Gibraltar wins tax case against European Commission

The British overseas territory of Gibraltar has won its appeal against an earlier ruling the European Commission after a period of four years and will now be allowed to carry on charging much lower rates of corporate tax than the United Kingdom that has allowed companies to benefit enormously.

Gibraltar is currently the base for many leading gambling operations including PartyGaming, 888 Holdings and Carmen Media who amongst others employ around just over ten percent of the populations 28,800 citizens Peter Caruana, Chief Minister of Gibraltar, went on record that if the case had been lost, it would have resulted “in the bulk, if not all, of the finance centre and gambling companies leaving Gibraltar” with “the loss of thousands of jobs throughout our economy.”

William Hill sponsor key events at Kempton Park

The UK bookmakers William Hill have today announced a new sponsorship deal at Kempton Park Racecourse. The new deal will see William Hill sponsor the williamhill.com Lanzarote Hurdle in January and the Williamhill.com Dovecote Novices’ Hurdle on Saturday 21st of February, which will form part of the gala Racing Post Chase day card

Hills will also sponsor the Williamhill.com Roseberry Stakes and williamhill.com Masaka Stakes on the 28th March which will team up with the £150,000 William Hill Lincoln at Doncaster the same day ensuring that Hills feature prominently during the flat season.

The managing director of Kempton Park Racecourse Amy Starkey said: “I am thrilled with this enhanced association for the racecourse with William Hill. We are looking forward to an excellent year in 2009, and this gets us off to a flying start.”

New Corporate Development Director for Ladbrokes

Ladbrokes the UK sports betting company have appointed Chris Palmer as their new Corporate Development Director. Prior to this position he was the Managing Director of the Hesketh Family Office which saw him running the famous Towcester racecourse as well as running trusts and funds for the Hesketh Family.

He will join Ladbrokes from February 2009 where he will sit on the Executive Board reporting directly to Ladbrokes Chief Executive Officer Chris Bell. Speaking on the appointment Chris Bell said: “Chris Palmer brings a breadth of experience of industry and public affairs and we welcome him to the Ladbrokes executive board.”

Ascot to host rescheduled International Hurdle

The postponed International Hurdle which was due to take place at Cheltenham last week will now take place at Ascot on Saturday and will be shown live on BBC One. It is hoped that Champion Hurdle winner Katchit will be able to attend.

Several races have had their times adjusted to allow for the changes with the BGC Long Walk Hurdle being ran 30 minutes later than planned at 1410 and the Ladbroke will now be at 1445. The chief executive of Ascot, Charles Barnett confirmed that the revamped card would offer prize money totalling more than £500,000.

The day will feature seven races, three of which will be top hurdle contests. A spokesman for the sponsors of the event Boylesport said “This could be the greatest day’s hurdling ever seen. We’d like to thank Ascot for working so closely with us, as well as the British Horseracing Authority and the other main sponsors during this difficult time.”

Match fixing at the Maplin UK Championship?

An unusual amount of bets on the first round match of the Maplin UK Championship in Telford had been taken on the match between Stephen Maguire and Jamie Burnett this prompted bookmakers to suspend betting amidst fears of possible match fixing.

A majority of bookmakers had suspended betting on the match 24 hours before the match took place due to the high quantity of bets that were placed on Maguire, the 2004 UK champion, to beat Burnett, a qualifier, 9-3, as the final score.

Cliff Wilds, head of sport for UK betting company Victor Chandler said “When you get accounts opened in Glasgow to bet frame scores, alarm bells go off. We took no money on 9-2 or 9-4 and that set off alarm bells as well. We suspended betting four days ago“.  Burnett is from Hamilton, Maguire comes from the Milton district of Glasgow.

Burnett was beaten 9-3 and the Scot missed a black in the 12th frame which would have made it 8-4, he denies any wrongdoing

Netplay TV acquire license for 24 hour Freeview channel

Netplay TV has become the first interactive gaming company to secure a dedicated channel on Freeview. It will commence broadcasting its services that include Supercasino.com and Live Bingo from 8th January 2009. The announcement was made today that Netplay TV had acquired a license to operate a 24 hour channel, the news created a rush for shares in the company who saw an initial rise in their stock of just under 9%.

