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Kicking off the news season will be a spectacular Champions Week. Players returning to the felt from last season include Jamie Gold (2006), Chris Moneymaker (2003), Carlos Mortensen (2001), Chris Ferguson (2000), Johnny Chan (1987-1988), and Doyle Brunson (1967-1977). (Brief profiles of each of the players can be read following the article). This week's match will see former World Champions Joseph Hachem (2005), Greg Raymer (2004), and Huck Seed (1996) play it out. Most interesting will be the clash between Hachem and Raymer, who have never yet participated in Poker After Dark's previously aired episodes. The heads-up battle for the title will entail a full finale episode, as well as a detailed overview and insight in to what goes on in the players mind as he fights for the tile. The first match is being screened until June 15th at 2.05am. The exclusive Directors Cut program will air on Saturday June 16 at 1.00am (immediately following Saturday Night Live). This episode will sum up the week with behind-the-scenes footage, highlights, individual player interviews, and a one-on-one between Shana Hiatt and the weeks winner to discuss the match details. The other two matches will be aired on Monday June 18 at 2.05am, and again on Monday June 25th. With old poker stars returning for more, and new ones coming to take a shot, this season is looking up to be the most exciting yet! Player profiles: Seat 1: Jamie Gold Began interning in the entertainment industry at age 16 Was once a Hollywood talent agent, now a TV producer Won $12 million at the World Series of Poker Championship by crushing a staggering 8772 players, which is the highest sum won in a tournament in gambling history Seat 2: Joseph Hachem: Former Lebanon resident, now an Australian immigrant with his family. Worked as a chiropractor and mortgage broker before become a poker pro Ranks 2nd on the all-time money list, with a total claim of $10.32 million in tournament winnings throughout his career Won the 2006 World Poker Tournament Doyle Brunson North American Poker Classic Seat 3: Greg Raymer Ranked 17th on the all-time-money list, having won over $5.79 million in tournament winnings Prior to winning the World Series of Poker Championship in 2005, Raymer worked as a patent attorney for the behemoth pharmaceutical company Pfizer, Inc. Recognizable as the one wearing inimitable reptilian-eye 3-D hologram sunglasses while playing Seat 4: Huck Seed Owner of 4 World Series Of Poker bracelets Was an electrical engineering student at Caltech, yet when he took a leave of absence in 1989 to play poker, he never returned to his studies Ranked 45th on the all-time-money list, with a total tournament earnings of $3.42 million. Seat 5: Doyle Brunson Regarded as the greatest player of all time despite his age of 73 Ranked 24th on the all-time money list, he has won in excess of $4.96 million in poker tournament winnings Author of many books, including the Super Systems series Proud owner of 10 World Series of Poker bracelets Seat 6: Johnny Chan Ranked 14th on the all-time-money list with over $5.90 million in tournament winnings Known as the orient express Owns 10 World Series of Poker tournament bracelets
The Royal Bank of Scotland will offer this exclusive data-sharing service to its existing list of global e-commerce customers. The services will be available on the Internet via their current integration to merchants already using PaymentTrust for payment and/or fraud management related services. The RBS believe that by collaborating with the strategic values of Ethoca, their fraud management systems will be of the highest quality. The managing director of RBS retailer solutions, Ron Kalifa, says that effective data-sharing is without doubt a key next step in battling fraud in internet commerce and customer-not present environments. The RBS and its companies are one of the largest payment processing organizations in the world, and a recognized and trusted brand on global banking. Located in the UK, Europe, North America, and Asia, some of its other services include private banking, insurance, personal and business banking, corporate finance, payment processing services, and wealth management services. Kalifa believes that by adding Ethoca to RBSs payment platform and its RiskGuardian suite of CNP risk tools, merchants can safely share data for purposes of fraud management, via a highly secure and easily integrated platform. RBS is confident that it can make a significant impact on fraud rates and profits for its customers." Andre Edelbrock, CEO and President of Ethoca Limited, stated that Merchants and payment service providers have trusted RBS and its group of companies for years. Ethoca members were keen to form such a partnership with RBS, as it will greatly increase their e-commerce customers' memberships. This will not only allow them to analyze a broader number of businesses, but also, it will offer them wider access to collective experiences of businesses, which will ultimately result in a more accurate fraud evaluation. The element of cross-country referencing when data-sharing will allow for a reduction in online fraud rates and better customer relationships. The Chief Operating Officer of Ethoca, Darryl Green, claims that the key is sharing data in a way that makes every customer, merchant, and strategic partner comfortable and that is what Ethocas all about. Ethoca Limited operates by enabling businesses functioning under customer-not-present environments (IE business by phone, fax, mail, or internet) to make knowledgeable business decisions for their customers by using their efficient data-sharing service. Ethoca analyzes businesses transactional history using the data received by this service, which is later used to gauge the fraud-risk associated with any given online transaction. The company's employment of independent third party businesses for process and data integrity audits guarantees the ultimate security and privacy needed for online banking. As Green has pointed out, data sharing is essential to help eliminate fraudulent activity and its resulting effects on a company's bottom line. Edelbrock agreed, explaining that more and more global businesses are recognizing the significant benefits of data sharing to manage fraud. With such cooperation available to online gamblers, payment transactions and inevitable online banking can be done safely and privately, without any hesitation.
