Ladbrokes online casino has been powered by Microgaming for over 10 years; the first online bet was taken on 11th October 2000 and it has been a partner of Ladbrokes ever since, a company spokesman said this week.

Roger Raatgever, CEO of Microgaming said: “We have had a long and successful association with Ladbrokes; this new agreement will enable us to continue working closely together to enable Ladbrokes to provide a market leading casino offering and extend the reach of our products across all Ladbrokes channels. We are proud that Microgaming has supplied online gaming software to Ladbrokes for over 10 years and we look forward to a continued prosperous relationship.”

Richard Glynn, Ladbrokes CEO commented: “This agreement reflects our ongoing objective to offer customers the best products in the market place through more flexible supplier relationships which offer increased opportunities for growth. Microgaming has a proven track record and product range and this new agreement offers us the opportunity to maximise our relationship in the future.”

As has been the case in previous deals announced recently, the game titles will be integrated via the IGT rgs (remote game server) system, incorporating the content into Play Games Online Ltd’s existing iGaming platform supplied by RVGTech.

Botemagico.com initially has launched 12 slots and six table games, along with a console designed in Spanish delivering IGT’s content. IGT’s five-reel slots will replace the three-reel games currently on the site.

Karl Diacono, executive director, Play Games Online Ltd, said, “This is a very important agreement for Play Games Online Ltd. Utilizing IGT’s leading online casino content will noticeably improve the level of player experience on Botemagico.com and help us to grow our market share.”

IGT provides online and mobile gaming solutions for regulated markets through its global Interactive division, which was created by the merger of the company’s WagerWorks and Million-2-1 groups.

UB.net introduced the special weekly Bellator freerolls late last month, with the two new freerolls released recently providing the opportunity to residents in several new regions to get involved in the Thursday evening tournament series; the winner of each of these free-play No Limit Hold ‘em tournaments will front up cage-side at a designated upcoming Bellator fight night during the 2010 season. The VIP Bellator prize package includes two cage-side seats, pre/post event photos in the cage, official Bellator and UB swag, plus $300 cash for travel expenses.

Added to the schedule is UB.net’s April 22nd Bellator freeroll at 20:00 ET, exclusive to players in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire; the winner will receive the VIP prize package, including a pair of cage-side seats at the May 6th Bellator event at the Citi Performing Arts Center Wang Theatre in Boston.

The following week, the Bellator freeroll on Thursday, April 29th at 20:00 ET means players in Louisiana, Arkansas and Mississippi can get in on the action too. This free to enter tournament is awarding a VIP prize package to attend the Bellator event at the Monroe Civic Center in Louisiana on May 13th.

UB player Jason “JAYOWNZYOU” Lucie from Florida won UB’s first VIP prize package to attend the Bellator event at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood, Florida on April 8th.

“It was an experience that most MMA fans can only dream of. Backstage pre-fight, and at the end inside the cage, we got to take pictures with the fighters…not many fans get to do that! Overall, we had a great time, saw some entertaining fights, and walked away with some awesome memories,” enthused Jason.

Further details of UB’s Bellator freeroll line-up will be announced as their fight schedule is confirmed. Players should check the UB.net site regularly for new freeroll listings under the ‘Specials’ Tab in the UB tournament lobby, to discover when there’s a Bellator event coming to a venue nearby, and a corresponding regional Bellator freeroll that they qualify for.

Each of Bellator’s events throughout Season 2 will be distributed in primetime on Thursday nights on FOX Sports Net and its regional sports network affiliates. The top moments from each week’s live events will then be condensed into an action-packed 30-minute highlight show, broadcast every Saturday night, late night, on NBC. A one-hour highlight show will air in Spanish on Telemundo every Saturday night from midnight to 1 a.m.

Played at the Casino at the Empire in Leicester Square, this years WSOPE is again sponsored by the Betfair online gambling group, with the first event starting on September 18 and running through September 21st. This is the third consecutive annual run for the European version of the American live tournament classic. The US President and Commissioner of the WSOP, Jeffrey Pollack flew into London for the start of the tourney, accompanied by Tournament Director Jack Effel.

Day 1-A attracted 295 entries. Day 1-B was played through Saturday, September 19th, and the survivors from both initial days combined on Sunday September 20th. The final table will take place on Monday September 21st.

