Online Europe Betting » Archive of 'May, 2007'

Unibet creates problems for the French and Belgium authorities in cycling events

The ban of the unibet.com cycling team in some competitions is Italy, Belgium and Spain because the had the main sponsor an online betting company in Malta the triggered the European Commission anger that thretaned these countries with legal actions.

“The Commission understands that the Green Cycle Associates cycling team, a Swedish company, has been refused entry to two races in the Belgian UCI,” a letter obtained by Reuters said.

According to The Guardian, EU Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy had earlier warned France over the same issue, and a Commission official told Reuters that Brussels would step up legal action against the French government in June over its enforcement of anti-betting laws governing cycling and all other sports.”There is clear evidence that France has breached EU internal market rules, following an analysis of the situation“, said the official,

Sport clubs throughout Europe… are facing unfair sponsorship restrictions and also missing significant competition opportunities,” Konstantinos Maragkakis, spokesman for the European Gaming and Betting Association said.

Meanwhile, let’s have a look at the Giro D’Italia winner odds at Gamebookers

Outright 29 May 07 12:00 CET
Winner
Giro d´Italia 2007  
Di Luca D. single bets only      
1.30
Mazzoleni E. single bets only      
6.00
Simoni G. single bets only      
7.00
Schleck A. single bets only      
11.00
Cunego D. single bets only      
15.00
Ricco R. single bets only      
21.00

It is not technically possible to ban Internet sports betting

This is what a Bavarian court ( from Munich) has ruled in the lawsuit between the Bavarian Authorities and Bwin.

According to Forbes the court said that
“It is technically impossible to exclude only gamblers residing in Bavaria from using the company’s online offers. The Bavarian statedid not show a single comprehensible and convincing way that sports betting companies can technically implement the ban.”

The Bavarian authorities declared in September 2006 that 3 Internet betting companies should not accept wagers from the Bavarian users, since only the state-owned sports betting company is allowed to do that.

This is a very nice precedent established by the Bavarian court that shows a real understanding by the Internet from the judges. It is also a smart decision, not to go again in the Italian style that tried, without success to block the websites via Italian ISPs.

Svenska Spel keeps its monopoly

Even though the Svenska Spel monopoly was criticized by the Swedish Parliament , it will probably keep its monopolyaccording with the Swedish economic journal, Veckans Affärer, because it gets a lot of money to the state budget – Q1 of 2007 – net profit of €157 million.

So the state will put hard-to-meet conditions for new entrants, so nobody will buy a license. Sweden’s finance minister, Anders Borg lied in the electoral campaign when he promised to to abolish the state gambling monopoly.

Slots.com, Horseracing.com and Winner.com – for sale !

Those 3 domains are still up for sale according , after the Casino Affiliate Convention in Amsterdam that took place at the end of the last week.

CasinoWire confirmed that interested buyers of these websites should email their offers to sales at moniker.com, where bids will be considered by the sellers.

US independent study on online gambling

The study is called by the Nevada congresswoman Shelley Berkley that wants to put it as part of a bill against the UIGEA.

Berkley, a self-confessed campaigner against the prohibition laws in America, is keen to see the UIGEA repealed. However, she wishes to make clear her stance on stimulating an objective viewpoint.

She recently told a Las Vegas journal, “One of the advantages of this legislation is that it doesn’t take a side. It doesn’t say internet gambling is good or bad. It says ‘Let’s study the issue.”

The bill has some house support, with 60 co-sponsors of the bill including Barney Frank, John Conyers and Frank LoBiondo.

Scores.com sold for 1.18 million USD

 This was the highest price paid for a gambling domain name at the Casino Affiliate Convention in Amsterdam that took place at the end of the last week.

Other important sales were made on these domain names :

betsmarts.com and sportsbookpros.com 18,500 USD
Spades.net 5,000 USD
VegasCasino.net 4,800 USD
BettingOdds.com 3,630 USD
FreeBlackjack.net 2,400 USD
Sportsbook.vc 1,800 USD
AboutPoker.com 1,200 USD

PayZ EU gets on the European market

The PayZ EU is a new electronic money solution, based in Gibraltar, part of the company Datisi Limited Company.

The processor offers a payment solution for buyers and sellers alike. Consumers may use the service to send cash to others or pay for goods and services offered over the internet including sensitive industries such as online gambling and online pharmacies. Sellers may also use this medium to accept payments for a variety of goods or services offered on their websites as well as for distribution of affiliate commissions & payments.

PayZ EU is designed for the worldwide market but will initially be marketed exclusively towards The Canadian, UK, French, Swedish, Spanish, and Italian markets.

According to Datisi Limited : “We decided to focus on the Canadian and European markets in order to offer PayZ EU customers superior customer service in markets where we have a fixed presence.”

USA shows a Gambling hypocrisy

A recent editorial from LA Times makes a good point on the US policy towards gambling that shifts from the recent UIGEA law that prohibited credit card companies from processing gambling transactions to a new licensed environment suggested by the Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee.

All that in combination with the WTO-gambling conflict with Antigua, that continues to put USA in a strange position, claiming that “it was not required to comply with a WTO ruling to open its borders to the Internet gambling industry because of an “oversight” in a decade-old trade agreement.”

This stupid attitude saying – we will change the WTO terms cause we’ve changed our mind -  shows why WTO is good only for the big countries.. Show me the contrary, please..

Some news from PartyGaming

PartyGaming, the well known company that has created brands such as PartyPoker, PartyBingo or PartyGammon, has recently announced that it has  subscribed to a large affiliate fraud monitoring contract with Envisional, a company that ises  its A3I intelligent search technology to identify, analyse and verify all suspected cases of affiliation to PartyGaming’s websites and detect any abuse of PartyGaming’s name and brands.
Envisional’s A3I – Advanced Automated Artificial Intelligence – technology scans the world wide web for text, logos or images including those used on blogs, auction sites, trade boards, Internet Relay Chat channels and peer-to-peer networks, listing results in order of urgency and importance.

With this ocasion  Martin Weigold, Group Finance Director with executive responsibility for corporate social responsibility at PartyGaming, said: ‘We take our legal obligations and ethical responsibilities very seriously. Envisional’s advanced artificial intelligence capabilities will help us ensure continued compliance with strict marketing regulations, as well as protect the party brands in which we have invested so heavily over the years.’

Also a recent news from PartyGaming confirms hthe immediate appointment of Tim Bristow (51) to the Board as an independent non-executive director.

Bristow, who is a chartered accountant, is the Chief Executive Officer of Gibtelecom Limited, Gibraltar’s primary telecommunications provider, a position he has held since 2001 when the company was founded. From 1997 to early 2007, he served as the Gibraltar Government’s Financial and Development Secretary. He was also formally a director at the National Audit Office, London and Private Secretary to the Comptroller and Auditor General.

Yahoo Poker – now a new gambling opportunity for UK users

Yahoo launched its real money Poker game for the UK users through a collaboration with St. Miner, after already having online real money bingo.

This is a very interesting move, showing that the big players could be interested in this domain very soon indeed. Other important gambling players, such as PartyGaming have declared that  the real competition will start when the first giant will enter the gambling arena….

So let’s see it !