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Bwin to Live-Stream Spanish Football
Leading Online Betting Site Increases Appeal Among European Football Punters.
Austrian-based Bwin, a market-leading European online sports betting and gaming company, has announced that it has secured the broadcasting rights for Spain’s two top football leagues, Primera and Segunda Divisións.
This deal allows the site to live-stream games in the hugely popular league until 2012, and includes rights for 80 countries around the world (30 in Europe). The company already broadcasts a variety of European football games on its sites, such as German Bundesliga football divisions and UEFA Champions League qualification rounds and a number of Italian games.
“Bwin.com offers an unprecedented choice of different sports, ranging from football to roller hockey,” Bwin co-chief executive Manfred Bodner told EGR online gaming magazine. “We are at the leading edge of the market and continue to expand our line-up, as we’ve done now with the Primera División games.”
PartyGaming Claims US Legal Issues Gave It Advantage
PartyGaming’s settlement of its US liabilities has given it an advantage over rivals in the consolidation of the online gambling market, according to Jim Ryan, chief executive.
The operator of PartyPoker followed up its $105m (£64.4m) settlement with the US Department of Justice in April with a £72m cash purchase in July of online bingo website Cashcade from Independent News & Media, beating a bid from 888. It paid £12.3m for the World Poker Tour.
Mr Ryan said while Party Gaming was “not in a race” with rivals for acquisitions, the group’s painstaking negotiations with the DoJ have left it well placed to push on with M&A deals. “We believe we have a strategic advantage,” he said. “It took two years and discussions over 200,000 documents to reach a settlement. This is not a quick process. One does not will your way to it.”
Other companies, including 888 and Sportingbet, have held talks with the DoJ about financial settlements to avoid prosecution for taking online bets from customers in the US.
Excluding the US settlement, PartyGaming pre-tax profits rose from $30.3m to $38m in the six months to June 30. Including the settlement, the underlying loss was $66.9m, compared with a $22.7m profit last year. Losses per share were 16.5 cents against earnings of 5.3 last year.
Revenue fell 21 per cent from $255m to $201.3m, with the group attributing half of that decline to currency movements. Poker revenues fell a third and casino revenues were flat. No dividend is declared.
Shares fell 9.7p to 256.3p.
* FT Comment
PartyGaming’s post-US settlement is, not surprisingly, making the M&A running, though underlying weaknesses remain, notably in its poker business. While the sector waits for US regulatory developments, Party Gaming is building elsewhere and has increased ebitda margin. After the bingo deal, a sportsbook acquisition looks the likely next option. The shares have risen three fold since November and have priced in a return to the US market that may be based more on hope than expectation. Trading on a 2010 price/earnings ratio of 19, the price looks full.
By Roger Blitz, Leisure Industries Correspondent, Financial Times of London
Argentina May Legalize Online Gambling
BUENOS AIRES -(Dow Jones)- The Argentine government is working on plans to allow online gambling throughout the country, presidential Cabinet Chief Anibal Fernandez said Wednesday.
“We’re working so that this will become law within two or three months,” Fernandez said, adding that it could take notably longer and possibly up to two years.
Fernandez said the main aim behind the project is to combat illicit gambling that’s already occurring.
Earlier this month people familiar with the government’s plans said the government would use online gambling to help finance its recently acquired rights to broadcast soccer matches. Revenue from taxes on the activity could also help strengthen the government’s fiscal accounts.
Fernandez neither denied nor confirmed that gambling could be used to finance soccer.
“That’s another subject,” he said in comments on the sidelines of a Council of the Americas conference.
PartyGaming to Buy World Poker Tour
British online gaming company PartyGaming Plc has announced that it will purchase WPT Enterprises Inc (World Poker Tour) for $12.3 million in cash, multiple news sources are reporting today.
As part of the deal, expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of this year, PartyGaming also announced that it will pay a minimum of $3 million over the next three years to vendors for WPT on an ongoing revenue share deal.
The deal confirms the first major U.S. purchase for PartyGaming in its ambitious new plan for market acquisitions announced after the settlement with U.S. authorities earlier this year. The bid beat out Internet gaming rival 888, which was also looking to acquire WPT.
Court: Delaware Sports Betting Would Violate Ban
PHILADELPHIA (AP) – A federal appeals court has ruled that a plan to offer sports betting in Delaware would violate a federal ban.
The plan was opposed by the professional sports leagues and the NCAA.
The ruling came Monday after a three-judge panel in Philadelphia heard almost two hours of arguments from attorneys for the state and for the leagues.
Delaware claims it is exempt from a federal ban on sports betting because it ran a sports lottery in 1976. But the leagues argued that the exemption does not allow Delaware to offer bets on single games or on sports other than professional football.
