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BetFred is an independent sports betting brand, and the Official Betting Supplier to the 90,000 seat Wembley Stadium in London. BetFred has been operating betting kiosks at Wembley since 2007, and will continue at least until 2014, thanks to the newly extended contract.

“I am delighted to have extended the deal with Wembley Stadium,” said Fred Done, BetFred’s co-founder.

Wembley Stadium

“We have been the Official Betting Supplier since the new stadium opened in 2007 and I am delighted with the association. I am very proud to see BetFred kiosks at Wembley and, as a proud England fan, I hope I can pay out a few quid to my fellow England supporters over the next four years.”

“Having an in-stadium betting provider is an important part of a sports fan’s day out so I am really pleased that we have renewed our deal with BetFred, who have been a key partner of Wembley Stadium since the venue opened,” said Peter Daire, Head Of Sponsorship for the Football Association, the company owning Wembley Stadium.

According to Sunday Times, Sportingbet and Unibet were reportedly working on a merger deal. It is a more and more common practice, so it doesn't suprise me much, it's almost industry standard in the times of such economic problems. Sadly, the negatiations fell short as Unibet announced its withdrawal.

Sportingbet had to pay a $30 million fine for violating US gambling laws, however, they now seem to be ready for the acquisition/merging of newer companies. They seemed to be very active at that as in September they signed a sponsorhip deal with English Premier League soccer team Tottenham Hotspur. The sports betting firm (based in the Channel Islands near Britain) was trying to reach a fusion with its Swedish competition, however, just a few hours ago, Unibet has withdrawn from the merger talks according to Sportingbet's announcement:

"The board of Sportingbet notes continuing press speculation following an article which specifically referred to merger discussions with Unibet Group, a company listed on the OMX Nordic Exchange Stockholm. Unibet informed the company today that it has withdrawn from those talks".

As iGamingBusiness has reported, the shares of online gambling and sportsbook giant Betfair are to reach the main market of the London Stock Exchange on 27th October. The company’s initial public offering means they will sell 15% of their total equity for £13 per unit.

Betfair owners Ed Wray and Andrew Black aim to sell 16 million units, gaining £1.4 billion, which would provide for reinforcing the company’s “long-term relationships with customers, regulators and business partners around the world.”

As opposed to most of the competition, Betfair may still boast a rise in its weekly traffic and a 29% annual increase in underlying earnings. In this respect, the optimism of company CEO David Yu is quite understandable: “We believe we have many opportunities to grow our leading position in the online sportsbetting and gaming market and we are extremely pleased that new investors share our enthusiasm for the future of the business. We are grateful for the support of all our shareholders, old and new, and will work hard to generate further value for all our stakeholders.”

According to an article published on RakeRace.com, the biggest online gambling firms continue to grow in revenue across Europe and the United States, despite the economic crisis.

In Europe, most companies release financials every quarter year, and many have recently made their quarterly profit viewable for the public.
Paddy Power, Ireland’s biggest betting company reported a nice revenue growth during the first half of this year, with their profits leaving  those of this time last year behind by 50%. This also has to do with this summer’s FIFA World Cup, which has earned Paddy Power €11 million in bets. Customers of Paddy have won €205.6 million altogether in the first half of 2010.

Joe Lacob, together with Peter Guber, has recently purchased NBA’s Golden State Warriors for $450 million, which is a record sum of its kind. Lacob has interests in Boston Celtics and venture capital company Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers as well and is admittedly a fan of poker.

Joe Lacob

In an interview with Tim Kawakami, published in the Talking Points column of the San Jose Mercury-News blog, Lacob finds a number of similarities between the skills needed in venture capital (including the way he plans to make a winner of his newly acquired franchise) and in poker. He says that you have to come to terms with a calculated risk that is always present as there are always unknown factors, no matter how well you “do your homework.”

A new branch of online betting seems to be evolving as a New York-based company called Ultrinsic has recently introduced their unique method to inspire students to get good grades at university: bet on the mark you will get in a particular class or your GPA.

Another way of inspiring the acquisition of better marks

On how it all began, founder Jeremy Gelbart writes on the website: “While hanging out together one Sunday afternoon, I mentioned to my friend Steven Wolf that I had an exam the following day and that if I were to study I was sure to get an A. (At the time, I was a student at University of Pennsylvania.) But I was enjoying my Sunday afternoon, and I told Steven that I had no intention of studying. That's when, in order to provide me with motivation, we made the following agreement: If I got an A on the exam, he would give me $100, and if I didn't get an A, I would give him $20. Steven and I quickly realized that lots of other students might like this kind of motivation.  To that end, we began developing what is now Ultrinsic Motivator Inc.”

It is pretty easy to stumble upon a millionaire in New York City, according to a recently published query reasearching the number of American millionaires.

According to Capgemini, there were 667,200 millionaires in NYC in 2009, which means that every 12th New Yorker has at least a million dollars (not including real estates)! With this, New York City has officially become the city with the most millionaires in the US, with the numbers showing an 18.7% increase compared to 2008’s results.

This growth seems to be true all around the States: On average, the number of big city millionaires has risen by 17.5%.
Second place in the top 10 is taken by Los Angeles, with 235,800 millionaires.

PartyGaming has officially announced to have produced a 30% increase in revenue in the first half of 2010 to €181.2 million, compared to last year’s €139.9 million.

PartyGaming’s statement says the growth is due to “acquisitions and strong growth in casino and sports betting”.

After merging with Bwin to become the largest listed online gaming company in the world, PartyGaming had to cover serious marketing expenditures. Also, the company bought the bingo operator Cashcade, and these meant that earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) only rose 14%.

On the 29th July, Bwin and PartyGaming have officially announced that they are about to merge, thus creating the largest online gambling company in the world.

Bwin, with its main headquarters in Austria, and PartyGaming, the company that owns PartyPoker, have been negotiating on a possible fusion since summer 2009. Although this year many sources have reported that the deal would never come off, the two giant companies have now announced that they have managed to agree on all details, signed the papers, and will be listed together on the London Stock Exchange.

With this fusion, the biggest gambling company in the world is born. Bwin has an estimated value of €1.4 billion and PartyGaming is worth around £1.1 billion.

In the newly merged business, Bwin will take a share of 51.64% and the remaining 48.36% will be owned by PartyGaming. From now on, the leaders of the two companies (Jim Ryan of PartyGaming and Norbert Teufelberger of Bwin) will control the company together, sharing the title of Co-Chief Executive Officer.

“This is a transformational opportunity for both our companies to create the world’s largest listed online gaming business,” Jim Ryan says, “With market leading positions in poker, sports betting, casino and games – in particular bingo – the new company will have a winning formula to exploit the growing online gaming market, supported by a strong balance sheet, significant cash flow generation and a highly experienced management team.”

Jim Ryan

Harrah’s Entertainment, Inc., owner of the biggest casino network in Las Vegas and also the WSOP brand, has recently been relegated by Moody’s Investors Service.

Harrah’s is in private ownership, purchased two years ago by Apollo Management and TPG Capital for $27 billion. Now it is deep in debt but, according to Moody’s, “management seems more interested in jump-starting growth initiatives than in reducing debt.” They rather keep investing into new assets in hope of offsetting their deficit.

A new era has begun, when it comes to trading firms scouting for new talent to add to their team of professional Wall Street traders. Giving up the old conventional ways of looking for new Wall Street recruits, firms are now switching the focus on poker skills rather than business experience or connections. This new phenomenon of trade companies hunting down poker pros does not come as a surprise to many. With most firms now acknowledging that a poker player lacks in-the-field experiences, they easily make up for it in their quick decision-making and their number-crunching abilities.