Friday, April 22
Quoteworthy -- "Betfair has reasonable course to believe that some of the participants in the racing industry and/or one or more totalisators, are a party to an agreement, arrangement or understanding and/or are engaging in unilateral or collusive conduct for the purpose and effect of which is to inhibit and prevent the entry of Betfair and betting exchanges."
- An excerpt from a letter sent by Betfair's Sydney-based legal team, Gilbert and Tobin, to the chairman and directors of the Australian Racing Board, requesting details of all correspondence, briefings and minutes from meetings in which Betfair was mentioned. Betfair is threatening legal action against the Australian racing industry for restraint of trade, and its lawyers have already launched preliminary action against TABs, racing officials and race clubs across the country. Betfair is apparently looking into whether certain factions of the racing industry may have shown an illegal bias against it or possibly even colluded to prevent it from establishing a business in the country.
More on the Pending Legal Action -- Meanwhile, the Australian Racing Board has publicly asked for the Tasmanian government to reveal more details about its negotiations with Betfair and Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd. (PBL). One little reported fact about which the board is concerned is that PBL has paid the Tasmanian Government $2.5 million for a five-year gaming license that it does not use. "The racing industry is entitled to know what are the considerations that are being taken into account and is entitled to be consulted," Racing Board CEO Andrew Harding stated. "Our future indeed is what is at stake here."
Internet Safety -- A new survey conducted by the Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA) and federal government body NetAlert found that nearly half of all Australian children have been exposed to pornography, gambling, obscene language or violence while surfing the Internet. The report also found that about one in every four children had been contacted by a stranger, usually via spam e-mail, while surfing online. NetAlert and the ABA plan to develop a series of initiatives to educate parents, teachers and children about Internet safety.
Heathorns -- Interactive Gaming Holdings Plc has signed an agreement with I-gaming software provider Orbis Technology whereby Orbis will provide its OpenBet platform and a call center for IGH's newly acquired Heathorns' sports book. The platform is slated to go live in the third quarter of 2005.
Welcome Aboard -- Costa Rica-based betting company BetOnSports has welcomed two new directors to its senior management team. Clive Archer, a former director of Carmen Media, joins the company as director of operations and marketing, while Richard Creed joins the company as commercial director.
DDoS Attack -- Square Enix, the owner of interactive fantasy role playing game "Final Fantasy XI," revealed last week that a disruption in the game's operation was the result of a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack. The company has not stated whether the attack was accompanied by an extortion demand. Final Fantasy XI has over 550,000 subscribers who pay $12.95 each month for access. Rich Miller, a spokesperson for British Internet monitoring firm Netcraft, says that online games may soon become the next target for DDoS attacks because they have large numbers of subscribers and because downtime can be severely detrimental to them.
Thursday, April 21
Mobile Lotto -- Finnish digital gaming solutions provider EGET (European Game & Entertainment Technology Ltd) has added new instant, traditional and scheduled lotto games to its line of online mobile lottery products. The new Java-based games enable operators to include progressive jackpots in the win tables as well as include double payoff rounds and Joker games.
Tasmania -- The Inter Church Gambling Taskforce in Tasmania has publicly opposed the potential licensing of betting exchange Betfair. Stuart Foster, a spokesman for the taskforce, said the group is "most concerned about the potential for yet another form of gambling in Australia that will further exacerbate levels of problem gambling, that are already far too high." Foster added, "We are also amazed that while regulators around the country are looking at legislation, regulation and programs to reduce the impacts of problem gambling, we have the Tasmanian government seeking to increase the number of people with gambling problems by increasing gambling opportunities." The Greens Party, meanwhile, has stated that the Lennon government should fund a study into the effects of poker machines and the potential effects of increased gambling through Betfair before granting the company a license.
eCOGRA Approval -- eCOGRA (eCommerce and Online Gaming Regulation and Assurance) has announced the addition of two more Microgaming-powered online casinos--MapleCasino.com and ThunderLuck.com-- to its list of approved gaming sites. The two additions brings the number of eCOGRA-approved casinos to 53. eCOGRA also announced that 22 additional online casinos have achieved the necessary service and probity levels to offer eCOGRA-regulated foreign language and multi-currency facilities.
Welcome Aboard -- Horse Racing Ireland has appointed Alexis Murphy, a senior manager with Goodbody Corporate Finance, to take over the CEO position for Tote Ireland. Before working in corporate finance, Murphy was founder and managing director of IBS Ltd., an Internet startup that developed a betting marketplace software platform and other betting software for the betting industry. . . . Swedish gaming software developer Boss Media has appointed Eric Matsgård to fill the position left by resigning senior vice president Krister Bergström, who is leaving the company to start his own business. Bergström will continue to serve as a consultant in strategic development projects for Boss.
Wrong Bet Fred -- Victor Chandler is the winner of a £1 million wager placed between two bookmaking icons--himself and Fred Done of Betfred. Done, a dedicated Manchester United fan, offered an open £1 million bet in August that Manchester would finish higher than Chelsea in the Premiership, and Chandler was the only one to accept the bet. Chelsea is up by 14 points with six games remaining, meaning that Chandler can't lose. Done strolled into the Victor Chandler betting shop in London Park's Lane on Monday to pay up.
