online sports betting news

Ladbrokes‘ PR officer Ciaran O’Brien has been showing some solidarity with traditional market rivals William Hill this week, echoing the comments made by William Hill chief executive Ralph Topping about the rumoured moves to increase tax on betting turnover. Topping told a leading newspaper that any raising of the percentage that high street firms have to pay in duty could lead to wholesale closures among betting offices, with more than a thousand already at risk due to a general fall in the number of bets being wagered by punters coming in off the street and the fact that the average stake per slip is also on the decline. William Hill have recently released their financial results for 2009 which showed that net revenue for the company was up, though net profits actually fell. That was largely due to the funding required to cement their tie-up with Playtech, though there are already signs that their online market share has been heading in the right direction since the deal was struck and there are plans to expand the firm’s in-play markets in 2010. Fixed odds betting terminals and in-house gaming have also been on the increase but one sometimes has to question for how much longer the big bookmakers will be willing to subsidise betting offices as we know them. Nowadays, most people have a computer and some form of online access and there are countless ways to watch the big events on the internet while having a bet. There’s even the fall back of telephone betting and satellite TV. Food for thought certainly, especially if your job is in one of those thousand betting offices staring at the abyss.

Back in 2006, there were strong rumours that Ladbrokes were about to buy out 888 Holdings. Then chief executive Chris Bell was even reported to have flown out to Israel to thrash out a deal with 888’s founders Avi and Aharon Shaked. Uncertainty in the market and a steep asking price were rumoured to be the reason that nothing materialised on that occasion but now, it appears, a tie-up is very much back on the cards. 888 Holdings chief executive Gigi Levy, a former high-flier with software and systems providers Amdocs, is keen to expand his company’s portfolio and there is speculation that as much as £60million could be made available if a mutually-profitable deal can be thrashed out. Ladbrokes, of course, recently became the latest British bookmaker to move their sportsbook operation to Gibraltar in a bid to reduce the impact of the horse racing levy. But shareholders still had to stump up an estimated £275million last year in a new rights issue to help shrink the company’s considerable debts and a merger is viewed by some of the country’s leading business analysts as the only way Ladbrokes can contemplate long-term stability without significantly reducing their overheads. Another possible deal on the horizon in 2010 is a merger between PartyGaming and Bwin. Again, this is a rumour that’s being revived from 2006 but there is a deal of substance to this one. PartyGaming are big players in the world of online poker and casino and the purchase of bingo specialists Cashcade means they can now move forward in that area too. But the remain relative small fry in the field of sports betting in comparison to some. A share in Austria-based Bwin would give them a considerably larger stake in the sports betting market and could be the fore-runner of more mergers this year as online layers attempt to stabilise the market. Bwin, incidentally, recently bought out Italian gaming site Gioco Digitale for around £80million and are others reportedly interested in acquiring a share in 888 Holdings with the possibility of a bid for Sportingbet also on the cards.

Sky Sports ‘Super 6′

For some, this competition will feature in your weekend betting routine, at least it does for us. The rules of the competition are simple; there will be six matches, all of which kick-off at 15:00 GMT (The kick-off time will be the same for each weekend Super6 fixtures), and YOUR CHALLENGE is to correctly predict all six scores of the matches selected to win a cool £100,000. However, that’s not where the money winning spree ends, no, even if you correctly predict a few correct scores, you’re in with a chance of claiming some of the other prizes on offer. For instance, were you to correctly predict 5 correct scores and no-one else had surpassed four correct then you would bag a sweet £5,000 just for making a few guesses and would also become the weekend’s top Super 6′er.

• If you finish with the highest amount of correct scores for the weekend, but share the honour with other players, then the winner will be decided on who picked the correct first goal minute, or whoever was closest. By this; you will be asked to predict when (in minutes) the first goal will be scored out of the six games selected for Super6 purposes. This will only come into affect if two or more players finish with the highest amount of predictions for the weekend and will then be used to decide the winner in a tie-break question fashion.

There are other prizes up for grabs, mainly in the form of free bets which are distributed at the end of the month for the highest scoring player in a calendar month. There’s also an overall prize of £20,000 for the Super 6′er of the year which is basically awarded to the player who guesses the most amount of correct scores through the season.

It all sounds so simple but, believe me when I say this, it’s so damn difficult! To this day, with this season being Super Six’s second stint, according to our recollection, there has been just the one winner of the £100,000 top prize. Jonathan Kilpatrick is the man we all envy as he correctly predicted all six correct scores during the boxing day fixtures and grabbed himself the biggest Christmas present of his life when he took home £100,000 just for guessing a few scores on a bitter cold Boxing Day afternoon. That could be anyone of us and it’s reason alone to have us all believing that we too can be the next Super6 ‘top dog‘.