The main attraction of online gambling is that it creates winners out of ordinary gamblers like you and me. Sometimes these winners take home a few hundred dollars. Other time they are big jackpot hitters. And sometimes they are instant winners at that. This week has seen another lucky gambler join the club of big and instant winners. First Web Casino from the Jackpot Factory has done it, for the first time, only a few months after it was launched. The curiously long named game - the Double Double Bonus Ten Play Power Poker video poker game is responsible for the most recent winner, a Canadian gambler who took home $80,000. As a matter of fact, he never left the house in the first place! The game features a double-up feature, which Patrick that is the winners name won.
The football season in England is about to come to an end. The English Premier League is considered by many to be the best league in the world. It is certainly of the most popular ones, which quickly translates into big business. With teams' worth estimated at hundreds of millions of British Pounds, international billionaires joining in on the fun and buying teams and the players payrolls at the high millions per year, the season promises excitement year round. Until recently there was some free space on the playing field. We do not mean the grass, which is often covered by sharp-shooting wingers, attacking midfielders, mobile sweepers or other position holders on the teams, but rather the jerseys worn by the players. Hey, if millions are watching the games and millions more dream of taking their place on the playing field, there is big money to be made in this advertising spot as well. In the past few years, with increasing momentum this past season, online casinos have joined in and advertised on players' jerseys. While business-wise this may have been a wise move, it has also spurned some controversy and turned the soccer field to a bizarre battleground over sponsorship, protectionism and gambling licensing. How did we get to this? The richest sponsorship deals between an online gambling group and soccer teams in the whole of Europe are in England. Other countries have joined in as well, most recently Bwin, the Gibraltar-based online gambling group, sponsors of Italian soccer club AC Milan, which added Spanish champs Real Madrid as well. Each such deal is worth well over 10 million GBP per year. In England, no less than five teams may end up wearing the valuable logos on their shirts next season: Sunderland, Blackburn Rovers, Aston Villa, Tottenham and Middlesbrough, the latter with the big game company 888 will all do so. With a price like this, the business sense is doubted and other motives enter the guess work over why on earth would an Internet business spend so much money on a sponsorship deal. Besides the obvious ties between online gambling and soccer, more precisely the gamblers and the soccer fans that are often one and the same, there is a political element involved as well. In a time in which the future of the industry is discussed by legislators, lawmakers and regulators, it is important for the industry to show its presence, increase it, win over more fans and prove that it is a contributing part of the greater economy. Regulators are not giving in to these legit efforts too fast. In France, where the battle against local industry companies has taken a life of its own, instances of arrests have taken place and some companies are even banned from sponsoring soccer teams. The battle is head on. Toulouse was not allowed to adorn the 888 logo on their shirts, and Nantes had to remove its own logo. The battle - the legal battle, not the sport matches on the field - is still in progress. The online gambling companies believe the law is on their side, and recent rulings support their claim. And yet the governments, who often promote their own monopolies that are state-run and that they wish to protect are fighting back. What will the players end up wearing on their backs? You'll have to check back by next season and see how the ball rolls from here.
International software designer and provider, Playtech, has announced that it has signed an intellectual property sub-license deal with Guardian Games and Shuffle Master, in order to bring the highly popular Shuffle Master casino games to the gaming industry. Guardian Gaming is the operator of the Shuffle Master games, and holds exclusive rights to sub-license their proprietary games for use on the Internet in certain jurisdictions. The agreement will allow Playtech access to these rights, and will make available to software licensees the games Three Card Poker, Casino war, Ultimate Texas Hold 'Em, Ridem fortune Pow Gow Poker, Let it Ride Poker, and Dragon Bonus (together the "Shuffle Master" series). Financial details of the agreement were not included. Playtech has additionally been chosen by Guardian Games as the exclusive supplier of online casino software to utilize the Shuffle Master games. Playtech is the first company to ever have signed on a sub-license agreement with Guardian Games, and this movie will no doubt enhance the company's position in the online gambling market as a world leading software supplier for regulated individuals and markets. Playtech is the developer of ground-breaking software platforms and since 1999 has brought the industry to newer and more exciting levels. Playtech gaming applications include online casino, poker, bingo, mobile gaming, live gaming, and fixed odds games. Its Chief Executive Officer, Mor Weizer, said: "We are delighted to have reached this agreement which places Playtech in the unique position of being the online gaming software provider for the Shuffle Master online casino, holding the sub-license rights to certain Shuffle Master games for our operator licensees. The agreement reflects the quality of Playtech's software platforms and the strength of our global licensing portfolio." The shuffle Master gaming series boasts many features that Playtech were keen to get their hands on, such as automatic card shufflers, roulette chip sorters, intelligent table system modules designed to improve productivity and security levels, multi-player game platforms, live table tournaments and products for mobile platforms. With Playtech's enhanced, rich graphics and animation, and Guardian Game's innovative online gaming ideas and creativity, the collaboration is expected to be highly successful. Together, it looks as though the bar in online gambling experiences is being raised once again.
