Issue N39, 2007

October 11, 2007

Sportsbook Site Delays Tennis Bet Payments

While we’d like to think that global sporting events are clean and scandal-free, the sad truth is that the news is full of the latest games being rigged or top Olympic athletes taking performance enhancement drugs to win their races. In the latest scandal, top sportsbetting group, Betfair.com decided to delay the payment of bets placed on a women’s tennis match in India a fortnight ago, pending the results of an investigation.

The match, played out between the 120th seeded Ukrainian Mariya Koryttseva and Tatiana Poutchek, from Belarousse, ranked number 96, reportedly had irregular betting patterns throughout the match. This fact was picked up by Betfair’s advanced fraud and security department, who regularly investigate suspicious wagering patterns and match outcomes in all events covered by the site. Ultimately, after a thorough investigation, Betfair was satisfied that the game was not rigged and agreed to pay out the winning bets. Almost $2-million had been wagered on this particular match. The incident comes amidst increasing reports of tennis players being approached to throw matches.

Canadian Software Company Challenges Bingo Game Deal

The leading Canadian online casino software developer company, Parlay Entertainment has made a public call for an investigation into a deal struck between the Atlantic Lottery Corporation and the Swedish based software firm, Boss Media. Parlay launched a website last week that demands a full audit of the February agreement between the two parties, which led to Canada’s lottery management organization contracting Boss Media to develop a new online bingo game.

One of the main complaints about the deal, according to Parlay Entertainment, is that the contract was not tendered out to other software companies as is required by regional law. Parlay was referring to the Atlantic Procurement Agreement that calls for all Atlantic Canadian provinces to remove any form of business discrimination through tendering of all contracts. Parlay feels that the Atlantic Lottery Corporation deliberately ignored this agreement when it signed with Boss Media. In response, the corporation’s spokesman said that his organization was “as open and transparent as we can be” and expressed puzzlement at Parlay’s objection. “I don’t understand what their goal is,” he said.

Asia Buzzing with New Online Casino Sites

It is common knowledge that there is a huge untapped gambling market in Asia, with over 500 million potential gamblers on the continent. Very few companies successfully manage to break through cultural, legal and language barriers to bring Asian gamblers what they are really after. However, the online casino company, 12Buzz.com has announced the launching of no less than four new online sites that will specifically target the Asian market. The four sites – a combination of poker and online casino games – will be known as Vegas-Buzz.com, Bet.cn.com, Buzz-Poker.com and Buzz-Casino.com and will work off the famous Playtech software platform to bring players one of the best gaming packages on the internet.

A spokesman for Buzz.com said that his company was also creating a multimedia sportsbook package to coincide with the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. There are over 100 million potential gamblers from China alone, although current legislation prevents them from wagering for real money. The new Buzz sites will enable players to select free games, as well as pay-to-play options. The games will also be adaptable to mobile phones and television.

Poker Player Wins Big in Tournament

While millions of players love to play poker, very few get to realize their dream of becoming professional players. Entry into top tournaments doesn’t come cheap, not to mention travel and accommodation expenses and time off from regular jobs. However, for a handful of lucky poker players, dreams really do come true – thanks to the Absolute Dream Package awarded to them by Absolute.Poker.com. This online poker room has already given away four packages and on Saturday, the player under the name MCBill walked away with the fifth, after beating another 572 contestants in a Texas Hold ‘em tournament. Absolute.Poker has already announced that a new winner will be awarded a dream package next week.

The Absolute Dream Package encompasses everything that gamblers need to become professional circuit players. Besides being handed over $15,000 to cover travel and accommodation, the lucky players will also gain instant access into top televised poker tournaments, including the World Series of Poker (WSOP) event, the European Poker Tournament (EPT) and the World Poker Tournament. This provides excellent exposure and experience and puts them in line to win literally millions of dollars. In addition, in order to prepare them for these stressful tournaments and learn the tricks of the trade from the true professionals, lucky winners will have the opportunity of joining a poker player’s bootcamp, run by some of the best players in the world. The player can also be joined by a friend at the bootcamp.

Casino News, October 2007