Among the big names registered for the WSOPE events are Sharkahn Farnood and Jesper Hougaard – both previous WSOPE bracelet winners – and Phil Hellmuth, Jean-Robert Bellande, Brandon Cantu, Eric Seidel, Layne Flack, Raymond Rahme, Mori Eskandani, John Duthie, Barry Greenstein, Vitaly Lunkin, Roland De Wolfe, Nikolay Evdakov, Jeff Madsen, Huck Seed, Chris Bjorin, Andy Bloch, Dave “Devilfish” Ulliott, Neil Channing and Surinder Sunar.

Betfair preceded the WSOPE festival with a big game of its own – the Betfair Million Dollar Freeroll on September 17; designed specifically for amateur players it was won by a 23-year-old Greek player, Anestis Metsas.

Online craps is making a lot of people very rich both players and owners, and as most of you reading this aren’t going to own an online casino you really should consider playing craps as a 1^st choice when
you’re in an online casino. This is because when you play craps you can actually reduce the house edge to less than 1%. Sounds good doesn’t it. So it’s well worth having a look at playing online craps. It might not have the same atmosphere as the land casinos but the benefit is mostly if you’re a beginner you won’t be as intimidated or confused by all the screaming and shouting emerging from the craps table.

Michael Waxman, a spokesperson for the pressure group Safe and Secure Internet Gambling Initiative revealed this week that an increased focus on the benefits of Internet gambling regulation is expected as the Senate Finance Committee considers a proposal introduced last weekend to use Internet gambling revenue to offset the costs of health care reform.

The amendment offered by Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, would dedicate Internet gambling tax revenue generated through the implementation of the proposed and currently pending Internet Regulation, Consumer Protection and Enforcement Act (H.R. 2267) to increase low-income subsidies provided through the America’s Healthy Future Act of 2009.

An independent PricewaterhouseCoopers analysis shows that collecting taxes on regulated Internet gambling would allow the U.S. to capture up to $62.7 billion over the next decade.

“We applaud Senator Wyden’s proposal to collect and put to good use tens of billions in Internet gambling revenue that would otherwise be lost in the underground marketplace,” said Waxman. “The Senate Finance Committee should approve the resolution, finally putting to an end a failed prohibition on Internet gambling that leaves Americans unprotected and unlicensed offshore operators as the only beneficiary in a thriving marketplace.”

The Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection and Enforcement Act of 2009 (H.R. 2267), introduced in May by House Committee on Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank, would establish a framework to permit licensed gambling operators to accept wagers from individuals in the U.S.

The legislation mandates a number of significant consumer protections including safeguards against compulsive and underage gambling, money laundering, fraud and identify theft. Additional provisions in the legislation reinforce the rights of each state to determine whether to allow Internet gambling activity for people accessing the Internet within the state and to apply other restrictions on the activity as determined necessary.

AA companion to Chairman Frank’s legislation introduced by Representative Jim McDermott, the Internet Gambling Regulation and Tax Enforcement Act (H.R. 2268), would raise revenue for the U.S. Treasury primarily through ensuring that applicable individual taxes, corporate taxes and license fees on regulated Internet gambling activities are collected. Without this legislation, this revenue will remain uncollected while millions of Americans gamble online without consumer protections.

The league table ranks Britain’s fastest-growing private technology companies based on sales growth over the last three years. Moneybookers’ top ten position acknowledges the company’s sustained strong growth since its foundation in 2001. The company has an annual transaction volume of over Euro 3.5 billion.

In 2008, revenue and profits doubled, making it one the fastest growing and most successful global payments companies in the world, with over nine million account holders, many of them online gamblers.

The company was also highlighted as having the highest profit margin of all league table entrants.

Moneybookers’ worldwide payment network offers businesses access to over 80 payment options in over 200 countries through a single integration and the firm was the first e-money issuer in the UK to be licensed by the FSA.

A company statement claims that over 45 000 merchants use Moneybookers, including global partners such as eBay.com, Skype and Thomas Cook. Over 12 000 customers sign up for an account every day.

The co-CEO of the company, Nikolai Riesenkampff, commented: “This top ten ranking positions us at the forefront of technology companies in the UK and comes on top of the recognition we received at this year’s Media Momentum Awards. Our growth rate shows no sign of slowing as we continue to expand, increasing our reach and developing new products.”

The publication of The Sunday Times Microsoft Tech Track 100 league table precedes a separate awards ceremony which will be held in November.

On his path to victory Cajelais bested an entry field of 158 players that included internationally recognised aces and WSOP bracelet holders like Men Nguyen, Annette Obrestad, Hoyt Corkins and Howard Lederer.

Cajelais enjoyed success from the first day he was in action, going on to work through the field and start the third and final day of the event facing just four remaining players – Nguyen, Mats Gavatin, Robin Keston and Richard Gryko.

