The news in brief for the week of May 29-June 4
Betfair celebrated its fifth birthday offering the Oaks market commission-free to punters. The Oaks was the first race Betfair covered when it started in the year 2000. The betting exchange now employs over 500 people. It has over 350,000 registered customers worldwide and matches over 2,000,000 transactions a day.
Bingo.com purchased two cash bingo sites, winabingo.com and groovybingo.com, for a sum to be determined by the number of active players in the database and the amount of revenue they generate over the next 12 months.
Boss Media and Svenska Spel signed a strategic agreement formalizing several years of collaboration on a number of digital gaming projects.
Online poker provider Ongame obtained membership of the eCommerce and Online Gaming Regulation and Assurance (eCOGRA), the self regulatory body founded by Microgaming and Casino on Net.
SportsInterAction offered Jason Giambi an endorsement deal worth up to $3 million annually, in a formal proposal to replace Nike, Pepsi and Arm & Hammer, which recently allowed endorsement contracts to expire in light of reports that Giambi had used steroids.
Zone4Play launched the world’s first cross platform multi-player poker solution on Sky’s iTV system in the UK. The company also entered into a long term agreement with Two Way TV Australia to distribute Zone4Play’s gambling solutions in Australia, New Zealand and 26 Asian countries.
Virgin Games launched Virgin Bingo on Parlay Entertainment-based St. Minver bingo network.
World Gaming announced a 54.1% growth in like-for-like revenues for the first quarter of 2005. Like-for-like revenues exclude revenues from Sportingbet, which following the deal in October 2004 and the payment of $10m in cash, pays only hosting and IT services at cost plus 10%. The software provider signed two new licensees and reported a total wagering volume on the company’s servers of $2.0 billion for the quarter ended 31 March 2005, up from $1.4 billion for the same period last year.
Youbet.com completed the acquisition of International Racing Group, a pari-mutuel wagering company based in Curacao, for $2 million in cash and 166,668 shares of Youbet.com. Based on the future performance of IRG, the sellers could receive up to $9.7 million plus annual earn-out payments over the next three years.
The week-long 30th Asian Racing Conference closed with an unexpected endorsement for the gross profits tax regime from Larry Wong, chief executive of the Hong Kong Jockey Club. “Governments must protect their racing industries to preserve their income and, if they feel horseracing is important as a sport and a finance provider, they should look to the taxation situation and move from turnover to gross profits. Only a gross profits tax can provide horseracing with a competitive element. A turnover tax gives our competitors all the advantages,” said Wong. However, his opposition to betting exchanges remained as strong as ever: “Betting exchanges are a threat to horseracing’s viability and integrity which must be resisted. I see nothing in the business model that assists racing. On the one hand they pay nothing, and on the other they threaten integrity. The exchanges are a Trojan horse, set to destroy racing as we know it.”
The Online Series of Poker has been announced, giving online poker players worldwide the opportunity to win a share of $100,000 in prize money by qualifying through online tournaments held across multiple online poker rooms.
According to Nielsen//Netratings more than 4.28m people in the UK visited a gambling site in April 2005, representing 16.9% of all UK surfers, up from 3.92m in the same period in 2004.
According to PokerPulse.com in April, PartyPoker remained the dominant player in the poker sector with a 45% market share. PartyPoker was followed by PokerStars with a 7.9% market share, CryptoLogic with 7.5%, PokerNetwork with 6.2% and PrimaPoker with 5.4%.
Gianni Corradini, promoter and advisor to Malta-based online casino WorldMatch, obtained a seat on the Maltese Remote Gaming Council. The Council is made up of stakeholders from the online gaming industry, including license holders, data carriers, internet service providers, as well as legal and financial professionals.
Michael Jackson and Brian Larcombe to become two of the best-paid non-executives in the UK. Jackson is to collect a salary of about £500,000 to be non-executive chairman of Party Gaming, while Larcombe will receive a salary of about £250,000 as non-executive deputy chairman of the online poker company.
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