Sportsbetting

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.

The state-owned gambling system at Irish race courses is linking up with the world's biggest online betting exchange, Betfair. The Tote system, traditionally only available at track-sides, will now be available to more than two million customers around the globe via Internet through the Betfair site.

The success of World Golf Tour's virtual golfing product has brought the company together with the World Series of Golf in an ambitious project that could see a vast Internet platform offering online players the opportunity to play major tournaments on a variety of the world's top golf courses.

UK police investigating an horrific murder of a Chinese student and his girlfriend are considering allegations that he may have been involved in an international football Internet betting scam, reports the Times Online.

Online football fans have the opportunity to win up to £1 million a week in a new Internet-based game branded Man of the Match launched this week by a UK company, working with PlasmaNet Inc., a US corporate responsible for FreeLotto which has 43 million members in 161 countries and has paid out over $82 million in prizes to winners.