The 27-year-old from Montreal, Canada finally entered the heads up against Swedish player Mats Gavatin with an overwhelming chip lead of 10 to 1, which enabled him to finish the last stage of the event quickly and in style. Gavatin collected GBP64 705 for his second placing.

The company, which owns the Riviera on the Strip and a casino in Colorado, posted a net loss of $13.5 million for the quarter ended June 30, a sharp swing from the $10 million profit recorded for the same quarter last year, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The result translated into an earnings loss of $1.08 cents per share in the quarter, down from 80 cents per share profit a year ago.

The drop drives the company’s six-month loss to $14.5 million this year.

Because of its financial problems, Riviera did not make a $6 million interest payment in the second quarter, but the company said Monday it is still talking to creditors about restructuring its debt. The company, however, cautioned it could still end up in bankruptcy.

“With the aid of our financial advisers and outside counsel, we are continuing to negotiate with our various creditor constituencies to refinance or restructure our debt,” the filing said. “We cannot assure you that we will be successful in completing a refinancing or consensual out-of-court restructuring, if necessary. If we were unable to do so, we would likely be compelled to seek protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.”

The company skipped a $4 million payment in March when it entered into talks with Wachovia Bank about restructuring its debts.

Riviera Holdings has $276.1 million in long-term debt, $245 million of which is a credit facility with Wachovia. The company has received multiple default notices on its debt this year.

The company reported that its loss from operations in the second quarter was $600,000, a drop from the $5 million in net income realized the same time last year.

Revenues fell 24.1 percent to $34.6 million in the quarter, down from $45.6 million last year. Revenues for the year have dropped 26 percent, to $69.3 million from $93.6 million.

Second-quarter cash flow, defined as earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, fell 62.8 percent, to $3.2 million from $8.6 million in 2008. Cash flow the first six months is down 54.5 percent, to $8.5 million from $18.7 million.

At the 2,075-room Riviera on the Strip, revenues declined 27.8 percent to $24.9 million from $34.5 million. Casino revenues fell 16.6 percent to $12.3 million in the quarter.

Now that they were in the money, the pressure was off most of the 407 players remaining in the tournament — and it showed. Players were laughing and joking around as they played on a reconfigured tournament floor. Tables had become talkative again. The Amazon Room, which had been filled to brim with poker tables and players, now had just over 40 tables spread out over the entire tournament space.
The result was wide open spaces between tables, allowing plenty of room for ESPN cameras to move around, and fans to line up along the rail.

Every time player moved all in, fans crowded the rail, hoping to get a better view. And camera crews raced over to the table, hoping to catch a dramatic showdown.

And for the first time at the Series, the fans at the featured tables were emotionally in it as well, gasping in shock at bad beats and cheering big wins.

By the end of the day, 185 of players remained. Among the notable players bounced from the tournament were Dan Harrington, Lou Diamond Phillips, Kara Scott, Vitaly Lunkin, Thor Hansen and Sorel Mizzi.

The chip leader after Day 5 action ended was Warren Zackey, who had 4,872,00 in chips. Tom Schneider (3,168,000), Matt Affleck (2,882,000), James Akenhead (2,692,000), Phil Ivey (1,380,000), Dennis Phillips (1,009,000), Antonio Esfandiari (1,227,000), Peter Eastgate (927,000), Joe Hachem (540,000) and J.C. Tran (720,000) are still alive in the tournament as well.

Zackey won his Main Event seat in a tournament held at the Piggs Peak Casino in Swaziland, which neighbors South Africa. Zackey cites Raymond Rahme third-place finish in the 2007 WSOP as his inspiration to start playing tournament poker.

“Rahme made many players start playing in poker tournaments in South Africa,” said Zackey. “He was excellent for the country.”

The most bizarre happening of the day took place when Kasper Cordes won a monster pot of more than 2.6 million in chips. As Cordes was raking in his chips, several reporters asked his name, which he declined to give. The ESPN producers knew he was a “Kasper,” but were unsure of his last name. Defending Main Event champ Peter Eastgate came by to check on his friend’s progress, but he refused to give up his name to WSOP Media Director Nolan Dalla. Finaly, WSOP Tournament Director Jack Effel walked up to “Kasper” and asked for his name. Initially, Kasper declined.

“I’m the tournament director,” Effel told Kasper. “You have to tell me your name.” Finally, the player told Effel is name was Kasper Cordes. Cordes finished the day second in chips with 4,295,000.

Here’s a pictorial look at the day that was.