If my brief summary of the competition isn’t enough, or you simply didn’t understand a word I was saying, then why not log on yourself or register your details if you’re a new player. It’s absolutely FREE to enter, and plus, SkyBet, whom provide all the prize money, are doing a special promotion where you receive a FREE £5 Bet when you activate a SkyBet account and bet £5 on any sporting event, this being done in accordance with adding your Super6 details when prompted. This isn’t compulsory, which means you don’t have to take advantage of SkyBet’s offer to play Super6, but it’s beneficial if you’re a punter.

Simply log in or sign up today and all the information you need will be on the website, ranging from; prize info, weekly and monthly leaderboards, pundits opinions and rules on how to play the game.

Sky Sports Super6 – Click here to go directly to their website… Good Luck!

My Super6 Weekend Predictions (13^th February):

Barnsley 2 – 0 Plymouth Argyle

Coventry City 2 – 1 Queens Park Rangers

Leicester City 2 – 0 Scunthorpe United

Middlesborough 3 – 0 Peterborough United

Derby County 1 – 1 Birmingham City

Reading 1 – 3 West Bromwich Albion

First Goal: 4 Minutes

Pool-based betting platforms across the globe may be about to face a new rival for their product. The Tote in the UK and the PMU in France just be just two of the big names under attack with the news that Sportech, the Liverpool-based football pools operator who own the Littlewoods, Vernons and Zetters brands, have bought out US gaming and systems provider Scientific Games for more than £50million. Scientific Games Racing are a giant in their field, providing automated tote systems and equipment for off and on-track racehourse and greyhound betting around the world. Sportech will now have a stake in pool betting systems in Europe, North America and South America and there is a rumour that one of their first moves will be to offer the UK Tote a place under their rapidly expanding umbrella. A familiar name involved in the deal is prominent national hunt racehorse owner Trevor Hemmings. Hemmings, owner of 2005 Grand National winner Hedgehunter, is underwriting the deal via his investment company Newby Manor along with several of Sportech’s other major shareholders including the Bank Of Scotland and software developers Playtech, who are also heavily involved in the development of new online gaming ventures with William Hill. Bet365, meanwhile, have fallen foul of the UK Advertising Standards Authority over a free bet promotion they were running in conjunction with Channel 4 Racing. Their ads were offering punters the potential to have free bets throughout Channel 4’s coverage, providing they kept backing winners at odds of 4-1 or higher. But several punters complained that, in actuality, bet365 were refusing to honour their promise, stopping the free bets after one race. The bookmakers claimed that their promotion was being exploited in certain quarters, with some customers using their free bet to lay off their selection on the betting exchanges and thus ensuring they were in a no-lose situation. However, the ASA found that bet365 hadn’t specified in their advertisement if the free bet was subject to special terms and conditions so was therefore liable to mislead. The ads have subsequently been banned.

It has recently come to our attention that there has been a change of fixture scheduling as far as Europe’s elite club competition is concerned. In previous seasons, the last sixteen ties would start with four first leg games on the Tuesday and the other four matches taking place on the Wednesday. This pattern would then be repeated a fortnight later, essentially giving punters four nights on In-Play betting opportunities.

However, it’s all change for season 2009/10. Now there will be two Champions League matches being played on 16th February, 17th February, 23rd February, 24th February, 9th March, 10th March, 16th March and 17th March! Eight evenings where customers can turn on their televisions, log on to their favourite bookmaker such as bet365 or Ladbrokes and decide which of the two matches are most attractive for In-Play betting!

UEFA have clearly identified that the Champions League has now become so popular that the competition can demand high viewing figures when it reaches the business end of proceedings. There are some truly exciting ties taking place, with Jose Mourinho’s return to Chelsea possibly making Inter’s last sixteen game the most attractive. The first leg at the San Siro will be all the better for In-Play betting, considering that the only other match that night is CSKA Moscow v Sevilla, with bookmakers looking forward to increased business as a result.

The bookies are expecting England to have the upper hand over Italy at this stage of the competition, with Paddy Power offering 8/15 that Carlo Ancelotti has the upper hand over his nemesis at Inter. The Italian’s former club Milan entertain Manchester United on 16th February, with all eyes on David Beckham as he looks to help steer the Rossoneri to a memorable victory. However, bet365 offer a best price 4/7 that Sir Alex Ferguson will be having the last laugh, with Milan the 6/4 outsiders (Coral).

Once the competition reaches the quarter finals, we will see a return to the normal format of two matches being played on four separate evenings. While the bookmakers like to promote In-Play excitement during the group stages by stating that punters can bet live on up to eight matches simultaneously, it’s realistically impossible to follow all the matches and place accurate bets on each and every one. For the last sixteen stage, we can watch the games more carefully and hopefully place some informed bets.

