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(Update 23-December-2006)
NEW 3 YEAR CRYPTOLOGIC - WILL HILL CONTRACT And the launch of a new Spanish targeted poker site
The Canadian turnkey provider CryptoLogic Inc . this week signed
up major UK gambling group William Hill for a further three year contract,
extending the close relationship between the two online gambling
companies. The contract will be handled through Crypto's software
subsidiary Wagerlogic.
Under the new agreement, the financial terms are materially unchanged
from those in their former agreement, with incentives to increase
gaming activity. The companies have also launched a new Spanish
language poker site at William Hill Poker.co.uk (or es.williamhillpoker.com
).
"We are very excited about the prospect of continuing our
partnership with William Hill-an icon in the UK betting market
and one of CryptoLogic's most important relationships," said
Lewis Rose , CryptoLogic's President and CEO. "While much
of the online gaming world has only recently started paying attention
to the UK and continental Europe, we have been focusing our attention
on these markets for the past five years. Our relationship with
William Hill exemplifies our strength in the region and the success
of our strategy."
The contract will provide enhanced rights of exclusivity to CryptoLogic
as software provider of choice for William Hill's key online casino
and poker businesses. While the financial terms remain unchanged
based on historical activity levels, William Hill will be rewarded
with lower marginal rates for increases in gaming activity. Such
increases are expected based on new development and business initiatives
planned by the companies.
"Based on our seven-year history with CryptoLogic and the
exciting initiatives already underway, like Spanish poker, I am
confident that we will grow our business significantly," said
Peter Nolan , William Hill's Group Director, Remote Channels. "CryptoLogic
powers one of the largest poker networks in the world, with particularly
strong liquidity in European markets. Their award-winning Internet
casino software-both download and non-download versions-creates
an engaging entertainment experience that draws new players to
our sites and keeps current players coming back."
The regulations under the UK Gambling Act are scheduled for completion
on September 1, 2007, and are expected to have implications for
the businesses of both companies. Under the agreement, the companies
have committed to work together to achieve a mutually beneficial
result in the new environment. If such a result can't be reached,
both parties have a right to terminate the contract or portions
thereof.
The Spanish language poker site adds to the Greek site that CryptoLogic
previously developed for William Hill.
Rose commented: "Spain is one of Europe's biggest poker markets
and the country is embracing Internet gaming. Europe is an increasingly
competitive market, so we'll continue to give our licensees an
edge and distinguish CryptoLogic as the software provider of choice
through more language-specific offerings like Spanish poker."
CryptoLogic-developed games are featured at William Hill's online
casino and poker gaming sites. Recently, CryptoLogic also announced
new contracts with Betsafe and DTDPoker, both European poker rooms
with strong potential.
"With a new poker customer launched this month, other poker
and casino customers that will debut early next year and ongoing
business that is secure in long-term agreements, we are excited
about the future," said A.J. Slivinski , WagerLogic's Managing
Director.
STATE LEGISLATORS TO DISCUSS UIGEA
This year's annual get-together of state legislators should
have plenty to talk about
The annual get-together of the National Council of Legislators
from Gaming States should have plenty of meat in their discussions
when they meet in Duck Key, Florida next January 12-14. The
Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act passed in October will
almost certainly be on the agenda, and hopefully so will the hypocritical
carve-outs allowed by the Act for horse-racing and state lotteries.
The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act prohibits the flow
of funds between U.S. bettors and offshore Internet gaming sites
by making it illegal for banks, credit card companies, or other
financial institutions to facilitate offshore wagering accounts.
It does not make gambling online an offence by the gambler, although
11 individual states have parochial legislation against the pastime.
Experts at a panel discussion on January 13 entitled, "Internet & Offshore
Wagering: A Good Bet for Horsemen" will focus on how the pari-mutuel
industry will react to being exempted from the legislation, reports
the Thoroughbred Horse Racing journal.
The session will feature perspectives from Ed Martin , president
of the Association of Racing Commissioners; Dan Wray , executive
director of legislative affairs for New York City off-track betting;
Greg Scoggins , national director of regulatory affairs for Magna
Entertainment Corp.; Lonny Powell , vice president of public affairs
for Youbet.com; and Guy Clark , chairman of the National Coalition
Against Legalized Gambling.
Funny, we didn't see any online gambling representatives on the
list....
BACKGAMMON MILLION TOURNAMENT ALMOST SOLD OUT
Largest guaranteed prize pool in backgammon history on
offer by Party Gammon.com
Organisers of the inaugural million dollar backgammon tournament,
the Party Gammon.com Million , told media this week that the event
will soon be sold out. The tournament, which offers the largest
guaranteed prize pool in the history of backgammon, will take place
at the Atlantis Resort on Paradise Island in The Bahamas from the
21st-25th January, 2007 and is filling up fast.
