Friday, Sep. 9
Online Casino -- Cassava Enterprises, the Gibraltar-based operator of online gaming sites 888.com (Casino On Net) and PacificPoker.com, has launched another new gaming site called Online Casino at www.online-casino.com. The company is still planning to float on the London Stock Exchange this month, despite the sharp decline in rival gaming company PartyGaming's share price earlier this week.
Poker in Sweden -- The 14th annual Spelakademin (Gaming Academy) was held in Sweden this week, giving the country's legal gaming operators the opportunity to meet with politicians, public bodies, media representatives, suppliers and researchers to discuss different political, legal, economic and social aspects of the gaming market. Sweden's vice prime minister Bosse Ringholm stated at Speladkademin that he believed Sweden's gaming operators should have the same business opportunities as private foreign bookmakers. He was most likely indicating that the Swedish government will indeed grant the country's national lottery operator Svenska Spel a license to operate online poker on its Internet site. Svenska Spel applied for such a license in January of this year. It is estimated that foreign betting companies collect 84 percent of the revenue form interactive gaming in Sweden. Svenska Spel thinks it could get take 30 percent of the Internet poker market in the country and deliver US$40 million to the government in taxes if it were licensed. Other speakers at the Spelakademin discussed Sweden's ongoing study into a possible new gambling framework. The study will be published on December 15th.
Remote Tables -- DEQ Systems Corp., which provides auxiliary gaming systems that compliment existing casino gaming tables, has obtained a patent that completes its development of a remote betting system that will allow spectators not seated at the table to wager on the success of players sitting at the table. The system streams the table's action to the remote spectators and is currently compatible with blackjack, baccarat, roulette and poker. DEQ also plans to integrate multiple side betting and mystery bonusing. The company says its product is great for people who like to watch but not participate in live casino table games and for people who would like the chance to win progressive jackpots or random prizes while betting on their favorite players or those who seem most promising.
Floating -- Gaming operator Codere, which operates in Europe and Latin America and is considered possibly the largest Spanish group of gaming companies, has enlisted the aid of Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley in preparation for a potential float on a major market before the end of 2005. The company is reportedly considering a public sale of 30 to 35 percent of the capital of the company.
WhiteLabeling -- BetCorp Limited, operator of BetWWTS.com, has launched a white label partner program at WhiteLabelGaming.com, offering companies the opportunity to operate their own e-gaming site using the BetCorp model. Partners will be responsible for managing their own brand development, marketing and player acquisition while outsourcing all other aspects of operations to a trusted partner.
Team Sponsorship -- I-gaming software provider Las Vegas From Home.com Entertainment Inc. says that its subsidiary Action Poker Gaming Inc has signed an in-arena marketing deal with the NBA's Los Angeles Clippers that will allow the company to promote its two new brands—ActionPoker.com and ActionPoker.net—through courtside signage, promotional giveaways, print media and the presenting sponsorship of the Clippers' Spirit Dance Team. The deal also gives the company airtime for commercials during each of the team's KTLA television network broadcasts during the 2005/2006 season as well as radio ad time during each of the Clippers' pre-season and regular season radio broadcasts. Las Vegas From Home.com's president and CEO Jake Kalpakian says that in addition to the deal with the Clippers, his company will aggressively market the Action Poker brands over the next few months across the U.S. through traditional means and will also introduce unique marketing initiatives. The Action Poker brands send their player traffic to the Action Poker Network, which also hosts Las Vegas From Home.com's third party licensee's as well as its own flagship site, TigerGaming.com.
Mobile in Hong Kong -- On Wednesday the Hong Kong Jockey Club launched a new mobile service for betting on horse races, football matches and Mark Six lotteries. Developed in cooperation with wireless network provider SmarTone-Vodafone, the new service is called Bet to Win and provides customers with live television feeds of events and real-time statistics and information. The previous version of the Jockey Club's mobile service allowed punters only to place wagers via SMS text messaging.
Spam Bust -- Online casino operator 4's a Fortune Limited has reportedly become Ireland's first conviction under its European Communities Regulations of 2003. The company was found guilty of sending unsolicited marketing messages to five mobile phones.4's a Fortune allegedly contacted 165,000 O2 mobile customers, but authorities only investigated messages that became the subject of complaints.