World leading software provider, Cryptologic, has released its newest tournament game to the online casino industry Headhunter Challenge. This new and refreshing version of online poker includes multi-table features, and pays players a bounty for each opponent they eliminate. According to Cryptologic's official press release, the Headhunter Challenge will be especially challenging for advanced online poker players, as the value of each players head will increase each time they eliminate an opponent, making them popular targets. The initial amount placed on each player will be approximately 50% of his/her buy-in. Additionally, any pro players, celebrities, or leader board regulators will be assigned heavier sums to their heads. To enter the tournament, players are required to purchase entry fee and a fixed buy-in amount. The total prize pool will have a certain amount allocated for players heads, and the rest distributed as winnings. Cryptologic have also launched the tournament to coincide with the new tournaments format. It will feature high resolution screen shots, a step-by-step playing guide, and game instructions, plus an all-time leader board and all-time kills. Javaid Aziz, President and CEO of the gaming software company, said that with the new Tournament Key Hands Review tool, they are giving players more tools than ever to improve their games and their entertainment experience. He further enthused that "Cryptologic continues to blaze the Internet poker trail with software that gives players more entertainment, more information and more innovation."
"After three days of competitive, high level poker playing at the WSOP at Rio in Las Vegas, a prize pool of $730,740 was won by 21 year old, James Mackey of Columbia, MO. Mackey was one of the initial 640 entrants for the $5000 buy-in no-limit Hold'Em championship. Mackey, a former medicine student at UM, was not long ago positioned in the Prorank 1 at number 3421. Today, he owns a WSOP winner's bracelet. At 21 years and 4 months, he is slightly older than Jeff Madsen and Steve Billrakis, making him the third youngest WSOP player winner in history. Mackey studied medicine for 2 years at UM, but left in his junior year to play poker. He supported himself for en entire year entirely from his winnings, which reached approximately $25,229. He was supported by a core group of poker players whom he met online, and is well-known in the online gambling community. Although he plans to return to his studies eventually, Mackey is currently focused on improving his poker skills as a professional player. Event number 22 featured a solid line-up of poker pros, and was broadcasted live over the internet from inside the bluff tent. The seating arrangement and chip counts at the start of play were as follows: Seat 1: William McMahon - 524,000 Seat 2: Tex Barch - 709,000 (who finished 3rd in the 2005 $10,00 buy-in main event) Seat 3: Michael Binger - 240,000 (3rd place winner in 2006) Seat 4: Jan Sorensen - 349,000 (former winner of 2 WSOP gold bracelets at Pot Limit Omaha in 2002 and Seven Card Stud in 2006) Seat 5: Stuart Fox - 718,000 Seat 6: Maciek 'Michael' Gracz - 534,000 (former winner of 2WSOP gold bracelets at final table with winnings of over half a million dollars) Seat 7: Karga Holt - 1,211,000 Seat 8: James Mackey - 1,074,000 Seat 9: Nick Schulman - 1,045,000 The lead up to the final table was grueling; the first elimination occurred during the 16th hand, when Michael Gracz moved all in and was called by Mackey, with pocket queens. Gracz tabled nines but when Mackey drew another queen, Gracz had reached the end of the line. This enabled him to build up a significant chip lead. Two hands later (hand 18), Stuart Fox eliminated Tex Barch, who finished in eighth place. Michael Binger followed suit and soon after kicked out European poker pro Jan Sorensen with pocket tens, who had called all in with pocket aces. Mackey soon took action once again as he battled it out against Nick Schulman. Mackey raised from the all blind only to have Schulman move all in. Yet when the board was blanked, Schulman's A-5 was too weak for Mackey's A-10, and the 21 year olds lead was further extended. Schulman left the table with a very rare six figure cheque. Karga Holt had been the chip leader of the game throughout nearly its entirety, yet was taken down in 5th place by Michael Binger. Karga tried a steal with Q-3 off, yet Binger had pocketed Jacks. It took less than 30 hands for the rest of the game to be decided one of the fastest tables at this year's WSOP. Mackey chose to look up William McMahon after an all-in push and was behind with 10-7 to McMahon's A-6 off. However he soon found a seven on the flop, and McMahon left the tent in fourth place. This left Mackey with a 3:1 advantage over the other players. Mackey's A-Q beat Binger's pocket tens, and he was next to be booted out of the game. Binger had went from a commanding 3, to 1 chip lead. From this point, it only took an additional 4 hands to determine the winner. Stuart Fox found a hand of K-4 to call with, and this beat Mackeys usual moved all in 10-2. Although the flop missed, the 10 gave Mackey a strong lead, as he was soon to draw another 10. With this Mackey claimed the victory bracelet and a prize pool of $730,740. With his 1st ever WSOP gold bracelet at age 21, it is likely we will be seeing more of Mackey in the near future. The player earnings of the event were as follows: 1. James Mackey - $730,740 2. Stuart Fox - $448,892 3. Michael Binger - $295,245 4. William McMahon - $194,319 5. Karga Holt - $140,091 6. Nick Schulman - $108,457 7. Jan Sorensen - $81,343 8. Tex Barch - $60,254 9. Michael Gracz - $43,684