The field will feature a maximum of 128 players and consist of
online qualifiers and players who directly buy-in to the tournament.
2006 world champion Philip Vischjager from Holland has his seat,
whilst the USA's world number one elect, Nack Ballard has also
confirmed his participation in a field of well known backgammon
players from all corners of the globe. Competitors from Japan,
Argentina and Chile are just a few who have recently signed up
to take part in the tournament.
"Places for the tournament are being snapped up fast and
we anticipate that we'll soon be sold out. There are a few places
left, however, so it is not too late to book your flight to the
Bahamas," said a PartyGammon.com spokesman. "The quality
of players in the field is very high. It will be intriguing to
see how the online qualifiers get on against the world champions."
The $500 000 minimum guaranteed first prize of the 2007 PartyGammon.com
Million will exceed this year's world championship top prize five
times over, with the remaining minimum $500 000 being distributed
to other finishers in the main and consolation event.
Players still have the chance to qualify for this fantastic event
online at Party Gammon.com for as little as $2.50, with qualifiers
for the $1 Million tournament winning a sponsored package worth
$12 500. This includes a $10 000 buy-in for the main event, a 5-night
stay in the luxurious Atlantis resort, and $800 to cover travel
expenses. The PartyGammon.com Million will be filmed for television
and then distributed to television networks around the world.
Even for those going home without any of the prize money, the
experience will be memorable thanks to the tournaments glorious
setting. Atlantis Paradise Island is a luxurious, exotic and renowned
resort which features a 34-acre waterscape, the world's largest
outdoor aquarium, 11 exhibit lagoons with over 200 species of tropical
fish, cascading waterfalls with a rope suspension bridge, Predator
Lagoon with sharks, barracudas and stingrays, including a 100-foot
viewing tunnel, and a lazy river ride for rafting.
CHANOS'S CHANCE PAYS OFF Million-to-one gamble for Kynikos
It takes in-depth knowledge and the courage of one's convictions
to risk all and swim against the mainstream to ultimate truimph,
but that's what broker James Chanos apparently did with conspicuous
success just before the advent of the UIGEA.
The London broker's hedge fund, Kynikos Associates went after
what FT.com calls the “million-to-one-chance” trade,
but when Chanos bet that the online gambling business was about
to be hammered by unexpected legislative developments in America
he hit the jackpot in what FT labels one of the sweetest deals
of the year.
Chanos's hedge fund had put a large slice of its $3 billion in
assets on a bold prediction that shares in the internet gambling
sector were about to go into free-fall. On October 2, shares in
the companies did precisely that as about $5 billion was wiped
off their value in just a few hours of London Stock Exchange trading
in response to a US Senate decision to introduce tough new laws
cracking down on Internet gambling financial transactions.
It took the industry and the markets, in fact almost everyone
except Chanos and his team of traders, by surprise. The consensus
view had been that the sector was about to ride higher on a wave
of consolidation.
According to Trader Monthly and other informed market sources,
Chanos had borrowed large chunks of shares in companies such as
Sportingbet and World Gaming and sold them while their prices were
relatively high. He then bought them and returned them to the lender
when their price fell, pocketing the difference in a technique
known as short selling.
Although only used by the most experienced traders, as losses
can be huge if the bet goes wrong, the concept of short selling
is fairly simple. In essence, the borrower is selling shares they
do not own on the understanding they will buy them and return them
to the lender at a later date. The profit, should the market fall,
or loss, should it rise, is the difference in the price of the
shares at the time of selling compared with the price at the time
they are returned to the lender.
Shares in Sportingbet and World Gaming plunged dramatically on
October 2, by 58 percent and 76 percent respectively, providing
Chanos with a golden opportunity to close his positions and clean
up.
The sophisticated punt was all the more impressive, given the
widespread belief that the Senate would not pass the laws.
Other leading hedge funds and senior figures in the industry had
been convinced the Senate lacked the will to push them through.
In the words of one senior online gambling director, widely reported
just before the market turned, the likelihood of the Senate passing
such measures was a “million-to-one-chance”. Another
prime broker said at the time: “All the hedge funds thought
these companies would merge – not tank. Nearly everyone was
caught out by this.”
As a result, many hedge funds and other leading investors were
buying into the sector in anticipation of consolidation. Long-only
investors with shares in online gambling stocks included some of
the top names, such as Fidelity International, Deutsche Asset Management,
M&G, Merrill Lynch and New Star.