Trouble appears to be brewing over the potentially ground-breaking reformation of the French gambling laws if reports from Paris are anything to go by. The bill was due before the Senat this week but its format has already been heavily criticised by the Remote Gambling Association which claims it discriminates against private sector operators, particularly in the field of sports betting. The bill has already been approved by the Assemblee Nationale and French legislators were confident of a clear run this week. But the RGA doesn’t think the French government are doing enough to safeguard the interests of online betting operators from other countries in the European Union, who have long being trying to grab a slice of the action so far monopolised by the Paris-Mutuel. Approximately three million French gamblers have accounts based overseas but their government’s promise to open up the market to overseas competition is still yet to materialise and draft proposals to change the law clearly haven’t gone far enough in many people’s eyes.

Ladbrokes would be one of those with an active interest in proceedings in Paris but in the meantime the West London-based have relaunched their online sportsbook, on which they plan to screen live streaming of more than 25,000 sporting events in 2010. Registered Ladbrokes clients will be allowed to view the service, set to include Wimbledon and the Australian T20 League for the first time, free of charge but punters wishing to watch horse racing live will have to stake at least a pound if they wish to see the action as it happens. The relaunched site will also allow in-play betting, which accounted for a much larger percentage of the firm’s turnover last year. William Hill, meanwhile, have finally confirmed that their Spanish experiment has come to an end. As we reported last year, they have sold their half-share in Victoria Apuestas to local partners Codere – my mole tells me new resources are now being diverted towards their flourishing joint venture with Playtech, who are very much the flavour of the month at William Hill HQ!

David Sullivan and David Gold have recently bought 50% of West Ham United and the bookmakers are sensing a wind of change at Upton Park. The club are heavily in debt to the tune of over £100 million and, although Sullivan claimed this week that Gianfranco Zola’s position as manager is safe until the end of the season, firms have taken a more cynical view. Paddy Power offer 6/4 that the Italian is the next Premier League manager to leave his post and Sky Bet go even shorter with their quote of 5/4. The former Chelsea striker is a popular figure with Hammers supporters, although it’s possible that the new owners will want to draft in their own candidate.

Indeed, Sky Bet have created a ‘Next West Ham Manager’ market and the strong favourite is Mark Hughes. The UK-based bookmaker offer just 10/11 that the former Manchester City manager is brought in and the Welshman did perform minor miracles at Blackburn Rovers with a shoestring budget. Despite being Zola’s predecessor, Sky Bet have Alan Curbishley next on the list at 7/1, with former Hammer Slaven Bilic also available at these odds and declaring an interesting in English football management.

Meanwhile, Rafael Benitez is unsurprisingly short at 5/2 (Paddy Power) on the ‘Next Manager to Leave’ market, although the Spaniard has been trading at short odds before and lived to tell the tale. It appears that the Liverpool manager had a vote of confidence from co-owner George Gillett this week, who described him as ‘one of the world’s top managers’. It doesn’t appear as though any exit from Anfield is imminent, although this is a bet that might be profitable if no other manager steps down between now and May.

There doesn’t appear to be too many other managers whose positions are in threat at the moment, although Sky Bet don’t think Sam Allardyce is out of the woods despite Blackburn’s recent 2-0 win over Fulham. They offer 5/1 that the former Bolton gaffer is the next to walk, although Paddy Power are happy to lay him at odds of 9/1. His former number two Phil Brown is also required to produce the results that will keep the Tigers in the Premier League or face the sack and Paddy Power go 7/1 about the Hull manager which is the same as Sky Bet.

Meanwhile, Sky Bet have created a number of other manager specials, including Next Liverpool Manager. Unsurprisingly, Kenny Dalglish is 5/2 favourite as he’s the obvious temporary successor to Benitez, although Guus Hiddink (5/2) and Jose Mourinho (3/1) are more viable candidates to assume the Anfield hotseat. Perhaps the Special One is waiting for Sir Alex Ferguson to vacate the Old Trafford manager’s position, with Sky Bet making him 3/1 co-favourite to manage Manchester United next. Martin O’Neill also appears to be in the running.

The Irish bookmaker have been known to take some unusual steps in the past, usually by paying out on a team winning a league well before it becomes a mathematical possibility. Indeed, there have been several occasions when Paddy Power have got it wrong and ended up paying out on Manchester United and Arsenal or Celtic and Rangers in the same season! Now it appears that they have been courting controversy again with their popular Last Man Standing competition.

