OCVI has secured the PAGCOR sportsbook licence for the Philippines and has chosen iBroker to deliver a full sports betting solution, including retail, telephone and SMS betting.

iBroker allows OCVI to automate all aspects of their sportsbook management from creation and pricing to settlement of events, while providing automated risk management and dynamic hedging.

The retail operation is being rolled out through OCVI outlets and local operating partners under the “MegaSportsWorld” brand. In addition, the company will operate a countrywide telephone betting service.

“GBE continues to break new ground with iBroker,” boasted chief exec Brian O’Sullivan. “This partnership with OCVI and AsianLogic, one of the leading operators in the Asia Pacific region, is a huge endorsement not only for this product but also for GBE’s global operational abilities.”

Kan Tang, group managing director of AsianLogic, said: “We have chosen GBE’s iBroker because it is a low-cost sportsbook platform with the most sophisticated risk management technology on the market today.

“We feel it is an excellent solution for the Philippines market. In fact, the first big test of the system was the Pacquiao-Cotto fight last weekend which drew unprecedented interest and a very high volume of one-sided bets from the local betting public. I am happy to report that everything was handled smoothly and problem free”.

Global Betting Exchange was founded in 2000 by Irish businessman Dermot Desmond, and provides the technology behind BETDAQ The Betting Exchange.

The approval recognises Playtech’s position as a provider of online platforms for private and State-owned lottery operators in regulated markets around the world. Membership offers Playtech the opportunity to take a role in the development of best practice for lotteries in regulated markets on a global basis.

The WLA and its members are committed to maintaining the highest ethical standards and advancing the interests of State-authorised lotteries. It draws members from 76 countries and five continents generating total revenues in excess of US$180 billion.

Commenting on the membership Playtech’s Chief Executive, Mor Weizer, said: “We are very proud to have been approved as an Associate Member of the WLA. It reflects our strong focus and experience in regulated markets, not least our work with the various lotteries which are leading operators and members of the WLA. We look forward to contributing to the Association’s development in the future.”

Jean Jorgensen, Executive Director of the WLA, said:

“We welcome Playtech as an Associate Member to the WLA and look forward to working with them.”

Currently being widely discussed on Internet poker portals, message boards and blogs, the latest news appears to be a mix of Swedish media reports last week from Sveriges Radio, together with earlier articles from Aftonbladet, and raises the possibility that Oscarsson was killed to prevent him giving evidence in a Swedish blackmail case.

In a trial that is due to commence in Stockholm this week, an unidentified 44-year-old man will be charged with a ’serious blackmail (extortion) offence’, reports Sveriges Radio, noting that Oscarsson was a witness due to give evidence in the man’s trial. The report quotes police comments that the motive for Oscarsson’s murder was to prevent him testifying.

Earlier Aftonbladet newspaper reports linked this extortion case with a Swedish company owned by wealthy Swedish businessman Stefan Bengtsson (37) who’s company was reportedly an investor in Oscarsson’s company six years ago. The advent of draconian anti-online gambling measures in the United States in 2006 apparently damaged the value of the investment when Bengtsson’s company wanted to offload its interest.

The Aftonbladet report links the 44-year-old indicted on the blackmail charge with subsequent attempts to redress the investing company’s loss, although it emphasises that Stefan Bengtsson himself is not suspected of any crime, and has renounced all claims against Oscarsson’s company. Bengtsson has apparently been cooperative with the police in their investigations.

Oscarsson was killed by several bullet wounds whilst he lay asleep next to his young son in a one storey villa occupied by his father, who found his son’s body the next day. To date, there have been no arrests in connection with the murder, which many at the time speculated was a contract killing.

Intriguingly, a few months prior to Oscarsson’s murder, his namesake – another Andreas Oscarsson – was shot to death in the same town. Apparently the police have concluded that this murder was a case of mistaken identity.

The extortion trial is sure to generate headlines in Sweden, involving as it does additional allegations that the 44-year-old accused enlisted the aid of a past Swedish Hell’s Angels president in his attempts to recover monies from Oscarsson’s representatives, and claims that one of Oscarsson’s financial advisers was ambushed, shot and wounded in the leg around this time – a crime for which two men were subsequently arrested.