The latest online casino to join the vast business of playing for profit has something new to tell the gambling world. In fact, it has 300 things to tell us. The expansive Malta licensed site, until this week only an operator of a poker room, has joined the fun and offers a startling selection of 300 games to play. Among the games are the newest versions of the Hitman and Lara Croft slot series, for example, and many others. Powered my Microgaming, the poker room has had quite a successful run this year, especially in Scandinavia. If it had a good run, you know what that means: gamblers too had a good run. Repeat visits and constant feedback (yes, inserting another virtual coin in the virtual slot machine is as good as feedback can get; let your money talk for you!) has helped push forward the new site. A gaming site focused on the users, with user-friendly features and user input is the new age of the business. The result is this 300 game site, as well as others such. Play a game, two or a hundred, write on the community blog space and discuss gambling issues on the community. You can also always play another game if that's really what you want at the end of the day.
Leading international industry software developer, Boss Media AB, has appointed a new Chief Executive Officer to run the company's business development. As former president and CEO of IFS (industrial and Financial Systems), it is believed that Michael Hallen (43) will guide Boss Media to even greater online gambling successes. It was only two months ago that Johan Berg, "Boss of Boss Media", announced his resignation as Chief Executive Officer of this Swedish turnkey provider after two years of loyal service. Since then, the firms head of business development, Markus Holm, has been handling his responsibilities. Chairman Mark Tiveus announced that Michael Hallen was most suited to this job due to his long standing experience with software and international operations. As president of IFS, Hallen achieved a great deal of impressive business accomplishments, including reversing a negative trend and causing profitability. Before reaching such a position, Hallen worked in several marketing and product development stations, and became a board member in several fast growing software and service companies. Tiveus and the entire board of directors are excited to welcome Hallen aboard, and believe that he will further the companys strategic plans to digitally distribute its online casino and gaming applications to a broader international clientele in the online gaming industry. Hallen will assume his new position on July 1st 2007, and will direct the company in its current production and development of software gaming solutions for online casinos, poker rooms and gaming terminals, as well as offering technical support, customer service, complete payment solutions, and software maintenance and surveillance.
Gambling online is an act that is today protected by more rights than gambling at a land based casino. However, problem gambling is much harder to regulate on the web than it is offline, hence there have been many technologies developed to recognize and prevent the addiction. Data sharing fraud management company, Ethoca, have produced an exclusive self-exclusion service designed to combat the issue. The product is being praised and advocated by eCOGRA, the Interactive Gaming Council, and GamCare. Most self-exclusion services offered by online gaming sites operate in such a way that certain limitations are imposed on gambling and the time actually spent on the sites, for gamblers who feel that they are losing control of their situation and need strict help. Ethoca's self-exclusion service is unique in that once these limitations have been reached, it restricts the gambler from logging back into the gaming site they have just used and are signed up with, and also prevents them from opening accounts at any other site using the Ethoca service. Geoffrey Godbold, CEO of GamCare, stated that gambling addiction is an industry wide problem, yet it is something caused by only a small relative percentage of gamblers. IGC CEO, John Fitzgerald, believes that employing online technology is the best way to combat problem gambling, fraud prevention, and other common issues scourging the industry. If all or most online casinos are willing to utilize Ethocas distinctive new self-exclusion service, problem gambling can be tackled head on and nipped in the bud before it grows out of control. Ethoca have been operating as a fraud management and data sharing service to the industry since only 2005, yet the possibilities they offer gamblers and casino operators are extraordinary. Hopefully, this will be a technology that all online gambling sites will appreciate as an extremely important factor in internet gaming, and employ the service as a joint effort in confronting problem gambling while it is still feasible.
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