Gambling and iGaming News all over the world 04.11.2009

05.11.2009, Peerless Media Wins Deal for World Poker Tour / Optimal Group to Forfeit Over $19 million to US DOJ / WSOP to Re-Commence with a Phil Ivey Endorsement / Net Entertainment Signs with Microgame in Italy

Peerless Media Wins Deal for World Poker Tour
The winner is Peerless Media in the bidding war for W P T Enterprises the owner of the money making World Poker Tour franchise. Most assets were sold to Peerless Media which is a subsidiary of the online gambling mega company PartyGaming. The reported sum is said to be $12.3 million. The shareholders were loyal to PartyGaming even after a very good offering was brought to the bargaining table by Mandalay Media, the large entertainment company. The last minute proposition would have included $5 million dollars worth of stock in Mandalay Media, $28.5 million in cash, and three years worth of WPTE revenue said to be in excess of $3 million over three years. In total the deal was reported to have a net estimated value of $36.5 million. It must have been a very interesting board meeting to decide the WPTE fate. The Mandalay proposal was obviously not what the shareholders were looking for though as the decision to sell to Peerless Media was approved 85 percent for and only 15 percent against. The aggressive approach by Mandalay may have put shareholders in a defensive mood as they determined that the Mandalay deal was not a "Superior Proposal"

Mandalay's share offering was estimated at $1.77 per share which was noted as being 61 percent higher than the Peerless offer. That was at the time 28 percent better than the then current stock market value. The final arrangements for the take over by Peerless Media is expected to take place sometime before December.

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Optimal Group to Forfeit Over $19 million to US DOJ
Canadian-based Optimal Group Inc. known to most online gamblers as 'FirePay' has reached a non-prosecution agreement with US Justice Department. The agreement includes a forfeiture of $19.2 million dollars to be retained by the Department of Justice. The electronic processing company, FirePay, operated in the US market between 2004 and 2006 and has ceased all operations since then.

In 2007 FirePay had it's assets seized by the DOJ as that agency began to target processing companies in their efforts to enforce the prohibition of online gambling activities in the USA. The U.S. Attorney's office in Manhattan said, “Optimal, operating an electronic wallet called FirePay, processed more than $2 billion worth of illegal gambling transactions for United States customers,” That's serious money for anyone who thinks that online gambling in the USA is insignificant. Reuters news agency reported U.S. prosecutors said that Optimal acknowledged that internet gambling merchants broke U.S. criminal law by offering gambling in the United States. This has opened the door it is suggested for the DOJ to target the online gambling merchants mentioned in the statement who themselves were deemed to have violated federal law because of their connection with FirePay.

The Optimal statement read that the sum agreed represented a “disgorgement of property involved in and proceeds received from the payment processing services that were provided by the company’s subsidiaries to Internet gambling merchants in relation to U.S. customers of such merchants.”

In return for an assurance of non-prosecution Optimal confirmed in its own statement that it would forfeit the $19 182 418.82 already seized to the U.S. government.

Optimal stopped taking transactions from customers in the USA in October of 2006 when the UIGEA was signed into law. Now the company is mainly a toy and consumer electronics firm.

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WSOP to Re-Commence with a Phil Ivey Endorsement
Poker superstar Phil "Poison" Ivey has decided that it may be good for poker to start to endorse the 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP). After winning a position at the WSOP Main event table four months ago Ivey has begun to say positive things about being a poker player and playing at the WSOP event about to re-commence very soon. The games start again on Saturday, November 9, with publicity starting for Ivey on Tuesday, November 3, 2009, at 7 p.m. Eastern Time in the USA. Interviews can be seen on the television program "E:60" on cable sports network ESPN. Ivey, 33, was followed around by an ESPN camera crew as he flew in his private jet to casinos and personal appearances around the world.

Ivey is seen playing high-stakes, at $50,000 a roll, craps in casinos in Montreal and Connecticut, signing autographs in Austria and sliding over to Amsterdam for a diversion. The latest issue of "ESPN the Magazine" will feature Phil Ivey on it's cover with an in depth interview about his love of other gambling past times, playing craps and sports betting. According to the magazine which is already out for public consumption when Ivey is not flying all over the globe in his jet he stays home to play as many as six online games of poker at the same time in his Las Vegas office.

ESPN is to televise the final table action commencing in just days. ESPN plans to televise the final table action after it concludes, airing highlights to the public the next day. This event could earn Ivey $8.5 million if he wins it. The poker superstar has not said much about the WSOP up until now.

Ivey's manager said in the magazine interview, "I've convinced Phil to pull back the curtain just a little,"

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Net Entertainment Signs with Microgame in Italy
Microgame provides gaming solutions for fixed odds betting, horse race betting, skill games and poker, instant lotteries, bingo and National totalizer games. In Italy, Microgame is the leading service provider for the remote gaming market. Utilizing innovative technologies Microgame develops high quality products and services focusing on the needs of both the clients and the game users. The company operates on a national and international level having the necessary licenses and authorizations in order to operate according to the regulations in force in the respective markets. Now Microgame one of Italy's largest remote gaming providers has signed an agreement with Swedish online gambling software developer and provider Net Entertainment. Net Entertainment uses the proven CasinoModule platform. This deal gives Net Entertainment a useable base in the growing Italian online gaming market.

Microgame was founded in 1996 and claims more than 1.3 million game accounts, with a market share of 25 percent in online poker and a 28 percent share in online sports wagering. The company generated over eighty five million euros last year. The company operates under the licensing and authority of Italy's Autonomous Administration of State Monopolies.

The Net Entertainment CasinoModule gives Microgame access to an extensive range of market leading casino content to complement its existing products portfolio. Fabrizio D'Aloia, CEO of Microgame says; “we are very happy to join Net Entertainment to our exciting gaming project for the new emerging Italian casino games market. The worldwide recognized Net Entertainment's expertise in the casino games development and marketing will be strategic for Microgame to maintain the leadership in the Italian online gaming market”. Net Entertainment's Chief Executive Officer Johan Öhman, says of the agreement, “Gambling is huge in Italy and is expected to generate a gross gaming yield exceeding Euro 17 billion in 2009, making it the country’s third largest industry," adding, "In light of this, it is obviously extra encouraging that one of the dominant incumbents selects Net Entertainment as their strategic casino partner.”

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