Online Gambling Limits Pushed Up by British Columbian Government
Officials at the British Columbia lottery are raising the maximum weekly betting total accepted at their online gambling website.
Play Now at Slots Plus Casino! The British Columbia Lottery Corporation plans on raising the maximum betting it accepts on its website from $120 a week to $10,000 weekly. Lottery officials say they made the controversial decision after conducting research that verified players can safely determine their own personal limits for online gambling.
The B.C. lottery uses its online site to sell lottery tickets, take sports bets, and play bingo and poker. Allowing higher limits will help the province raise total sales and increases government revenue.
“It gives them the opportunity, based on their own economics, to be able to set what they’d like to do,” says lottery president Michael Graydon of allowing players the freedom to place larger bets.
Protests arose from those concerned that the lack of limits will contribute to a growth in problem gambling issues.
“This has been done with no consultation, as I can see, with people who are concerned about problem gambling,” responded opposition member Shane Simpson.
Lottery officials said the new gaming limits were determined by them, and not members of the provincial government. They say the potential increase in revenue is a fortunate side-effect, but not the reason for the change in rules.
Internet Gambling Continues to be Scapegoat in U.S.
In the U.S., the State of Arkansas is getting ready to legalize a new lottery system. And that’s the subject of some controversy, since many officials in that state expect this lottery to launch a wave of “problem gamblers.”
In fact, that’s why the state has mandated that at least $200,000 in lottery proceeds must be dedicated to “the Department of Health for the treatment of compulsive gambling disorder and educational programs related to compulsive and education related to compulsive gambling disorder” each year.
However, according to Arkansas state Lottery Director Ernie Passailaigue (who pulls in an annual salary of $324,000 from the state lottery board), problem gambling isn’t caused by lotteries. It’s caused by Internet gaming.
“If you check with the Department of Alcohol and Other (Drug) Abuse Services (DAODAS) in South Carolina, who administer the gambling program in South Carolina, they’ll tell you most of the problems are Internet gambling,” Passailaigue said in an article posted in the Arkansas News.
But that’s not true, the article goes on to confirm. Christopher Reid, an employee of South Carolina’s gambling services , said, “We have had some calls that come in in relation to Internet gambling, but not too many.” So what are the problem gaming calls about? “Mainly the lottery,” he said.
Another clear illustration why politicians in the United States may not be ready to legalize online gambling: It’s too convenient a scapegoat on which to blame all other problems.
One tribe proposing legalization of Internet poker in California
By JIM MILLER
Sacramento Bureau
SACRAMENTO – The Morongo Band of Mission Indians near Banning is at the forefront of an effort to craft legislation legalizing online poker in California.
The influential Inland tribe, which runs a successful casino off Interstate 10, has collaborated with some Southern California card clubs on a proposal to create a “tribal intrastate Internet poker consortium.” It aims to make California the first state with online poker that complies with federal law.
“This would be a game for Californians, run by Californians,” said Patrick Dorinson, a spokesman for the tribe. Participating tribes, card clubs and the cash-strapped state would share in the revenue, but an exact split hasn’t been determined, he said.
There are an estimated 2,300 online poker sites generating $4 billion in revenue. An estimated 1 million Californians play online poker.
The sites avoid 2006 federal restrictions on online poker by operating outside the U.S. Under some legal interpretations, federal law would allow online poker when players are in the same state as computer servers hosting the games.
No bill has emerged and there is no author for the proposal so far. Any measure would be considered during the final four weeks of the legislative year after lawmakers return Monday from their summer recess.
Already, though, the idea has received a cool reception by some other tribes with casinos.
The California Tribal Business Alliance, which includes several wealthy tribes with casinos, this week announced its opposition to the idea.
In a letter, the group called the online card game proposal “ill-conceived” and warned that it could lead to “the wholesale expansion of non-Indian, off-reservation gambling in California” by potentially bringing casino-style machines to card rooms.
“It’s way too complicated to rush something through at the end of session,” said Alison Harvey, the alliance’s executive director.
In the Inland area, the Morongo tribe belongs to the Tribal Alliance of Sovereign Indian Nations, which includes several tribes with casinos in Riverside and San Bernardino counties.
The normally tightknit group has taken no position on the online card game proposal. Two nearby group members with large casinos — the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians near San Bernardino and the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians in the Coachella Valley — also are neutral.
Morongo officials have been briefing tribal leaders from around the state in recent days. No other tribes have endorsed the proposal, Dorinson said.
The two legislators whose districts include the Morongo reservation and casino have not been approached about the tribe’s proposal.
State Sen. John J. Benoit, R-Bermuda Dunes, questioned if there would be enough time to consider online poker legislation before lawmakers adjourn their regular session Sept. 11. Prison reform and water are expected to dominate the end-of-session agenda.
