View from the Editor - ‘Yes, we have no bananas’ - November 2006  

Readers, with the festive season rapidly approaching, perhaps we shouldn’t have been too surprised to receive an e-mail from a ‘J. Christ’ this week, especially as we reported seeing signs proclaiming that ‘Jesus is now live on the internet!’ at the Milan Duomo earlier this year. What perplexed us however is the spooky message that was contained within, which although obviously completely insane, had the key components of both technology and sport covered in its eerie ramblings. And we quote: “After the laughing, I'd recommend you. Same feelings towards Brazenhead which had created an excellent Cigar and Scotch bar in the basement of the mammoth facility. I love my powerbook and it is still doing great, but I needed a good computer in my office - now that the main pc is back up - it will do the trick. Do you think it's the food that's to blame? Plus sports slow down these months. That's the power of Konfabulator too. It will be a long recovery but I am sure that she is looking forward to being active once the rehab is over and she can start working on her golf game.” Eh?! If the message didn’t also contain a click-through to the usual array of drugs proffered by the most ardent of spammers, we might have thought it was a ‘Letter to the Editor’ from one of you after a few too many gins. Actually, on second thoughts perhaps it was! Keep ‘em coming!

Crazy, crazy nights

If S&T wasn’t already five months (and counting) into a six-month alcohol-free detox, we might be considering hitting the bottle after the whirlwind of the last few weeks. A wee tonic is definitely in order.
STEC day on Thursday 26 October (our brekkie seminar and evening networking event combo-extravaganza), blurred into SportelMonaco and then morphed into the International Gaming Conference & Expo Summit in Dublin, with all the usual Exeter City and Bromley Common FC sojourns/losses in between. Heck, we haven’t even had a chance to get nervous about The Ashes yet in Australia!
The bullishness experienced at SportelMonaco 2005 was even more apparent at this year’s event, and not just on the yacht chartered for the Matchroom Sports soiree. A record total of 2,117 participants, representing 932 companies from 67 countries worldwide took part, making it the largest Sportel event ever. With most of the delegates still somehow managing to cram into the legendry Tuesday night Setanta party (and one even taking over a local bus to get home afterwards), there were a few sore heads evident at the ArkSports hosted roundtable discussion on the Wednesday morning. Digital gaming experts Kevan Moretti, Co-Founder and Commercial Director of iKnowledge; John O'Connor, Business Development Director at Servecast; Tony Singh, Associate at Spectrum Strategy Consultants; Chris White, Commercial Director of All in Sport & The Poker Channel; and Todd Kobrin, a consultant to 888.com, risked arrest and chewed the cud on whether there is still life in the industry following US anti-gambling initiatives. STEC members can download a podcast of the event to find out (www.sportandtechnologyexecutiveclub.com) as well as video from the STEC day breakfast seminar filmed by S&T sponsor PTV.
As well as kindly supplying John O’Connor for the ArkSports discussion, Ireland-based digital solutions company Servecast was at Sportel to announce that FC Barcelona had chosen the company to deliver its broadband video service - Barça TV Online. S&T caught up with O’Connor at Servecast’s Dublin headquarters to see how Sportel had been for the company. “It went very well as we were able to make our announcement as well as have lots of useful meetings,” said O’Connor. “There’s a definite opportunity for us to take the case studies we have developed in the UK market – such as with Liverpool FC which is our most successful channel with 50,000 subscribers – and applying them to markets and sports in Europe. New media used to be a dirty term for rights owners whereas now it is definitely part of the mix.”
On the gaming side of things, O’Connor felt that the US situation has provided Servecast with an opportunity. “Brands will be looking at new markets because of that as well as new products and we can help them. The US situation can be seen as a positive for us as it takes us higher up the hierarchy and has enabled everyone to focus their minds a bit.” With Servecast already working closely with several bookmakers via its ‘Bet and View’ service for Attheraces, and the company about to unveil a broadband channel for online gaming company PartyGaming, Servecast already has a useful and sizeable foot in the gaming door.

So, what’s the crack?

The leading topics of conversation over tea and cookies at the International Gaming Conference & Expo in Dublin in early November in order were (1) If PartyGaming no longer wants to buy 888.com, will Ladbrokes make a move for it? And will PartyGaming definitely buy Bwin instead? If so, will there end up being one uber-online gaming company that wins out? (2) US punters will surely find a way to pay for their online gambling and gaming, despite the prohibition now in force in the US. Although banks cannot process payments, apparently a company in Malta is developing a system that will by-pass this. Others will surely follow. (3) Who were those strapping young men in the room next door who kept wandering by in shorts and not much else? (The answer was the Ireland Rugby Union team. As S&T has previously stayed in a hotel with the New Zealand Rugby Union team, we are looking forward to completing the set with England and Australia over the next year or so. Not that we are great fans of egg chasing per se, it’s just that the nice young men might be useful for carrying our luggage you see).

More barmy inventions unveiled

Before S&T signs off and begins preparations for Soccerex Dubai (and the annual deliberations over what to wear to the gala dinner and the like), we have been made aware of two snazzy new technological developments this month that we thought we would share with you lovely readers. The first is a special T-shirt that allows the wearer to perform air-guitar moves that get turned into proper rocking tunes (through sheer wizardry. Well, actually, through sensors). The ‘Wearable Instrumental Shirt’ has been developed by Australian scientists and can be viewed online at www.csiro.au/csiro/content/file/pfk9,,.html.
Unfortunately, the shirt won’t be available in time for the festive season, but fear not, as instead, why not buy your loved ones (who like to partake in the odd bit of fruit) a banana protector? As quoted recently in our local cricket club magazine: “In the constant world of sport and nutrition it is still widely accepted that a banana or two are the ideal snack to eat before and during any sporting activity… www.Bananaguards.co.uk offer the perfect partner to protect the banana being damaged in the golf or work bag.” ‘Hang on a mo’, we hear you cry. ‘Surely, not all bananas are the same size or shape, so how will they fit?’ Stress ye out not. “The Banana Guard was specially designed to fit the vast majority of bananas”, the manufacturer promises. It is also dishwasher safe. Well in that case, we’ll take three.
That’s the nieces and nephews sorted then for pressies, we just need something for Granny and we are well ahead of our gift-buying schedule. Has anyone invented a virtual knitting and tea-making machine that can be powered by childhood reminiscences? S&T is prepared to pay upwards of two British pounds. Payment to be processed via Malta of course. Ciao.

Rachael Church
Editor

Do you like to keep bananas in your sports bag or are oranges more your thang? If you have any comments or feedback on this article or any of the features in S&T, we would be delighted to hear from you. Please e-mail your comments to editor@sportandtechnology.com. Or watch television instead. S&T is currently enjoying the new ‘I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here’ although the term ‘Celebrity’ is used loosely this year we feel.

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