Online Gambling News all over the world 6.7.2009

06.07.2009, Belgium Online Gambling Operators Win in Court, Australian Online Lottery Charges Premium for Services, Online Poker Full Tilt and NBC Team Up, Online Casino Mr.Green Goes to Austria, Microgaming Online Poker Launches New Games, Illegal Online Gambling on Football Studied

News

Belgium Online Gambling Operators Win in Court
The Belgian court of appeal has sided with the bookmakers in a decision that clears the way for them to a use sports organization's name and event when taking wagers. The sports organizations wanted to charge a fee to the gambling operators each time they would use the sports group's names or event tags.

Juventus, PSV Eindhoven, and FC Porto are a few of the sports clubs that took online betting operators, Bwin, William Hill and Unibet to court in a disagreement over the use of the club names on online gambling websites. The appeals court in Liège decided that online gambling is a separate business activity and thus the sport organizers had no claim to charge a fee for the use of their names. The sports clubs were looking for 2m euros from the operators of gambling companies as compensation as well as a court ordered action curtailing the operators activities. The clubs also tried to get the court to impose fines of up to 50,000 euros for violations of the sports clubs image rights.

The lawyer representing the gambling firms, Paul van der Bulk, a partner at McGuire Woods, stated, "What they wanted was money for using the trademarks. But the court just said that the activities of a sports team is one activity and gambling is another activity. It’s part of the principle of freedom of commerce." adding, "It’s like a restaurant near the Le Mans circuit or an airline during the World Cup having an obvious benefit but they are not connected enough to the sport enough to need to licence." This decision may or may not help out with similar court cases on going in France the defence lawyer suggested. Investor relations manager at Bwin, Konrad Sveceny said of the decision, "We’re very happy that this is now off the table. There is an appeal but we don’t see any reason why this dispute should go any further. We see ourselves as a partner to sports organizations and a contributor to sports."

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Australian Online Lottery Charges Premium for Services
Oz Lotteries which is Australia's only online lottery ticket seller decided to add an extra 14 per cent to the price of a lottery ticket as many people put money down online for last week's $106 million draw. The same ticket bought at a New South Wales news stand for $126 would cost $18 more when bought from the Oz Lotterie's website. The difference in cost was partially explained by the fact that the news stands do not accept credit cards and the online ticket cost is always bought using a credit card. Buyers claimed they were not aware of the additional charges when they bought their chance to win online. After a punter compared the price online to that of the news stand a complaint was lodged with the Oz Lotteries organizers. The Oz Lotteries responded that its prices were posted on the web site and that the charge was for 'superior' service.

We clearly state prices throughout our site and do not make any claims about them being same/less than elsewhere," an email to the complaining patron said, adding, "As with many other retail markets, our prices differ from other vendors and customers have freedom of choice to buy from whoever they wish,

A spokesperson for the NSW Lotteries corporation was reporting it has posted a large price warning on its web page before customers were redirected to the Oz Lotteries page. Oz Lotteries claims the extra charge covers development, web servers, banking fees and marketing in other words the costs of doing business online. Oz Lotteries is authorised by NSW Lotteries to retail it's products with a higher fee structure. Oz Lotteries also offers its customers a facility to open gambling accounts with credit cards. The $106 million dollar jackpot was won by players in Queensland, South Australia and partially by those punters in NSW who took $720,000 home. 10 million tickets were sold in the record draw last week. NSW lotteries did not disclose how many of those tickets were sold online.

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Online Poker Full Tilt and NBC Team Up
NBC and Full Tilt Poker have announced plans to air a new TV show called Face the Ace. As the online poker qualifiers were told this is an opportunity for up and coming poker pro’s to get out there and create some media buzz, be seen on national television and begin creating their media fame. For all those not in that bracket it’s a chance to be on TV and win up to a million dollars. Full Tilt Poker Players can register for the online qualifier tournaments in the web site lobby. Winning means you get the opportunity to play a heads up game with Pro's from Full Tilt. The same poker professionals will be made available to help all skill levels improve their games through the new Full Tilt Poker Academy. It is also a good time to review the techniques of future opponents.

Steve Schirripa will be hosting the Face the Ace television broadcast as contestants are given a choice of four smokey glass doors behind which are poker pro's from Full Tilts Poker room like Phil Ivey or Andy Bloch or Chris Ferguson.

Once the player has chosen a door, and revealed which poker ‘Ace’ they will be playing the game begins. The contestant gets a go at besting the 'Ace' in a heads up match. If the player wins they are given a choice, similar to the choice made on the game show Deal or No Deal. In the rules a player who wins the first round can retain their winnings or risk it all on another round with another professional and win more money. If a contestant wins three consecutive heads up games they take home a million US dollars for the effort. Las Vegas, Nevada is of course the location for the shoot which is ready to begin on July 9th. It will premiere on August 1st at 9pm ET on the NBC network. By opening the Full Tilt Poker game software and logging in one can look then for the tan coloured Freeroll Tournaments called "Face the Ace" and start the journey to winning your opportunity to be on TV and a million dollars.

