Cardstacker promoting Sky Poker
Sky Poker is promoting its Play the Nation event by teaming up with Guinness World Record Holder, Bryan ‘The Cardstacker’ Berg for his first-ever appearance in London to be held at Aspers Casino Westfield Stratford City, and challenge him to recreate one of Britain’s famous landmarks solely out of freestanding cards. Sky Poker customers have been encouraged to vote on which building Berg should recreate. Sky Poker’s ‘Play the Nation’ pits poker players from around the UK in a competition to find out who are ‘the regional kings and queens of the cash games’.
international co-operation T
Report calls for CORRUPTION
here is a need for the creation of a worldwide monitoring centre to
address the growing threat of corruption in sport linked to betting according to a study produced jointly by the Parisian think tank Insti- tute of International and Strategic Relations (IRIS), the University of Salford, the China Centre for Lottery Studies and criminal organ- isation research specialists Praxes Avocats. The report - ‘Sports betting and corruption in sport: the challenges involved in preserving the integrity of sport’ - says that the involvement of interna- tional organised crime in sports fraud, match-fixing and corruption suggests that a monitoring body is required to help protect the integrity of sports. The report has a number of rec- ommendations for sports and regulators, although no suggestions for how the gambling industry could improve.
Report co-author Profes- sor David Forrest, Profes- sor of Economics at the University of Salford Busi- ness School, commented: “The frequency of proven cases of corruption in Euro- pean football, for example, would surprise many people. Despite the excel- lent work of UEFA, which monitors over 300 gambling websites for unusual
betting patterns as part of a wide-ranging anti-corrup- tion programme, it is esti- mated that around 1 in 100 professional European football matches are fixed in some way, equating to several each week. Bets of 200,000-300,000 euro can be readily placed by agents using high volume Asian markets, even on relatively minor tiers of compe- tition like the Belgian Second Division, where footballers’ wages are low and so players are potentially more susceptible to bribery. This underlines how vulner- able sport can be to corrup- tion.”
The study highlights a number of prominent cases of match rigging to illustrate the prevalence of betting- related corruption in sport. A recent example is the ongoing ‘Bochum’ Euro- pean football investigation in Germany, which so far has led to the trial and imprison- ment of nine members of a Balkan criminal gang. According to the report, the investigation has uncov- ered payments of over 12m euro in just one year to bribe players, coaches, referees and officials to fix 320 domestic, European and international matches in nine European countries. Forrest added: “Bochum
shows the increasingly sophisticated nature of much of the bribery and cor- ruption, often driven by organised crime, and how difficult it can be for even the most active sports body to identify and deal with it. “The credibility of profes- sional sport is under threat in the current climate of judi- cial investigations, scan- dals and fraud across many countries. Only if there is co-operation at interna- tional level between the betting industry, regulators, judicial systems and sports governing bodies can an effective resistance against fixing be mounted.”
FIFA VIEWPOINT Betting News 14
kissed and made up’ with Playtech
with the workforce forum that we’ve set up there which was extremely posi- tive.”
Playtech owns 29 per cent of the William Hill Online venture but William Hill has an option to acquire Playtech’s interest on an independent fair value basis, exercisable after four and six years - the first of which should occur in autumn this year.
Early figures for the last 12 months show that William Hill Online has now delivered its second con- secutive year of +20 per cent net revenue growth, with the last 12 month expe- riencing a figure of 28 per cent. Sportsbook amounts wagered grew by 51 per cent and has more than doubled since 2009. Sports- book net revenue grew by
36 per cent, despite the presence of an outstanding World Cup in the prior year comparatives, with a gross win margin of 7.0 per cent for the year as a whole, down a percentage point on 2010. Online gaming net revenue grew by 24 per cent with all verticals in growth. The company said: “The Group continues to make good progress in expand- ing its mobile offering and this was reflected in a c500 per cent increase in Sports- book bets. Operating profit) for the year is expected to be c17 per cent ahead of the prior year at around £106m, with a non- controlling interest for Playtech of £7.4m for the quarter and £31.3m for the year as a whole.” Meanwhile, William Hill has been associating itself
with some of the leading betting sports, belying claims that the industry doesn’t pay its way. The bookmaker has agreed a two and a half year deal with The Football Association to become an ‘Official Sup- porter’ of the England foot- ball team, and ‘Official Supporter’ and ‘Official Betting Partner’ of The FA Cup.
The deal with the FA, the first of its type for the betting industry, came into effect last month and con- tinues through to the end of The FA and FIFA World Cups in 2014. The agree- ment features a wide and unique range of image rights, advertising and pro- motional opportunities. Peter Daire, The FA’s head of sponsorship, added: “We are delighted to have
William Hill on board. They have a strong track record in sports sponsorship and a considerable online and high street presence that will enable us to strengthen our communication plat- forms for England and The FA Cup. In return, William Hill will benefit from an association with two of the highest-profile football sponsorship properties in the world.”
The bookmaker has also become the new official betting partner of the McCoy’s Premier League Darts. The new partnership with the PDC will allow William Hill to offer punters the opportunity to bet at each of the Premier League venues. They will also have a presence on the players’ shirts and at the fifteen arenas around the country.
ANALYSIS
While the trading update provided lots of good news for William Hill investors, group finance director Neil Cooper was still lamenting the failure of the new online gambling regime in Spain to start on 1 January as expected, especially considering the firm is still paying tax until the law is introduced - unlike firms who have no intention of getting a Spanish licence. He said: “Spain delayed their implementation at the start of the year. We were a bit disappointed about that as we were ready to go and I suspect not everyone else would have been. So in that case it’s been a bit of a lost opportunity for us.”
BettingBusinessInteractive • FEBRUARY 2012 3
ACTION IMAGES / LEE SMITH LIVEPIC
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