So why had Chanos taken such a risky, in the eyes of the consensus,
but ultimately winning gamble?
Representatives of Chanos were uncommunicative when the FT reported posed
this question, but most analysts think his acute political antenna
had come into play. He is widely regarded to be more tuned in to
the Washington political scene than most of his peers.
Certainly, anyone reading between the lines could have predicted
the new law, which makes it illegal for banks and credit card companies
to make payments to online gambling sites, had a chance of making
it to the statute book after the lower house in the US, the House
of Representatives, had approved the measure in the summer.
In fact, the “ambush” by Bill Frist – the then
Senate majority leader who had been instrumental in successfully
steering the key clause on credit card processing through the upper
house by attaching it to a little known and unrelated bill on coastguard
security – was perhaps not so surprising given his presidential
ambitions, now abandoned.
In the view of some Washington analysts, Chanos had foreseen the “ambush” as
he had understood Senator Frist’s fierce desire to pass the
law in his hope of winning favour with the Republican right and
President George W. Bush .
Both Frist and Bush believed such action would go down well in
the heartlands of Middle America, where some voters consider the
so-called vice of gambling as one of the worst forms of debauchery.
It was this vision-thing, as President Bush might have put it,
that prompted Chanos to take advantage of the blackest day in the
short history of the online gambling industry and turn the “million-to-one-chance” trade
into one of the “financial killings” of 2006.
DON'T UNDERESTIMATE THE PLAYER
"Congress failed to understand that Internet gamblers
are exceptionally resourceful, fiercely independent and technologically
savvy..."
All In magazine writer Lena Katz launched a scathing attack on
the U.S. Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act in the publication
this week, explaining why companies with the grit to stay in the
American market would succeed despite the Act's attempts to dislocate
financial transaction systems.
Katz writes that since President Bush signed the UIGEA into law
in mid-October, many popular Internet gambling sites have voluntarily
blocked U.S. gamblers from real money games. However, other sites
are continuing to advertise, promote and host real money games.
"In passing the Act, Congress failed to understand that Internet
gamblers are exceptionally resourceful, fiercely independent and
technologically savvy," Katz opines. "A determined poker
player will be able to play cash games online, despite this ill-conceived
law.
"First, gambling on-line is not a crime in the U.S., except
in certain states. It’s a misdemeanor in seven states and
a felony in one," Katz writes, pointing out that ironically
these states themselves benefit from billion dollar legalized gambling
industries, presenting a face that is arguably a matter of hypocrisy,
tax avarice, cronyism, corruption, and/or political contributions.
Describing the Act as a major attack on Americans’ Internet
rights, Katz predicts that when the Act is actually implemented,
the United States will go from “zero” blocked Internet
sites to approximately 2 000 sites initially, before tens of thousands
of hypertext links to online sites are required to be removed or
disabled.
"The Act deputizes “Interactive Computer Services,” which
include: internet service providers, search engines, libraries
and education institutions to screen in real time the surfing activities
of approximately 100 million U.S. users in order to block about
eight million recreational web-gamblers," she says.
"Interactive computer services will each choose and contract
with commercial net-filtering technology companies. The Act requires
the Justice Department to provide to interactive computer services
up-dated lists of “to be” censored sites.
"With the passage of the Act, the U.S. joins with such other
stalwart states as Iran, China and North Korea in mandating Internet
censorship."
BAD NEWS FOR BWIN
Senior German court dismisses complaint by subsidiary
The legal news for Bwin this week could have been better, as reports
emerged that Germany's highest court had dismissed a complaint
by Bwin subsidiary Sportwetten Gera GmbH against an Internet gambling
ban imposed by the state of Saxony-Anhalt two years ago. The company
referenced a 1990 law from Communist East Germany that permitted
sports wagering in its submissions.
Bloombergs news service quoted the director of the German Association
of Sport Betting Companies, Rainier Nitzschke who said that Sportwetten
Gera had asked for the immediate ban to be abolished. "…Germany's
Federal Constitutional Court rejected the complaint because the
company didn't suffer a `major disadvantage' as a result of the
immediate ban, according to a statement published on the court's
Web site today…" he said.
The ruling was widely seen as supporting the Saxony-Anhalt (one
of 16 German states) protectionist monopoly.
It was Sportwetten Gera GmbH's contention that a ban imposed by
the state was unfair, but the court ruled that the sportsbetting
firm didn't suffer a "major disadvantage" according to
a court statement.
Bwin Interactive was the subject of a similar ban by another German
state.