Quickies -- Online poker software provider B2B Poker.com released a new web-based Java client that requires no download or installation and is also compatible with Linux and Macintosh operating systems in addition to Windows… Littlewoods Betdirect has launched a mobile casino suite using mobile technology from Mfuse and software from Boss Media. Betdirect already has a mobile sportsbook that has been in operation since March 2005… Mahjong gaming software provider Mahjong Mania has signed a deal to launch its Mahjong platform on the soccer betting website of Asian betting and gaming operator Betex… Mice and Dice Limited (formerly known as Gamesys Marketing Support Ltd), the marketing subsidiary of online gaming company Gamesys, has named Michael Braga as its new managing director. Mice and Dice provides marketing services for Profitable Play, which operates Jackpotjoy.com… Three players from the Chongqing Lifan football team in China's Super League have been fired on suspicion of match fixing. China's Super League has been filled with troubles in recent years, and began this season one month late because teams were struggling with ticket sales. Other alleged match fixing incident occurred in May when a coach who was fired accused members of his team of fixing games… Online skill games provider WorldWinner, Inc has signed an advertising deal with Facebook, an online social network directory that is popular and colleges and universities, that will create a WorldWinner-sponsored Facebook group where students can compete in online games to win merchandise such as Xboxes, Sony PSPs and laptop computers.
Thursday, Sep. 8
Partners -- British I-gaming software provider Orbis has announced a partnership with Ash Gaming (formerly known as Ash Leucker), which is also an interactive games provider. Together the companies will continue to develop games that can be delivered over a variety of digital channels. Earlier this week Orbis announced that it had acquired another I-gaming software provider named NT Media. Orbis is a wholly owned subsidiary of open end-to-end digital pay TV solutions company NDS Group Plc, which is itself a subsidiary of News Corporation.
Party on the Footsie -- Two months after floating on the London Stock Exchange, PartyGaming will soon join the FTSE 100 index. Changes to the index are based upon Tuesday's closing prices and will take affect on September 19th. Although PartyGaming suffered a sharp decline of more than 33 percent of its share price earlier this week as it announced a slowdown in revenue growth, the company is still valued at £4.2 billion, making among the market's 100 biggest customers.
Virtual Girl -- New online poker site GreenTiePoker.com has launched a new Virtual Girl Game, a free true-or-false quiz game that tests players' knowledge of women and poker. Questions are asked by supermodel Carey Lassard, who is currently training to join the World Poker Tour next year. Carey bares a little more flesh every time a player answers a question correctly, and any player who completes the game without missing a question earns an automatic $20 deposit in their account. Every quarter GreenTiePoker will select a new model to serve as the game's Virtual Girl. Operated in Antigua by eWorld Holdings, Inc—which also operates UltimateBet.com and UltimatePoker.com—GreenTiePoker belongs to the Excapsa network, which has a combined customer base of more than one million.
Self Ban -- Australia's largest betting company, Tabcorp, has launched a self-exclusion service called BetCare that allows gambling addicts to ban themselves from accessing their Internet or phone betting accounts. The service also allows addicts to access free help from the Wesley Gambling Counselling Service.
FIFA Task Force -- Following of string of revelations of corruption in European football in the last year, FIFA will soon establish a task force to deal with bribery, betting and match-fixing. After a meeting in Zurich on Wednesday between officials from FIFA and UEFA, FIFA issued a statement indicating that FIFA President Sepp Blatter will submit a proposal to the FIFA Congress suggesting that "a special task force be set up to examine these issues in more detail and determine appropriate action and solutions."
Marketing in China -- A pink sheets-listed firm called Dragon Venture, which seeks to become a holding company of hi-tech firms in China, announced last week that one of its subsidiaries, Yastand Hong Kong International Group Company, Limited, has signed a letter of intent to acquire the exclusive marketing rights for Costa Rica-based online poker site CardRoom.net. Yastand will market the poker site in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, and will receive a 40 percent payout on all revenues received by CardRoom.net's operator Green Dolphin Marketing. Dragon Venture's CEO Lawrence Wang says his company is currently formulating a marketing strategy with marketing professionals in the Chinese gaming industry.
Wednesday, Sep. 7
Case Delayed -- Casino City's appeal in its First Amendment declaratory judgment case against the U.S. Department of Justice will probably be delayed at least until the beginning of 2006 as a result of the damage suffered by the U.S. Gulf Coast. The case is pending before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which is located in New Orleans, the city that inflicted the most damage by Hurricane Katrina.