There are also claims that the man currently facing the blackmail charge made ‘many threats, both by SMS and phone calls to the adviser.’

Aftonbladet reported that the blackmailer had told its reporter that he was acting on behalf of Stefan Bengtsson’s business and that he would be given a share of whatever money he managed to recover. However, Stefan Bengtsson and his companions, who were interrogated by the police, emphatically denied the allegations and distanced themselves from the accused.

“I do not comment on the investigation, but of course we had nothing to do with blackmail,” Stefan Bengtsson told Aftonbladet. The businessman also issued a statement renouncing all claims against Oscarsson’s poker company.

The Aftonbladet report also emphasises that noone employed or involved in Bengtsson’s company is suspected of any crime.

Quoting a release date of December 3rd, the reports identify the flagship game as “A Christmas Carol”, a slot with a theme featuring Charles Dickens’s famously converted miser Scrooge that has been an integral part of the Christmas moral story for decades. With Wilds, Scatters, Free Spins and Multipliers, this is a big game that can reward up to 50 000 credits in the base game, double that on Free Spins and a useful 5 000 credits on the Christmas Dinner Bonus. Watch out for the innovative Countdown to Christmas free spin facility!

The festive feasting comes into play in the theme of Buffet Bonanza with symbols like roasts, lobsters, salads and deserts. There’s a Buffet Bonanza bonus round in this 5 reel and 25 payline online slot in which the wild Diner symbol gets stacked with prospects of Free Spins and Multipliers, and the pie fight can be rewarding as well as virtually messy.

For a completely different theme, Microgaming’s package offers Tribal Treasure, a slot that has amusing graphics and an achievable 20 000 credits in the main game with five times that in the Tribal Treasure Free Spins, which have hefty Multipliers. Players can save collect Golden Idols to unlock the free spin feature, and the entertainment is rounded off with the popular Gamble feature that enables players to double or quadruple winnings by correctly predicting the next card.

The final release for December is a superlative addition to Microgaming’s much applauded Gold Series of top quality table games. Vegas 3 Card Rummy offers pay-outs of up to 4 to 1 with jackpots and side bets on offer as well.

Cooper is currently group finance director for Bovis Homes, and prior to that worked at Whitbread plc for eight years. He will replace Simon Lane, who is to leave the company next year after nearly four years in office.

A company spokesman said that Lane had decided to move in search of a fresh challenge. The move comes after the betting and gaming company’s GBP 350 million rights issue seven months ago and GBP 300 million bond deal earlier this month.

Chairman Charles Scott in a statement thanked Lane for his “significant efforts” in helping to strengthen William Hill’s balance sheet this year. He went on to say he is delighted that Cooper will be joining the firm’s board, and pointed to his “highly relevant experience, both in the leisure sector and in terms of managing the financial aspects of a complex, multi-site business.”

Cooper’s start date hasn’t been set yet and Lane will stay on in his role for the time being, the company said.

The William Hill spokesman additionally revealed that the company has created a new role of brand and marketing director that will be taken by Kristof Fahy, who is joining from Yahoo! Inc., where he was vice president of international marketing.

The GAU commenced operations early November and is on record as saying that it intends to recruit 1 000 members within the next six months, hoping to attract affiliate marketers from all over the world.

The Union reported that polls of the current 200 members on whether to impose boycotts on Grand Prive and Vegas Affiliates returned an “Aye” vote of 89 percent on Grand Prive and 87 percent on Vegas Affiliates, with no “Nay” votes, but 11 percent abstaining in the Grand Prive poll and 13 percent abstaining in the Vegas Affiliates poll.

Grand Prive promotes the Grand Bay, Bella Vegas, Lake Palace, Jupiter Club and Road House casinos; and Vegas Affiliates, while Vegas Affiliates promotes the Grand Hotel, Vegas Joker, Vegas Slot, Colosseum, Vegas Country and Vegas 7 casinos.

The boycotts, which involve GAU members refusing to promote the offending sites, will continue indefinitely, announced the Union’s chairman, UK-based affiliate marketer Paul White.

He emphasised, however, that the Union had an open door policy and would be prepared to reconsider and re-poll the boycott if the affiliate programs concerned agreed to GAU arbitration on affiliate marketer complaints.