Wednsday, April 20
Chartwell Games Corp -- Interactive gaming software developer Chartwell Technology has expanded its wholly owned London-based licensing and marketing subsidiary, Chartwell Games Corp, by appointing Pasqualino Rasile as IT director and Matt Webb as business development manager. Rasile has 10 years of experience in designing Web systems and has for the past four years served as IT manager for European sports book Globet. Webb held a senior sales and marketing position at British National Lottery operator Camelot before moving on to provide consultancy services to numerous international gaming ventures.
MrBookmaker's Games -- European betting company MrBookmaker.com will be adding a suite of new gaming products over the next few weeks. The first two games--The General & I and Dragon Keno--have already launched and were developed in partnership with gaming content provider Electracade and gaming solutions company Finsoft. Earlier this month Irish bookmaker Paddy Power launched two dice games that were developed by Electracade, marking the company's first product release.
Quoteworthy -- "I don't know why it is that people should say Tasmania should not issue a first license to a private organization to enable them to legally lay bets on various sporting events, both nationally and internationally, from here as it already happens."
- Tasmanian Premier Paul Lennon, who expects to announce within two months whether Tasmania will license Publishing and Broadcasting Limited (PBL) and its British partner, Betfair, to operate a betting exchange.
Poker Beat -- PokerSchoolOnline.com teamed up this month with BugsysClub.com to organize a tournament to raise money for PokerShcoolOnline member David Wolner, who was about to undergo expensive treatment for Pancreatic Cancer. The $0 + $15 No Limit Hold'em tournament raised over $5,000, and PokerSchoolOnline contributed another $1,000. PokerSchoolOnline teaches members the game of poker through tests, reference articles, mentoring and weekly Web-based lessons. . . . Bodog.com has welcomed poker player Mike Mizrachi to Team Bodog. Mizrachi will compete at the World Poker Tour Championship at the Bellagio in Las Vegas later this year. The company has begun calling him "Big Dog" and currently lists him as the 5/1 favorite to win the tournament. . . . ThwartPoker Inc. has created a new online game called "Poker Blitz" in which players choose the cards they want rather than being dealt a hand of random cards. All players select from the same deck and must pick, block and dodge the selections of their opponents. If a player picks a card that was also selected by another player in a current or previous round, the players are both blocked and dealt cards that have no value. The company says that this new way of playing takes all of the guess work out of poker and ensures that a player wins because of his skill rather than luck. Poker Blitz has been integrated into the Game Trust platform and is now available for real-cash tournament play at Miniclip.com.
Tuesday, April 19
Viennese Betfair -- U.K. based betting exchange Betfair has received a license to operate in Austria. The license permits the company to operate only in the state of Vienna, but Betfair plans to seek licenses in Austria's other eight states as well. The company also hopes to attain license in South Africa and is considering applying for licenses in Germany and several other European countries.
Play-by-Play -- Interactive Systems Worldwide Inc. (ISWI) has released more figures indicating the rising popularity of its SportXction play-by-play wagering platform. In the months from July to September 2004, the company logged 3,397 unique player sessions, 893 new players, $259,000 in handle and $7,000 in wagering revenue. For the last quarter of 2004 (October to December), those numbers soared to 11,188 players sessions, 3,098 new players, $758,00 in handle and $23,000 in wagering revenue. The latest figures for the first quarter of 2005 (January to March) show an even larger increase all across the board, with player sessions rising to 35,184, new players rising to 6,772, handles rising to $2.3 million and wagering revenue rising to $46,000. The surge in SportXction activity is due to the rollout of its multi-language, multi-currency product in several countries. Sportingbet has launched the product on its Croatian, Slovenian, Spanish, Turkish, Bulgarian and Greek betting sites in recent months. ISWI says it intends to target players in these countries further by increasing the number of local and international (non-British) sporting events offered.
Voice Verification -- 192.com Business Services has developed a product called 192 SafeBet that verifies online gamblers identities by using a voice-based solution. The product records gamblers' unique audio voice-prints and then instigates an automatic call-back facility whenever a user logs on to a wagering site. The customer is then asked to provide verbal confirmation of his age and identity. The solution can also check users' information against a number of information sources, including the Electoral Roll, Companies House and the BT Contact Directory Enquiries Database.
Welcome Aboard -- Irish betting company Paddy Power has announced that Patrick Kennedy will take overr the role of CEO of the company when John O'Reilly retires at the end of the year. Kennedy is currently a non-executive director of Paddy Power and chief financial officer of Greencore Group Plc. Commenting on his appointment as CEO of the Paddy Power, Kennedy stated, "As a long time unsuccessful punter, it will now be a pleasure to reverse roles!"
bet365casino -- British betting company bet365.com has licensed software from I-gaming software provider Playtech to launch bet365casino.com. The casino incorporates a customized package designed specifically for sports book operators and fans and includes virtual horse racing game Derby Day, 12 new fixed-odds games, instant-access flash games and the ability to integrate live scores and odds data tickers.
