Sportsbetting

Two Australian public figures - a charity campaigner and a politician - have lashed out at online betting exchange Betfair for advertising on Boxing Day on grounds that the material impinged on family interest subjects like cricket and were therefore dangerous to children and teenagers.

Gigamedia, the Taiwan-based parent of Everest Poker and Everest Gaming, has revealed that it has entered into a strategic partnership with the respected and well established Gibraltar-based land and online gambling company Victor Chandler International. The company said the primarily sportsbetting deal would significantly expand the online capability of the Everest Gaming platform.

The British Broadcasting Corporation is at the centre of a growing dispute with British bookies over its proposed halving of UK racing coverage from 29 days in 2008 to only 14 in 2010, reports The Guardian newspaper.

Remote "on premises" betting is gaining in popularity and spreading beyond its high profile use in Las Vegas land casinos, with New Jersey the latest state to approve the concept as it attempts to increase revenues for the troubled racing industry.

Australian bookies are celebrating the lifting of advertising restrictions in the Victoria and New South Wales states of the country announced this week by Victoria's racing minister Rob Hull and NSW Minister for Gaming and Racing Kevin Greene.

The UK newspaper The Guardian reports that the Gambling Commission is investigating betting patterns on a snooker match on August 26 in the Malta Cup in which the former world champion and ninth listed Peter Ebdon lost 5-0 to the world's fortieth-listed, Liang Wenbo.

Online sportsbetting companies in New South Wales, Australia will be encouraged by the news this week that the successful Betfair case against the Western Australian government in March 2008 is contributing to a general freeing up of the promotional market in Australia.

A new Betfair policy scheduled for implementation September 22 has stirred up controversy on Sportblog at the UK newspaper The Guardian.

The Australian newspaper The Age reports that Betfair's incoming chief executive in the land of Oz, Andrew Twaits, says the economic slowdown is having little impact on the firm, and after four months of trading in its new financial year Betfair is on track to beat its goal of 30 percent sales growth.

The days of state-monopolised online sportsbetting in Sweden could be numbered, according to reports in the Swedish media this week which indicate that a commission of enquiry will propose a licensing system open to foreign companies by the end of the year.