Friday, Nov. 12
Pari-Mutuel Pools -- Graeme Levine, founder of Gambling.com, has launched a new site called AnyBets.com that allows users to bet in pari-mutuel pools on any event, including sports, politics, finance and entertainment. By letting the market set the odds, Anybets can derive its profits from a cut from the aggregate wagers before winnings are distributed. With such a system in place, Anybets is able to pay affiliates based on the amount of bets placed rather than the amount of bets lost. The company is now offering affiliates 2.5 percent of total stakes and white label partners 3.5 percent.
Section 79 -- Section 79 of Britain's proposed Gambling Bill-- which states that remote gaming operators will have to return any money gambled by an under-age minor if they learn that a child has gambled on their site— has lately caused much concern within Britain's I-gaming industry. Some operators worry that an adult could use a child's debit card to accrue massive losses but then have them canceled by claiming a child had placed the bets. The Department of Culture, Media and Sport defends the measure, claiming that it is the responsibility of operators to use effective age verification software and that Section 79 provides even more incentive for appropriate verification software.
888 Exchange -- Gibraltar-based Cassava Enterprise, operator of 888.com, has signed a white-label betting exchange platform licensing deal with Betdaq in order to launch its own 888.com-branded online betting exchange in 2005. The site is currently is a soft-launch phase. The deal marks the first time Cassava has licensed software from a third-party provider rather than developing its own proprietary platform.
Harrah's Second Effort -- Following the closing of its soft-gaming site LuckyMe at the end of last month, Harrah's Entertainment's online division may try to launch a World Series of Poker-branded online poker-room using software by WagerWorks sometime in 2005. Like LuckyMe, the WSOP site will probably not take accept customers from the U.S.
Cut and Deal Contracts -- Cut and Deal, a London-based design company that provides stock photography and other images for use with sports, betting and gambling content, within its first three months of operation has signed contracts to provide its services to Bluff Magazine, iGaming Business and Thompson Gale, which is a U.S.-based family of publishing imprints that includes Macmillan and Thorndike Press.
Thursday, Nov. 11
iGGBA's Agenda -- iGGBA (Interactive Gaming, Gambling and Betting Association)'s secretary, Wes Himes, said the London International Casino Exposition in January will be "the busiest three days in the association's history." iGGBA will hold its annual general meeting during the expo and will also unveil its program and agenda for 2005, which includes among other things continuing to work with the British government on the Gambling Bill and with the European Commission as it reviews the need for a new set of laws to govern remote gambling services across all European states by at least 2010.
Fortune Lounge Grows -- The Fortune Lounge Group has added three independent online casinos-- Desert Dollar, Vegas Towers and Havana Club—to its online casino network, bringing its total to nine. To celebrate the new additions, all nine Fortune Lounge casinos are offering a 300 percent sign-up bonus to new players.
VIP News -- Curaçao-based VIP Management Services has launched online poker room VIPpoker.com. Operated by United Poker Network, VIPpoker.com is built on new software architecture developed by online poker software provider AceKicker.com. VIP recently obtained a bookmaker's permit in the UK and even more recently purchased Costa Rica-based sportsbooks GlobalWager and BetWorldWide for an undisclosed amount.
Wednesday, Nov. 10
Labour Donation -- Figures released by Britain's Electoral Commission yesterday revealed that in July the Labour Party accepted a £50,000 cash gift from Peter Coales, director of Bet365.com. Coates is a life-long supporter of the party and has made large contributions in the past, but this particular donation was given at a time when the government was drafting the final clauses of its Gambling Bill. News of Coales' gift has fueled speculation among the Bill's opponents that the government has been influenced by gambling entrepreneurs. Coates is also a shareholder in Lindley catering investments, which has contracts at football grounds planning to build casinos.
Making Deals -- I-gaming software provider Chartwell Technology Inc has signed an agreement to provide Ukbetting with a flash-based casino suite and soft games across a variety of Ukbetting's online gaming sites. London-based Ukbetting operates betting and gaming through the totalbet.com brand in addition to ukbetting.com and also provides sports content on sportinglife.com, bettingzone.co.uk, sportal.com and TEAMtalk.com. The company counts 5.5 million unique sports visitors per month.
Farewell -- United States Attorney General John Ashcroft announced his resignation yesterday. Under Ashcroft's command from 2001-2004, the U.S. Department of Justice warned media outlets that they could be held accountable to charges of aiding and abetting illegal activities if they advertised online gambling services. The so-called "public service" letters were soon followed by subpoenas issued to various companies in order to obtain information about the online gambling industry. In June 2004 the Department of Justice confiscated $3.2 million from the Discovery Channel after it canceled a deal to broadcast ads for ParadisePoker.com. Alberto Gonzalez seems like the most likely candidate to fill Ashcroft's post. According to the Associated Press, "Gonzales has been at the center of developing Bush's positions on balancing civil liberties with waging the war on terrorism — opening the White House counsel to the same line of criticism that has dogged Ashcroft."