“I’m all ears. But it certainly would be an uphill battle to get it done in the time frame they’re talking about,” Benoit said.
Federal legislation
The online poker proposal has been in the works for several months. Talk of its introduction as a bill comes as the U.S. Senate prepares to consider related legislation.
New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez introduced a measure last week to regulate online poker and other games. In a news release, the senator’s office said the legislation could raise up to $3 billion in revenue while protecting players from unscrupulous offshore poker sites.
“Pulling Internet poker out of the shadows and into the light of the law, we have the opportunity to help our economy while protecting our families,” Menendez said in a statement.
Dorinson said the California proposal would ensure that revenue from online poker played here would help the state.
At least one online poker group is skeptical about the idea.
John Pappas, executive director of the Poker Players Alliance, said the California proposal would give a monopoly to just a few entities. California, he said, instead should license a variety of online poker sites or host its own games. The players alliance is funded by the Canada-based Interactive Gaming Council, which represents online poker sites.
The Schwarzenegger administration does not have a position on online poker, a spokeswoman said.
Last summer, the Legislature considered a bill that would have legalized online poker. It stalled after major opposition from some tribes and tribal organizations, including the Tribal Alliance of Sovereign Indian Nations.
Political fights
Underlying the latest proposal is the recent acrimony between some of the groups involved.
In 2004, tribal casinos defeated a ballot measure pushed by card clubs and horse tracks that would have ended the tribes’ monopoly on slot machines.
In 2007 and 2008, some members of the tribal business alliance spent millions in an unsuccessful campaign to overturn 2006 casino-expansion agreements between the state and the Morongo tribe, along with several others.
Last year, the tribes joined forces to push through legislation to ban devices in some nontribal bingo halls run by various charities. Critics called the devices illegal slot machines. But opponents of the bill said it hurt the charities’ fundraising.
Online Poker: Payment Processor Will Roll Over for Feds
The online poker community last month applauded Account Services, an online poker payment processing, for filing a motion for return of property states. The action alleges that the US Attorney’s Office out of the Southern District of New York froze several million dollars of funds belonging to customers of both Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars. The two online poker rooms utilized Account Services to transfer funds to and from customers.
The Account Services motion for return of property states, “The warrant [for Union Bank] was issued 12 days after the seizure, on the basis of an affidavit filed under seal by Dana Conte, Special Agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The affidavit remains under seal. As of the date of this filing, no criminal or civil action, including forfeiture, has been initiated with regard to this seizure.”
But an individual connected with Account Services, Douglas Rennick, was indicted last week and this could change the dynamics of any fight lodged against the US Attorney’s Office.
One individual (declining to be named) who has had dealings with Rennick in the past described him to Gambling911.com as “a pussy who will roll over so fast for the Feds. This action by Account Services will probably not go very far.”
Those close to the case insist that the U.S. Government does not have a leg to stand on.
“She (Agent Conte) contradicts what is contained in the indictment,” this individual told Gambling911.com on the condition of anonymity. “The indictment throws in online casinos and bingo because they (the US Government) know they cannot win if this is solely about online poker transactions.”
A New York Circuit Court rendered a decision in favor of Costigan Media (parent company of Gambling911.com) this week, allowing their Motion to Intervene and unseal seizure warrants associated with this matter. The initial ruling allowed for redactions but the Court is expected to decide whether some of the concealed contents can be made public now that an indictment has been handed down.
Some States May Reject New U.S. Online Gambling Laws
In another exclusive story from EGR Magazine, it was reported today that Jim Tabilio, the founder of the Poker Voters of America (PVA) who recently left that group to lobby independently for online gambling regulations, predicts that some of the more populous states will choose to opt out of any new online gambling or Internet poker laws that may pass in the U.S. within the coming years.
Even if bigger states like California, New York, and Texas approve of the new laws, they’ll probably be “forced to use restrictive 90-day opt-out clauses factored into the legislation,” according to the article at EGR. This is because of the large bureaucracies within these states, which rarely work quickly enough to meet the 90-day limits that are written into the legislation of both Barney Frank’s and Robert Menendez’s current online gaming regulatory bills.
“The politicians and regulators I’ve spoken to think 90 days is too short a period to make that decision,” Tabilio told EGR. “If at all unsure, they will say ‘no’ in order to take a longer look. A lot of state legislators are not full time, meaning that not many states could make the decision within 90 days and governors will then automatically opt out.”
Let’s not forget, however, that Tabilio’s career has largely been focused on providing the state of California with its own poker regulatory system. That means he has the inside info on these processes; it also means he may have a specific interest in keeping California’s online gambling laws separate from federal regulations. (For example, in one draft of the California online poker regulations, the state would award the license for the entire state to just one company. And a company would likely be willing to offer a large reward to the lobbyist who could score that kind of contract.)
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