Tidbits from the UK -- U.K. bookmaker betinternet.com announced this week that its World Cup trading is ahead of expectations. The company said its customer accounts have increased 40 percent during the second quarter, which includes the World Cup, over the first quarter. World Cup transactions are numbering about 10,000 per match day on the company's Web site. The United Kingdom's National Lottery could be nationalized. Tessa Jowell, the country's culture secretary, is expected to make an announcement suggesting three possible options for the lottery, which suffered from its largest ticket sales slump ever last fall. Camelot's license to operate the lottery ends in 2009. Vernons, one of the United Kindgom's large gaming companies, is planning to develop an online lottery to compete with the National Lottery. Vernons presently offers football pools online as well as an Irish lottery prediction game called Lucky Clover. The Vernons lottery, which will be called My Numbers, is scheduled to launch next month and will cost £1 for a chance to win a £3 million jackpot. "We can't compete direct with the National Lottery but we can provide an alternative," said Vernons' marketing director, Peter Ammundsen. "Punters want larger prizes for fewer numbers, so we're delivering a product they want."
Names and Faces -- EssNet, a Swedish firm that develops online lottery and gaming systems, recently appointed Ralph Gelfgren as its managing director. Gelfgren joins EssNet from Sweden's national lottery, Svenska Spel, where he had been responsible for development of retail and direct sales channels. Christopher Stoddart is resigning his position as chief executive of attheraces less than one year after the company began. Stoddard said he will stay with the company for the next six months to help with the launch of interactive features on the attheraces TV channel, which has already been postponed by a month. Sungold Entertainment Corp. is appointing Louis Hop Lee to its board of directors. Sun International Hotels is hiring Deloitte & Touche LLP to replace Arthur Anderson LLP as its independent public accountant. The change is effective immediately; Sun said the decision was not based on a disagreement between it and Arthur Anderson.
Asian Tidbit -- Hong Kong will review the efficiency of its gambling laws after the World Cup ends, said Secretary for Home Affairs Lam Woon-kwong Monday. His comments were in response to a recent survey that found that many people in Hong Kong don't believe gambling laws are being enforced properly. The survey, conducted June 7-17, found that 42 percent of those surveyed think that police have not been able to stop soccer betting. In addition, sixty-seven percent of respondents said they were in favor of legalizing football gambling.
Makin' Deals -- Las Vegas Strip tycoon Steve Wynn signed a contract with the government of Macau this week, the Associated Press reports. The 20-year contract will require Wynn Resorts to spend $521.8 million during the course of seven years on an entertainment and resort complex. Macau gave Wynn one of three available casino licenses four months ago. Mobile phone operator Orange and Ladbrokes announced an agreement wherein Ladbrokes bettors will be able to use credit or debit cards at betting offices that formerly only took cash. Orange will be putting courtesy phones at the offices so that bettors can call Ladbrokes and place bets by telephone. Boss Media has signed a deal with bet365 Ltd., the telephone and Internet betting section of bet365 Group. Boss will be supplying the U.K.-based bookmaker with an Internet casino in Spanish, English and Cantonese; bet365 will use its own payment system and player support. Peter Bertilsson, CEO and president of Boss Media, said his company has signed several deals with Internet bookmakers who wish to add casino games to their sites. "This is another contract with a big sports book operator," he said. "We've seen high demand from these operators to add an Internet casino to their sports book, since the conversion of players is high." Boss Media has also provided casino games to Victor Chandler Group and Sportingbet.com. Ladbrokes, the giant U.K.-based bookmaker, announced a deal that will give its customers a wireless payment solution. The company has partnered with paybox, a leading provider of wireless payment solutions and transactions. The deal will create a system that will allow any customer in the United Kingdom with a bank account and mobile phone to pay for bets at Ladbrokes.com. As an alternative to using a credit or debit card when placing a bet online, paybox users are simply requested to enter their four-digit PIN to authorize payment. Besides offering Ladbrokes' customers simplicity and convenience, paybox provides security by eliminating the need for consumers to provide banking details online. Ladbrokes said the paybox system will be integrated into the Ladbrokes Web site immediately. Online bookmaker Sportingbet is acquiring Sporting Odds, the fixed odds business of Sporting Index, for £4.5 million. Sportingbet will pay for its purchase by issuing £2 million of its ordinary shares to Sporting Index Holdings and by taking out a £2.5 million loan. Sporting Odds, which has been operational since June 2000, had turnover of £38 million last year. Under the acquisition agreement, Sporting Index will still link to Sporting Odds, and Sportingbet will have a link from its site to the spread betting business of Sporting Index. Nigel Payne, chief executive of Sportingbet, said the addition to his company will increase its European presence. "Over the past year, Sportingbet has grown its European business significantly and this acquisition, which will be run on shore in the United Kingdom, materially increases our critical mass into the region and our aim of making Europe a substantial profit-making part of the group along with our existing profitable businesses into the Americas, Asia and Australia."
US Tidbit -- Business magazine Wired recently reported that the number of gambling Web sites that have signed up to use PayPal's online payment service has doubled in the first quarter of this year. Almost 500 sites agreed to accept PayPal in the first quarter, doubling the company's number of online gaming merchants. As of March 31, PayPal had 1,022 Internet gambling merchants.
New Stuff -- TradingSports, the new and fast growing person-to-person betting exchange, announced a new licensee that will help grow the exchange even more. The London-based company inked a deal with SBG Global, one of the largest offshore sports books in the industry. The deal will enable SBG’s customers to place live and in-play P2P bets on a variety of sporting events, including the upcoming NFL football season. The deal will see TradingSports become SBG Global’s official P2P betting partner and marks the sports book’s first-ever venture into the rapidly expanding P2P betting marketplace. The P2P offering will complement the betting and casino facilities already available to SBG’s customer base of more than 125,000 active users. Grande Sports on Thursday announced the launch of post-up service at its online betting site, www.betgrande.com. The service will allow players to set up accounts to use when betting with the company through either the Internet or telephone. The company said a monthly public statement of post-up funds will be held in an escrow account that will be verified by accountants. John Kellogg, administrative director, said 100 percent of players' deposits will be held in escrow.