EUVegas -- EUVegas.com has launched as the first online casino licensed under Malta's new remote gaming regulations. Using software from WorldMatch, the site offers no-download games of European roulette, blackjack, deuces wild, deuces wild multilane, aces and faces multilane and baccarat as well as a proprietary videopoker game and proprietary slots games. WorldMatch says it has developed an I-gaming system that gives access to the gaming sector to other entities without any commitment in terms of management, technology, finance or legal matters. The WorldMatch software is certified and audited by Italian certification agency CERMET.
Tuesday, Nov. 9
Project Endurance -- Britain's National High-Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU) this week initiated Project Endurance, a three-year £2 million campaign to improve public awareness about safety from cyber-crime on the Internet. With assistance from the Cabinet Office, the Department of Trade and Industry, the Home Office, Microsoft and several banks, the NHTCU's initiative aims to make the UK unattractive to organized crime groups. One of Endurance's main goals is to educate home and small business Internet users to secure their computers so that they could not be used as zombies by hackers launching denial of service attacks or phishing scams.
Seal of Approval -- eCOGRA (eCommerce and Online Gaming Regulation and Assurance) has awarded five more seals of approval to Internet casinos that have gone through independent testing and inspection by PriceWaterhouseCoopers to ensure they comply with the organization's requirements of operational efficiency, fair gaming and player protection. The five new eCOGRA-approved casinos—All Jackpots.com, All Slots.com, Casino UK.com, First Web Casino and Wild Jack.com—are all powered by Microgaming software.
Social Responsibility -- Ladbrokes has begun a corporate social responsibility program in Ireland that is based on a similar model that it has already operated for eight years in the UK. Part of the program includes a free phone helpline linking problem gamblers to GamCare and a service through which gamblers can have themselves barred from Ladbrokes betting offices or from using Ladbrokes' Internet services.
Compromising -- Richard Caborn, a deputy of British culture secretary Tessa Jowell, expressed today at the Gambling Bill's committee that Jowell is now willing to drop the initial number of large casino licenses to less than a dozen, compared to the figure of 20 to 40 that was anticipated last summer. The Guardian today quoted a source in the Department of Culture, Media and Sport as saying, "We are looking at ways by which we can prevent proliferation and we need to be clear about the impact of large casinos."
Mobile Hill -- William Hill and Swedish software developer Boss Media have signed an agreement to set up a pilot installation for a mobile gaming system that will allow William Hill's customers to play casino games on Nokia and Sony/Ericsson mobile phones. The games were developed in Java and should be live within a few weeks.
Commission Policy -- Irish betting exchange Tradesports has initiated a new commission policy that doesn't take fees from bets that are not immediately accepted. The new policy should increase liquidity for members who prefer to accept bets that are already available.
Ads Canceled -- British betting company Sportech announced last week that it was canceling a £4 million advertising campaign aimed at recruiting new players to its Littlewoods football pools game, which has been in decline ever since the introduction of the National Lottery ten years ago. The campaign did not attract enough new players and had to be terminated, costing Sportech an estimated £3 million. Yesterday Sportech announced that Managing Director George Rushton was resigning in order to pursue other interests.
Monday, Nov. 8
Making Deals -- Finnish lottery operator Veikkaus Oy has chosen GTECH Holdings Corp's subsidiary GTECH Global Services Corp as the preferred bidder to introduce new interactive lottery software, a new integrated online and instant lottery system, and new lottery terminals in Finland. GTECH and Veikkaus are expected to sign a definitive agreement by mid-December, at which time the details of the agreement will be publicly disclosed. GTECH has provided Veikkaus with lottery equipment and services since 1990.
WhichBingo -- Phil Fraser, owner of bingo directory WhichBingo, has launched a UK bingo portal at www.whichbingo.co.uk. Focusing exclusively on the British bingo market, the site features a land-based section with a large database of UK bingo clubs and a daily updated news section. WhichBingo also offers an online bingo section that features site reviews, a guide to playing bingo online, and a database of online bingo sites.
Quoteworthy -- "He said 'if you want to know where the real money is, it's in the syndicate that's going on around the world right now, speculating on the likelihood of certain results of occurrences. He said there were top athletes involved, and did I notice that Manchester United had been upset the other day, and that Andre Agassi had been eliminated from a major. He said 'look those things are not coincidences.'"
--Stephen Fleming, captain of New Zealand cricket, describing in his new book Balance of Power how he was invited to join a match fixing syndicate in 1999. Fleming claims he was approached by Auhim Khetrapal, an associate of Indian bookmaker Sanjeev Chawla, in the bar of his team's hotel during the 1999 World Cup in England.
Directorate Change -- Sportech, owner of Littlewoods Gaming, has appointed Roger Withers as executive director. Withers will take over for Managing Director George Rushton, who is resigning in order to pursue other interests. 62-year old Withers has served as non-executive director for the company since 2000. He will remain executive director until a successor to Rushton can be appointed.
Software Switch -- Prestige Gaming, which operates Prestige Poker, Diamond Club Poker, and Playgate Poker, is to begin using software platforms provided by I-gaming software developer Playtech. The new software will allow players to view the poker room from above the table in a two-dimensional view or in a three-dimensional side view with animated avatars. Prestige previously licensed software from Swedish company Boss Media.