White said this week: “We are not looking to close programs down, we are just looking for them to be fair with affiliates.” He added that GAU members are not compelled to adhere to the boycotts.

The poll on a boycott of a third program – that of Affiliate Lounge – returned a 41 percent “yes” vote, a 14 percent abstention count and a 45 percent qualified “yes” vote conditional on an arbitration agreement currently being negotiated bwteen the program and the GAU.

The report “Problem Gambling in Europe” highlights the lack of known empirical evidence surrounding gambling and problem gambling, presenting an overview that suggests that many governments are not doing enough research into this critical important subject.

Professor Griffiths conducted a country-by-country analysis of the known empirical evidence on gambling and problem gambling in Europe and found that only one-third of the nations surveyed had carried out comprehensive surveys.

The findings will be read with considerable interest in an environment where state gambling monopolies frequently justify their stranglehold on national markets by claiming that it is to protect citizens from compulsive gambling.

Griffiths revealed that countries that had carried out national studies on gambling and problem gambling of varying representativeness, quality and empirical rigour included Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Great Britain, The Netherlands, Lithuania, Sweden and Switzerland.

However, he found Austria, France, Hungary, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain lacking, commenting that these countries had only conducted their research at a regional or local level.

And almost nothing is known about gambling and problem gambling in Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Greece, Ireland, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, Poland and Portugal.

“The debate about gambling is multi-faceted,” said Adrian Morris, deputy managing director for StanleyBet, which has seen its share of legal struggles against state monopolies.

“Many reasons and interpretations are put forward as to why a particular [European Union] state does or does not grant access to its market by operators from other Member States, be they online or offline, be they casino, betting or other type of gambling operator.

“I have become increasingly concerned that this debate is informed by little or no information and the argumentation seems to be based on myths appealing to emotion rather than facts informing reason and leading to policymaking. Unfortunately, to this day, it seems that emotion continues to overrule facts.”

The Griffith report comes in a week where the Las Vegas Sun newspaper drew attention to startling new research into gambling addiction involving functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans of the human brain during gambling.

The scans provided the first biological evidence of what treatment providers had long known from working with the hardest cases: For addicts, gambling is truly compulsive and becomes all-important – eclipsing commitments to family and work with a need not unlike scoring drugs and getting high.

The research hopefully opens the way to more effective help for the small but tragic percentage of gamblers who fall prey to addiction.

The Las Vegas Sun article reports that a growing collection of research has found that the most afflicted gamblers have the kinds of biological brain disorders that are found among drug and alcohol abusers.

“Before the relatively recent use of MRI machines, scientists could only view people’s behavior, dissect the brains of the deceased or study brain chemistry by drawing fluid from the body. Functional magnetic resonance imaging allows real-time study of the brain by measuring changes in blood flow as well as oxygen levels in the blood,” the report notes.

The report goes on to examine the phenomenon of dopamine, a feel-good chemical secreted by the brain which in the words of one eminent researcher ‘highjacks’ the brain’s reward system to create intense cravings and an obsessive focus on gambling.

“The brain pulls off this mutiny by figuring out that, if it can identify and connect with an addictive target – say, a slot machine – it can produce its own jackpot – a flood of rewarding dopamine,” the article explains. “Triggering that dopamine overflow can overwhelm brain circuits that normally moderate risky behavior.”

Addicts in this situation seek out gambling not for pleasure, but for the dopamine rush, which in turn creates a vicious circle where the person focuses more intensely on gambling at the expense of everything else.

In further studies, the dopamine rush among addicted research subjects occurred before any gambling and in response to cues indicating that gambling was about to occur, such as an image of a slot machine or the person’s favourite casino.

In addition to having a stand presence at what is arguably the most comprehensive b2b gaming event in the world, The GREaT Foundation will also be holding its inaugural awards presentation at Earls Court.

The presentations, taking place at a photo-opportunity on Tuesday 26th January, the first day of the exhibition, will recognise those gaming organisations whose donations have, in the judgement of an independent evaluation panel drawn from all sectors of the industry, exceeded reasonable expectations. The gold and silver level awards will be made to companies for donations made between April and the end of November 2009.