The premiers of Germany's 16 states met recently to agree on new
legislation to outlaw all online gambling despite the implications
this may have in terms of European Commission action in support
of the freedom of cross-border services. The necessary unanimity
to proceed was not achieved, but plans are in place to take another
run at the legislation next year. Any laws proposed by the
states would have to be approved by the federal parliament.
If passed, the law would prevent offshore gaming companies from
accepting German players or conducting business in Germany. Three
states have already passed similar laws of their own. The proposed
law is part of an effort to protect local state monopolies and
lotteries, which is being discouraged by the European Union in
an effort create an equal playing field among member nations.
However, Bwin, which is currently the biggest bookmaker in Germany,
received some slightly better news from Bavaria, where a regional
court suspended an order which attempted to ban Bwin from accepting
bets from Bavarian residents.
"Bwin can continue to offer sporting bets in Bavaria and
to accept bets from Bavarian customers," Bwin said in a statement.
The ruling, one of many pending court cases with German states,
means that Bavaria cannot enforce a ban before the main court case
is heard.
CHRISTMAS PRESENTS FROM ENGLISH HARBOUR GROUP
Two new slots for the holidays
Online gamblers were given a wider choice of games in time for
the seasonal holidays this week when the English Harbour group
of online casinos launched two new games developed by Vegas Technologies
.
The games are likely to grab the attention of both video slots
and poker fans alike, with the addition of a basketball themed
video slot and a Five Card Mulligan game.
Money Shot is a 5-Reel, 20 Pay-line Slot machine based on the
game of basketball, and contains bonus games, free spins and the
opportunity to play up to 20 pay-lines at a time for a better chance
of winning.
During the bonus round, players can win a cash prize accumulated
over all three bonus round stages. Should players get 2 bonus symbols
on a selected pay-line, they then enter into the bonus round, where
a win is guaranteed.
The second offering is the popular poker variation of Five Card
Mulligan , which has three different possible payouts: Ante, Bonus
and Raise bet payouts. The game is played using a 52-card deck
with the Jokers removed and is played against the dealer. Winning
hands are determined by their value against the dealer’s,
with any tie seeing the ante/raise bet returned to the player.
English Harbour Casino is currently offering matchplay signup
bonuses maxed at $275 for new players.
AWP COMPANY ACQUIRED BY SCIENTIFIC GAMES
US company entering UK pub game sector?
It appears from an announcement by Nasdaq-listed Scientific Games
this week that the company may have ambitions in the UK "Amusement
With Prizes" (AWP) and "Skill With Prizes" (SWP)
game sector, producing games for the British public house (pub)
market.
The announcement revealed that SG had completed the acquisition
of Games Media Limited and related companies, an English group
that develops, publishes and markets AWP and SWP games for the
British pub sector. The acquisition is expected to be neutral to
2007 earnings.
The UK public house market comprises approximately 60 000 pubs
which have an estimated total of 120 000 AWPs and 30 000 SWPs.
It is anticipated that the industry will undergo a digital replacement
cycle of the current analog machines starting in 2007.
AWP-style online games have been produced by leading Internet
gaming providers like Microgaming and Cryptologic and have enjoyed
some popularity with online gamblers due to their more complex
nature and skill requirements.
HALF OF GOLD'S WINNINGS REMAIN FROZEN (Update)
And judge hints that he could lose the case against Leyser
The dispute between WSOP champion Jamie Gold and television produced
Crispin Leyser took a new turn this week when a U.S. judge upheld
the continued freeze on half of Jamie Gold's $12 million 2006 World
Series of Poker Main Event winnings.
The court agreed, however to a request from attorneys for both
parties for the cash to moved from Harrah's custody, where it has
lain since the dispute surfaced, to an interest bearing account
pending final resolution.
District Court Judge Roger Hunt indicated that Leyser, the television
pro laying claim to half Gold's pot, is likely to get his share
of the money.
He also rejected a motion by Gold's lawyer to remove an order
preventing the WSOP champ from accessing the cash. Since winning
the Main Event in August, the money has been on hold at the Rio
Hotel and Casino.
Hunt said Gold's actions didn't give him assurance that the money
would be turned over to Leyser if he won the case.
The lawsuit was filed by Leyser after Gold allegedly backed out
a business deal to split his WSOP winnings between the pair. According
to Leyser, Gold needed to find celebrities to compete in the tournament
wearing the Bodog.com logo in order to get sponsorship from the
poker room.
Leyser supplied the stars - actor Matthew Lillard and MTV personality
Dax Shepard - in exchange for half of Gold's pot. But after winning
the Main Event, Gold said the his agreement with Leyser was a goodwill
gesture and not a binding business deal and is now fighting to keep
the full $12 million.
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