In fairness to them, they were caught between a rock and a hard place when the snow started falling last week, leading to seven of the ten Premier League fixtures being postponed. Many contestants in the Last Man Standing competition took advantage of this by selecting a team in a match which had been postponed, but which Paddy Power hadn’t managed to void on time. Therefore, they were left with a situation whereby contestants had either:

1)    Deliberately picked a ‘postponed’ team
2)    Been forced to pick one of the six teams that were actually playing a match between Saturday and Monday
3)    Innocently picked a team and then seen their match postponed nearer to the time

Quite rightly, Paddy Power have decided to allow all participants to progress in the respective competitions, although some will feel a sense of injustice due to:

a)    picking a team that won the match, eg Manchester City, while others went for Manchester United or Arsenal
b)    no longer being able to pick Manchester City in the competition, while others went for Burnley, Wigan and Stoke etc, knowing the games would be postponed

It’s an unusual circumstance, although if you’re like me and one of the 101 left in the ‘Week 15’ competition, then it’s no longer a level playing field. I managed to pick Wigan although my first choice ‘postponed’ team would have been Burnley, especially as they have now lost Owen Coyle as manager and it’s doubtful they will win many more matches this season!

Nevertheless, with Manchester United, Chelsea and Manchester City left to pick, it promises to be an interesting few weeks, with the draw insurance still available for one particular week. This is the time when it pays to look at the fixture list for the weeks ahead and assess likely home wins (always slightly dangerous to go for away picks). Many of the previous contests have seen more than one winner, with the contestants being left with the dregs to pick from when it gets towards the tenth week of the competition!

One thing that Paddy Power should be applauded for is the moneyback specials that are regularly available at their website. They have commemorated Owen Coyle’s return to Bolton as manager by offering a refund to all losing first / last goalscorer, correct score and scorecast singles if Wanderers give their new gaffer a dream start by winning the match. Click here for more details.

Charged with introducing horse racing and the appeal of betting to a wider audience, new body Racing For Change is proposing some radical changes as it attempts to drag the sport into the 21st century. Among plans to make racing less elitist by cutting out some of the jargon and perceived mysticism that surrounds the sport the most talked about initative, set to trial this spring, is the decimalization of starting price odds. Fractions like 13-8 and 10-3 have long been a subject of mystery to novice punters but the question racing’s administrators have to ask themselves is, will 1.625-1 or 3.33(recurring)-1 prove any less baffling to the youth of today, who appear to be the target group of choice in this proposal? That, of course, may be immaterial as some critics of the plan believe internet layers may attempt to profit should the switch become permanent. For example, 1.625-1 would become 1.6-1, etc. You can imagine how the pennies would accumulate should decimalization be adopted across the whole spectrum of betting (I don’t think it’s coincidental that former Coral managing director Wilf Walsh is on the Racing For Change board), though it could be argued that fractional betting has already been eradicated on exchanges like betfair with no obvious adverse effect. Those who principally ply their trade in the betting ring don’t appear to be enamoured with the idea, however, after all the tic-tac men are going to have to develop a whole new language, for one thing, and £40 at 7-4 is an awful lot easier to calculate than £40 at 1.75-1! Traditionalists also fear that this may also be the first step towards bringing Britain into line with the rest of Europe. For five furlongs read 1000 metres, for example, and how does 57kg sound instead of 9st? Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote, "Every reform, however necessary, will by weak minds be carried to an excess, that will need reforming." Racing may need to tread very carefully if it’s not to alienate those who have sustained it for so long.

According to the song, this is the season to be jolly but there seems to be a distinct lack of the festive spirit around Betfair HQ on the run up to the holidays. The reason, a perceived and wholly unexpected Christmas hint at camaraderie between the British Horse Racing Association  and previous sworn enemy William Hill. Hills‘ chief executive Ralph Topping, a fierce critic of the BHA’s leadership and chairman Paul Roy in particular in the recent past, now seems prepared to meet and try to iron out the differences between his company and racing’s ruling body over the amount the levy scheme should be expected to raise towards the upkeep of the sport. I said earlier this was unexpected as it’s only a matter of months since Topping was describing the hierarchy of the BHA as adopting ‘an Oliver Twist mentality’ when it came to financing racing’, which I think meant they were always going to ask for more. But why should this anger Betfair so much? Well Topping, in an interview, has also attacked the amount the betting exchanges contribute in proportion to fixed-odds bookmakers, re-igniting the debate over whether the individuals who use the exchanges to bet against each other should also be liable to some form of tax when wagering on UK horse racing. Betfair, of course, are vehemently opposed to this as any new levy could conceivably deter some larger punters from using the exchanges and they are fearful that William Hill’s revised stance may only be the tip of an iceberg made up of the country’s other leading layers. Betfair currently volunteer around £1.3million on top of a statuotory levy of more than £6million per year to racing, which may look like a drop in the ocean when you see their annual turnover, but they have already indicated they will withdraw this gratis contribution if the bookmakers and the BHA do decide to, metaphorically, stuff each other’s turkeys on this issue. I’m sure Ebenezer Scrooge would have approved! Merry Christmas everyone and I hope you enjoy a stress-free and prosperous New Year!