So far this year, a total of 367 companies have contributed money but the Foundation is still some GBP 650 000 short of its GBP 5 million target for the year 2009/10.

Geoffrey Godbold, CEO of the GREaT Foundation, believes that the awards will help raise the profile of the work undertaken by the gaming industry and encourage more organisations to become donors. He explained: “I can’t think of another industry that has done more under its own steam and of its own volition to help the proportionately small numbers who get into problems gambling.

“The industry has been very successful in hiding its light under a bushel in this area and I hope that the awards will provide a platform from which the business can broadcast its achievements and successes, which eclipse those of other high profile sectors, notably the drinks industry.

“The credentials of IGE, which encompasses every platform and discipline of gaming from low stake high volume, remote through to lotteries and land-based casinos, makes it an ideal event to launch our awards.”

Julian Graves, Managing Director of IGE organisers, Clarion Gaming said: “We are delighted to be able to provide a platform for the Foundation, which undertakes extremely important work in an efficient, effective and pragmatic manner. We welcome the opportunity to help promote and champion social responsibility in gaming.”

The GREaT Foundation awards will take place on Tuesday 26th January at 16.00 hours in the Earls Court Seminar Theatre.

The deal with Betfred will include Virtual Horse Racing, Virtual Greyhound Racing, Virtual Football, Virtual Speedway, Virtual Motor Racing and Virtual Numbers Games.

A company spokesman said that Inspired’s Virtual Sports package is the next generation in virtual racing; boasting a host of graphical improvements, such as a choice of weather variations – from snow to sunshine or even night-time – improved character animation, use of live-action elements and much more.

“Inspired continues to grow its virtual gaming business through offering a portfolio of customised events with bespoke flexible scheduling, which allows customers, such as Betfred, the freedom to drive the schedule around their revenue. Combined with world-leading animation this provides a compelling offering to the betting industry”, said Steve Rogers, the managing director of Virtual Racing Systems at Inspired.

John Haddock, managing director at Betfred added, “This is a valuable addition to the service that Inspired continues to supply us with. The virtual events package is one-of-a-kind as it allows us to have complete control of our schedule and tailor it from the vast portfolio of events on offer. Betfred’s aims are to offer our customers in our 825 shops market leading products, this agreement with Inspired allows us to do this.”

The latest revelations augment three Champions League matches said to be among the 200 games spread across nine countries under investigation by German prosecutors.

The seven additional games involve five clubs which are now being investigated, the agency reports. These are KF Tirana (Albania), FC Dinaburg (Latvia), KS Vllaznia (Albania), NK IB Ljubljana (Slovenia) and Budapest Honved FC (Hungary).

Tirana’s Champions League second qualifying round match with Norwegian side Stabaek on July 21 this year is under suspicion after the sides drew the first-leg 1-1 in Albania before Stabaek won the return game 4-0.

“From the original list of around 40 fixtures in Europe that were considered suspicious in terms of results, we are investigating seven European club competition fixtures,” said UEFA General Secretary Gianni Infantino.

The Europa League games under suspicion are – both legs of the second qualifying round ties between Bnei Yehuda Tel-Aviv FC and FC Dinaburg as well as KS Vllaznia against SK Rapid Vienna.

The third round qualifying matches between NK IB Ljubljana and FC Metalurh Donetsk as well as Fenerbahce SK and Budapest Honved FC are also being probed.

Infantino said none of UEFA’s administration staff are under suspicion or investigation and any individuals or clubs found to be corrupt will face criminal prosecution.

“UEFA wishes to stress that it has been co-operating fully with the German police and authorities on the case,” he added.

“Following a request from the German police for information on a number of matches, UEFA was able to assist.

“That was thanks to its Betting Fraud Detection System that has been monitoring all UEFA competitions and European national league first and second-division matches for irregular betting patterns since July 2009.

“UEFA will file criminal complaints, together with the relevant national associations, as soon as possible, against clubs, officials and/or players in those countries concerned.

“We have full trust in our national associations to deal with the cases related to their national competitions and will continue to provide them with our full co-operation and assistance.”

The scandal involves teams from Austria, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Germany, Hungary, Slovenia, Switzerland and Turkey.