William Hill TV -- William Hill has signed a deal with the Brazilian football league that will allow it to begin showing three hours of Brazilian football on William Hill TV (channel 425 on Sky Digital) every Sunday. Another recent deal signed by the company will allow it to begin airing live Australian horse racing from 1 a.m. to 1 p.m. t William Hill will be showing more than 110 hours of racing every week--more than both At The Races at 91 hours a week and Racing UK at 69 hours a week.
Monday, April 18, 2005
Eurobet Mobile -- iTouch, content supplier for mobile phone networks, has signed a three-year deal to provide mobile gambling services to British bookmaker Coral Eurobet. The initial product launch will feature four fixed-odds betting games, while several other betting applications--including a sports book--are expected to go live later this year. Coral and iTouch will share a portion of the service's revenues with Zone4Play, which in February signed an agreement to supply its mobile gambling solutions to iTouch.
Zone4Play Provides -- Multi-platform gaming solutions provider Zone4Play last week announced its involvement in two U.S. projects. A deal with Cablevision Systems Corporation enables Cablevision's iO digital cable television customers to subscribe to a package of over 50 interactive games for $4.95 per month. Zone4Play is providing Cablevision with solutions that will enable it to offer a new "Play Per Day" option through which customers can play classic games like "Asteroids Mega," "Tetris," "Slingo Millennum" and "5 Card Slingo" for 24 hours at $1.95 per game. The second project entails Zone4Play providing an Internet-based suite of single and multi-player games and play-for-fun casino games Commonwealth Telephone Enterprises, a telecommunications company.
UK-Style Bingo -- I-gaming software provider Playtech has developed a new U.K.-style 90-ball online bingo game to complement the U.S.-style 75-ball bingo game it introduced 18 months ago. The new game is tailored for the U.K. market and aimed at existing licensees on the mainland as well as bingo operators in general. The 90-ball game entails three rows of numbers and three winners in each game: the first to complete one row, the first to complete two rows, and the first to complete all three rows. The game also features authentic Cockney dealer voices and traditional British bingo ball-outs (like "Duck and Dive 25") in addition to 3-D animated graphics, chat functions, game histories and other features. It will debut at Web sites in the Bingoland network, which includes Baraka Bingo, Bingo777, Kiwi Bingo, Prestige Bingo, Tiki Bingo and others.
Running of the Betbull -- The European Betting Exchange (also known as "betbull") has launched its live person-to-person horseracing-only betting exchange at www.betbull.de. The German horse racing industry will receive a share of betbull's commissions. The company calls its product a cooperative between racing associations and bookmakers and says it currently has exclusive partnerships with the racing associations of Munich and Baden Baden and expects other racing associations and bookmakers to join in the coming weeks. The partnerships give betbull exclusive rights to promote its betting exchange at race tracks.
Intercasino Euro -- InterCasino's Euro casinos (espana.intercasino.com, france.intercasino.com, italia.intercasino.com and deutsch.intercasino.com) have added a series of exclusive new games. Powered by CryptoLogic's version 6 software, the new games are available for play with the euro currency in the Spanish, French, Italian and German languages. Among the new games are Rapid Fire slots (a six-machine progressive), Casino Solitaire, Super Fun 21, Pontoon, Casino War, Bonus Video Poker and Fruit Machines.
China Busts -- The Chinese government has reportedly shut down a total 1,361 Web sites that offer gambling over the Internet and seized a total of over $200,000 in profits from some of those sites. Police are said to have investigated 42 criminal cases related to Internet gambling, apprehended 62 suspects and confiscated 183 servers.
Football365 on 3 -- British betting company ukbetting has launched its own branded, stand-alone channel on cellular operator 3's live video mobile news and entertainment channel, Today on 3. Ukbetting's football content unit, Football365, will manage a site that will provide access to wallpapers, ringtones, editorial content, competitions, quizzes, animations and match previews.
Grounded -- Due to a lack of interest from passengers, low-cost airline Ryanair is giving up on its experiment in offering movies, music, games and other entertainment in-flight through its handheld digEplayer devices. The company launched the service at a price of £5 per flight in November 2004, and at the time, CEO Michael O'Leary and other company spokespersons said they believed in-flight gambling could potentially generate significant new revenues. In-flight gambling applications, however, were never developed.
Emperor Neptune -- King Neptune's Casino, which has since 2003 boasted an efficient Japanese-language customer support system for players using its English language Web site, has launched a Japanese version of its casino to meet the demand of its Japanese players. Powered by Microgaming's Viper software, the Japanese casino features 50 games in the Japanese language and another 100 that are only partially translated from English (though they will eventually be converted to completely Japanese versions). King Neptune's Casino is part of the Trident Entertainment Group.
Welcome Aboard -- California-based race wagering and content provider Youbet.com has appointed prominent horse racing legal expert and former California Horse Racing Board chairman Roger Licht to its independent wagering compliance committee. The committee provides ongoing insight and independent auditing of Youbet's compliance procedures and policies.