Freeview is currently available to over 15 million households in the United Kingdom making it the largest digital TV platform in the UK, since it started broadcasting over 27 million Freeview boxes have been sold.

The Chief Executive Officer of Netplay TV Martin Higginson said “‘This is a major milestone for our business. Freeview is the largest digital TV platform in the UK with over 15.3 million homes using the service. To secure a dedicated channel to broadcast our services is a real achievement for the whole team. We will now be able to drive people to our Freeview channel 48 and thus build loyalty in this destination.”

The license granted to Netplay TV has now given the company the ability to be available on three of the four digital TV platforms, Sky, Freeview and Freesat giving it a potential audience of 23 million homes in the UK.

Betfair announce Ascot sponsorship deal

The Internet Betting Exchange Betfair has outlined a new five year sponsorship deal that will see it sponsoring key races at Ascot including the Queen Elizabeth and King George VI stakes, this new deal will make Betfair the second largest sponsor in the racing industry, the state owned Tote still holds first place.  The deal will see the three day event in July branded as “Betfair Weekend”.

The First Commercial Chase will now become the Betfair Ascot Chase. The sponsorship will see the value of the race raise to an impressive £1 million and will help the event that has suffered from a lack of sponsorship for the previous two seasons.

Betfair’s director of horse racing Stephen Burn, said “We are delighted to have the opportunity to work with Ascot on this ground-breaking agreement, especially as it will take us up to and beyond the course’s historic tercentenary in 2011. Betfair’s first market was the Oaks in 2000, when 36 people had a bet. It is extraordinary that less than 10 years later we are involved in a deal like this.”

Ladbrokes appoints new chairman

The UK based sports betting company Ladbrokes has appointed Peter Erskine as the successor to Sir Ian Robinson who has been chairman for Ladbrokes for just over seven years; Erskine had previously been the chief executive of the mobile phone network O2.

He will take over as chairman at the company’s next AGM in May 2009, but he will begin working with the company in January 2009. The CEO of Ladbrokes Christopher Bell said “Peter Erskine’s extensive international marketing background and experience of building brand-led businesses will be a big plus for the company. He was responsible for the transformation of O2 plc - the ex BT wireless business - into a leading provider of mobile services in Europe and helped create considerable shareholder value.”

As part of his tenure at 02 he helped with the integration of the company’s £18 billion takeover by Telefonica in 2005, he has since served on the board of the Spanish telecoms operator.  Erskine will help Ladbrokes expand its non UK based retail operations in Spain and Italy as well as continuing its development of online gambling.

Gala reports losses but shows growth

Gala Coral has reported losses of £403 million for the year ended September 2008. The figure is almost treble that of the previous financial year. Gala Coral currently operates just under 1600 Coral Betting shops, 162 Bingo Clubs and 29 casinos as well as its online portfolio, employing over 20,000 members of staff.

The company received an cash injection of £124 from its private equity backers Permira, Cinven and Candover, this did little to reduce the pre tax losses of £397m for the year. The breakdown of the losses has been made up of write downs and redundancy costs created when the company closed around 10% of its bingo clubs and casinos earlier in the year.

Galas unexpected difficulties stem from the a long line of tax and regulatory changes that have hit the casino and bingo industries including the recent smoking ban in public places and the amount of £500 jackpot machines permitted in an establishment.

Despite this the new Gala Coral Chief Executive Dominic Harrison reports that trading in the first nine weeks was ahead of the previous year in all divisions despite the current economic situation Coral showed growth of 17%.

Scottish footballers failed venture with professional poker player

Allan McGregor the Glasgow Rangers goalkeeper has had his fingers burnt in a failed nightclub venture with the professional poker player Tony Chessa, the pair had invested £150,000 into the Oxygen nightclub in Greenock but it has been forces to close after just over a year.

McGregor a keen card player met Chessa at poker tournament and invested £50,000 into the club. Chessa at the time was a professional poker player who was sponsored by Littlewoods Poker, a source said: “Chessa hoped having Allan as a partner would pull in the punters and his Rangers pals but it never got to that stage, the club was pretty much doomed from the minute it opened its doors. But it’ll be a lot easier for Allan to handle than Chessa.”

Chessa was thought to be earning in excess of £100,000 a year from playing cards on the poker circuit whilst the Ibrox star McGregor is believed to be earning £20,000 a week.

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