Betbull in Retail -- European betting exchange operator Betbull will acquire 100 percent of the German retail bookmaker the Leip Group for 10 million euro and 700,000 ordinary shares of Betbull. The deal will become effective on October 1st, and Betbull says it is an important step in the company's establishing itself as a leading retail betting provider in continental Europe. The Leip Group operates 80 retail shops under the Wettenleip brand, and in the year 2004 the company reported 1 million euro in profit off of 51.7 million euro in turnover and 8.1 million euro in revenue.
I-gaming Japan -- Japanese Internet group Softbank Corp., which runs the Yahoo broadband service in Japan, has signed a deal with the lwate Prefecture Horse Racing Association that will allow it to become Japan's first company to offer betting online. Beginning in April 2006, Softbank will begin taking bets over the Internet on races at two courses in lwate Prefecture, which is about 250 miles north of Tokyo. The company says that if the venture proves successful it will spread the service to other regional races.
Mobile Party -- Gibraltar-based online gaming giant PartyGaming has taken its first step toward making its products available over mobile networks by launching a java version of its Starluck Casino site. Developed in cooperation with Cellectivity, a London-based developer and marketer of mobile solutions for online merchants, Starluck Casino Mobile currently offers European Roulette and Golden Gopher slot machines for fun or real money. PartyGaming and Cellectivity will continue to work together to launch more mobile games and eventually roll out a mobile version of the world's largest online poker room, PartyPoker.
PXP On WWTS -- Antigua-based betting operation BetWWTS.com has expanded its product offering by launching the PXP Live Play-by-Play wagering platform. Until now the PXP system was only available on CyberSportsBook.com, which was this year acquired by BetWWTS' parent company Betcorp. PXP allows punters to place wagers on the outcome of individual plays within a contest. For American football games for example, odds for a number of betting propositions are posted on the wagering interface, and bettors can wager as little as $1.00 on any play. The system displays real time results, including payouts based on the odds and amount wagered.
Donation Rejected -- The Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York has rejected Sportsbook.com's proposed donation of Barry Bonds' 700th home run baseball. The Sportingbet-owned gambling site reportedly offered the ball with no strings attached, but the Hall of Fame "will never accept artifacts from any company known to be involved with gambling," said spokesperson Jeff Idelson. Sportsbook.com purchased the ball for $85,000 in June through a public auction in New York.
Tuesday, Sep. 6
Dutch Site -- Online gaming operator Vegas Partner Lounge has launched a new online casino website at NL.SunVegas.com that caters to Dutch speaking players. The site is supported by 24-hour service at a new Dutch toll free number. Just last week a court in the Netherlands issued a ruling in a long legal battle between state-run lotteries and sports betting monopoly De Lotto and Ladbrokes. The court ruled that Ladbrokes must cease making all of its online gambling opportunities available to Dutch citizens or face severe fines. Several other cases involving foreign-based commercial gambling operators are still making their way through the Dutch court system and are likely to end the same way, but all of those cases involve European companies upon whom penalties can actually be set. Vegas Partner Lounge on the other hand is licensed and operated from the Kahnawake in Canada— where it is probably out of reach from the Dutch court system.
Mobile Racebook -- Antigua-based online betting company CaribSports.com has signed a deal with wireless platform developer Phantom Fiber Corporation that will allow CaribSports' members to access its horse racing book via mobile devices. Phantom Fiber has already launched a mobile version of CaribSports' sportsbook.
Ubet2win -- Betting company Ubet2win, a newcomer to the industry, has signed a deal with Victor Chandler that will enable to the company to begin offering online casino and poker games on its ubet2win.co.uk Internet site. The company began trading on the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange at the end of July. The company also holds a license to access the Betfair Application Programming Interface in order to manage its bets more efficiently and profitably.
Law Suit -- Michael Tomeny, a founder of Gibraltar-based gaming company Mansion who was executive director of Canbet from February 2000 until April 2003, is now suing Canbet and International All Sports over the contents of an e-mail the two companies sent to customers in August 2004. The purpose of the e-mail was to update customers on the status of the merger of the two companies. Tomeny says the e-mail suggests he was released because of poor performance, but he insists that he left the company because he believed Canbet should be based in Britain where a liberal approach to gambling was being adopted, rather than in Australia. Australia-based International All Sports says it will defend itself against the allegations. The case will be dealt with by the Supreme Court of Victoria.
Quoteworthy -- "Just like the open road, it's fun, fast, and its always free."
--Tagline of a late-night television commercial airing in the U.S. promoting Bodog.net, a site where web surfers can learn the game of poker for free. Costa Rica-based Bodog.com is reportedly about to launch a new generation of its proprietary poker system.