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Online Casino Mr.Green Goes to Austria
It is well known that Austrian sector in the online casino and gambling market is very competitive. This knowledge has not deterred the online casino Mr.Green.com from launching it first ever German language version in the volatile market.

The Swedish based online casino Mr.Green was founded in August of 2008 by two former Betsson partners, Fredrik Sidfalk and Henrik Bergquist and the current managing director Mikael Pawlo. All have impressive internet, policy and marketing backgrounds. Mr.Green.com is licenced in the jurisdiction of Malta and offers responsible gambling facilities, including a service which enables gamblers who wish to do so set their budget limits before starting play.

We believe our main competitors in Austria to be local operations like Bwin and Casinos Austria, Pawlo stated, adding later, Mr Green’s focus in design and providing the players with extra thrills has proven successful resulting in a very aggressive growth in Scandinavia. We expect our Austrian launch to be just as successful, Mr Green being the first to offer the next generation of slot machines in the Austrian market Mr. Pawlo was quoted as saying that the company will offer three different casino platforms, the only casino operator in the German and Austrian markets to do so. Nyx Interactive, Net Entertainment and Betsoft Gaming, are going to be all available, with an integrated possibility that allows players to switch platforms without changing their chips or coins.

The services of Mario Kochwalter have been acquired to run operations as manager in Austria. Coming with an extensive background in television marketing and sales. Mr.Kochwalter has held positions with FIVB as TV Coordinator, at STVMD, as Rights Manager, TV & New Media director at Sports TV as well as Media Distribution and TV & Marketing Director at United Strongman Federation. These credentials will surely help the new German language casino compete in the strong Austrian market.

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Microgaming Online Poker Launches New Games
The Microgaming Poker Network has launched changes including the implementation of a sole currency, the Euro, during it's poker tournaments. The new approach to tournament poker will see the presentation of Survivor Tournaments.This new format will run with the two additional daily poker tournaments named Breakfast and Bedtime Bounty. A Microgaming spokesperson commented that the new games and approach will deliver better playability for participants.

The Survivor Tournaments a fast and furious with exciting edge of your seat finishes. A time oriented fight to the finish tournament where players with the least amount of chips are scratched from the tournament at each level. The crucial information that is needed to survive the next round of elimination is provided by a status indicator at the poker table. The information provided includes time left, the number of players left and the target required to keep in the game all available within a quick glance.

Equal payouts are given to all survivors who survive the time and chip stack battle. Microgaming’s Poker Network Channel Lead, Mark Pinan, stated, The Microgaming Poker Network is proud of this new and unique tournament offering which is designed to provide the most entertaining network poker competitions available. We predict that July is going to be a big month for tournament poker.

The Breakfast and Bedtime Bounty Tournaments will be introduced this July. The two new games sees half of the player’s buy-in paid into the prize pool, while the other half of the players creates a bounty on their heads. As each player is eliminated the personal bounty is awarded to the player with the winning hand. Bounties create a big increase in the cash prizes and players are rewarded for eliminating the competition.This can make money even if the player doesn't win the prize pool.

The move to the Euro as the sole currency instead of the U.S.dollar is to be applied to all network guaranteed tournaments, freerolls, satellites and regular Multi-Table Tournaments. The network’s software features are better utilized with the Euro currency including the ‘double buy-in’ option which will be available in all re-buy and second chance tournaments, along with an auto re-buying and topping-up feature.

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Illegal Online Gambling on Football Studied
Serious law enforcement has begun to make an impact into curtailing illegal gambling operations in Europe and Asia.

In the past twenty years football has changed from a popular pastime into a global industry. The expanding economic importance of football and other sports, has drawn the criminal element into the mix.

A report on the sport by the Financial Action Task Force has just been released. It studies the attractiveness of soccer to the dishonest business person. The reason soccer or football as people call it in Europe has been the subject of scrutiny is because it is by far the most watched and played game in the world today. More than 250 million people play and by example the FIFA World Cup final in 2006, attracted over 1 billion viewers. Unfortunately football’s regulatory structure has not yet caught up with some of the risks that come with the rapid growth in popularity.

The FATF report examines the soccer sector in economic and social terms providing case examples that identifies areas that could be exploited by those who want to invest illegal money into football. In preparing this report some of the major sports organisations, such as FIFA, UEFA and the International Olympic Committee, were asked to submit data.

Illegal soccer gambling is a serious problem in Asia. A recent Interpol operation provided a snapshot of illegal soccer gambling in Asia. Interpol announced that 1,300 people were arrested on the suspicion they were taking part in illegal soccer gambling. 16 million usd in cash was seized at that time. "While problems linked to betting are not new, it appears that betting in sport has reached new levels of sophistication with various operators involved across several countries and continents and new offshore betting companies being established." the report goes on.

Due to the fact that most countries have different gambling regulations, the gambling market is non-transparent and is a heterogeneous market with a mix of private and state companies acting both nationally and internationally. The report will certainly give lawmakers and police a base from which to launch their attack on organized criminal activity. These illegal activities cause everyone involved in organized sport to feel cheated in some way or another. The cleaner the sport the better the experience for all.

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