trade Organization dispute over online gambling. Antigua and Barbuda has, therefore, initiated the process of releasing the WTO dispute panel's final report. The dispute panel ruled in March that the United States violates its General Agreement on Trade and Services by enforcing policies that prohibit its citizens from accessing services offered by Antigua and Barbuda-based online gambling operators, but the publishing of the panel's final report was delayed because the parties agreed to attempt to negotiate a solution. "We held five face-to-face meetings with various branches of the U.S. government, but ultimately, we concluded that the elements necessary for an amicable resolution would not be forthcoming at this time from the United States," Dr. Errol Cort, minister of finance and the economy for Antigua and Barbuda, explained. "At the conclusion of our last meeting, it was fairly obvious to me and my delegation that the time had now come for us to take the next logical step and call for the release of the panel's final report."
Dutch Monopoly -- Betfair is likely to file legal proceedings this week challenging the Dutch government's decision to sustain a gambling monopoly by granting De Lotto an exclusive license to continue operating betting and gaming. Betfair's general counsel, Justin Hubble, told the Racing Post, "Betfair believes that E.U. law requires the Dutch government to properly consider Betfair's request for a license. Simply renewing De Lotto's exclusive license after over a year of delay tactics and without due consideration is not only improper legally but also of detriment to the Dutch public who are a captive market for a highly uncompetitive monopoly offering. Censorship of this nature designed to protect monopolists from competition should be challenged."
Betcorp -- Online wagering company Betcorp has sold Sportsbet, its Australian bookmaking business, to Sportsbet's general manager Colin Walker for an undisclosed amount. In September the Northern Territory Licensing Commission ordered Betcorp to sell the Sportsbet operation when it learned that Betcorp had come under the control of convicted racketeer Bill Scott after three of its board directors left the company. Betcorp announced to the Australian Stock Exchange last week that its third-quarter results will show a material net loss related to restructuring costs, writing off aborted acquisitions, the termination of agreements by previous management and costs associated with the sale of Sportsbet. Betcorp will now focus on its Antigua-based operation, WWTS.
Denial of Service -- Netcraft, an Internet services company that monitors the online availability of 20 of the England's top gambling sites, reported Thursday that the Tote had gone offline for over eight hours and Sportingbet had gone offline for over three hours. Though it has not yet been verified, DDoS attacks are the suspected cause of the downtime. The Register, a British technology publication, was knocked offline by a DDoS attack for nine hours on Wednesday.
Name Change -- Tradingsports Ltd. has changed its name to The Trading Exchange Ltd. to reflect the fact that its system handles trading on more than sports bets. AIM-listed parent company TradingSports Exchange Systems recently moved its headquarters from London to Glasgow in part of a recovery plan that also includes raising £4.5 million through a private placement.
Michigan Proposal 1 -- The presidential race is not the only issue drawing a lot of attention on ballots for the Nov. 2 election in Michigan. The state's voters will vote on Proposal 1, a measure that would require most types of gambling to be approved by voters statewide and in the city or township where the gambling would take place. A large anti-gambling group opposing the bill and calling itself "NO CasiNO MoNOpoly" argues that Proposal 1 is designed to give Detroit and Indian casinos a monopoly on gambling because it exempts them from voter approval. Today the group put out a press release, sub-titled "The Height of Hypocrisy," which states that MGM-Mirage, one of the largest financial backers of Proposition 1, profited from online gambling until June 2003 (when it ceased operating its online gambling site from the Isle of Man). The press release quotes Kelly Rossman-McKinney, a spokesperson for NO CasiNO MoNOpoly as saying, "This is the same company that has spent millions of dollars on advertisements accusing the governor and other leaders of wanting to bring Internet gambling to Michigan. The truth is that MGM-Mirage profited off of Internet gambling in the past, and a company spokesperson says it plans to do so in the future." Proposal 1 is apparently a strange one that has many people confused. While No CasiNO MoNOpoly opposes the bill because it fears groups like MGM would obtain a monopoly in the state, another anti-gambling group, Pastors Against the Spread of Gaming, is actually urging voters to support the proposal because it "will make it far more difficult to continue the spread of gaming throughout the state."
Lara Croft Is a Slot -- I-gaming software provider Microgaming has licensed the "Tomb Raider" brand from entertainment software company Eidos to launch a new online video slot themed around the game and its star Lara Croft. The new game has been developed as a five-reel, 15- payline, multiple coin video slot with a wild and scatter symbol, bonus feature and free spins. It is also the first Microgaming video slot in which players can win entry to a bonus feature from the free spins.