Billions of dollars have been wiped off the value of the world’s leading online gaming companies following an eleventh hour move to ban internet gaming in the US. Flying in the face of industry opinion, the House of Representatives and the Senate approved a bill at the end of September to make it illegal for banks and credit-card companies to make payments to online gambling sites in the US. President George W Bush is expected to sign the bill, part of broader security legislation, into law by mid-October. Investors reacted badly to the news, with gaming companies globally suffering massive losses, especially those with particularly US-facing businesses such as PartyGaming, SportingBet and 888.com. All three companies have since suspended their US customer accounts. "This development is a significant setback for our company, our shareholders, our players and our industry," PartyGaming chief executive Mitch Garber said. The Global Business of Poker - the latest report from ArkSports, publisher of leading e-newsletter Sport and Technology - provides an invaluable market overview of the fast-moving multibillion dollar poker industry, both land-based and online, including a section on legal issues that affect online gambling and gaming as a whole. See http://www.sportandtechnology.com/page/0359.html for further details including a table of contents.
Poker Channel joins S&T’s gaming seminar at Sportel
ArkSports is delighted to announce that Chris White, Commercial Director of All in Sport & The Poker Channel, has joined the line-up of industry experts to discuss the future of digital gaming at SPORTELMonaco on Wednesday 18 October (9.30-10.45am). White will enter discussions along with Kevan Moretti, Co-Founder and Commercial Director of iKnowledge, John O'Connor, Business Development Director, Servecast; and Tony Singh, Associate, Spectrum Strategy Consultants. Audio of the event will be made available to members of the Sport and Technology Executive Club (www.sportandtechnologyexecutiveclub.com), after the event.
Teletrax revs up with A1GP
Teletrax, the global broadcast intelligence company, has signed a contract with A1GP World Cup of Motorsport (where professional motor racing teams representing 23 nations compete on a level playing field). Teletrax offers a digital video monitoring and content tracking service that provides critical television intelligence on a global scale to video providers such as entertainment studios, news organisations, TV syndicators, and the advertising industry. Commencing with the first race of the second season, A1GP will use the Teletrax suite of broadcast intelligence services to detect and report on global broadcasts of its motorsports events. The new initiative will allow A1GP to precisely and rapidly understand usage preferences of its video assets. Teletrax will provide A1GP with evidence of its live coverage and highlights packages broadcast around the world. With the intelligence gathered, A1GP will be able to tailor its offering, improve allocation of its resources and provide precise details of airing coverage to its sponsors.
Fantasy Sports goes mobile
GoTV Networks has launched Fantasy Sports Edge, a mobile channel made for fantasy sports fanatics. In addition to providing up-to-the-minute sports news, Fantasy Sports Edge (FSE) allows users to customise and track up to three teams per sport - up to four leagues - with the ‘My Lineup’ feature. According to statistics from the Fantasy Sports Trade Association, 15m-18m people in the US participate in a fantasy sports team annually, with that number continuing to grow rapidly each year. Whether sports fanatics are waiting in line or heading to their local sports bar to watch the game, FSE users can tune in anytime to view the latest video highlights; commentary and updates from leading fantasy sports resources Rotowire.com and Sporting News Radio; standings, draft tips, rumours, transactions and injury updates; team and player alerts; and daily scores and schedules for the National Football League (NFL), Major League Baseball (MLB), National Basketball Association (NBA), National Hockey League (NHL), NCAA Football, and NCAA Basketball. Subscribers with video-enabled phones can access all FSE features for $5.99 a month via most major carriers.
Cage rage for Servecast
Servecast, a provider of broadband video solutions to the sports industry, successfully streamed Cage Rage 18 on 30 September, the increasingly popular martial arts format known as 'cage fighting'. Cage Rage is enjoying enormous success in the UK with a growing fan base and celebrity endorsements at every event. Servecast first webcast Cage Rage 17 as a pay-per-view event in June 2006. Using its advanced Media Studio platform, Servecast hosted, streamed and delivered the mixed martial arts event live and made the competition available on an on-demand basis after the end of the event. This was based on a ticket price of £10 for pre-purchase, £15 for the PPV on the day of the event and £5 for all on-demand purchases after the event.
Hawkeye to be used at Australian Open
Players will be able to use 3D animated ball-tracking system Hawkeye to challenge line-calls at the Australian Tennis Open in January 2007. The system was trialled successfully at the US Open recently.
Sony wins battle at Benfica
Sony achieved the highest exposure at the Benfica v Manchester United match on Tuesday 26 September in the Champions League – according to Sports Marketing Surveys image recognition system ‘Magellan’. However, MasterCard achieved the most efficient results with high solus appearances and clear exposure in the centre of the screen, giving better impact to the brand. Magellan allows deeper understanding of the exposure of brands at sporting events delivering analysis of size on screen, prominence and solus appearance. Despite significant variations in exposure impact for the six sponsors, the Champions League partner programme achieves excellent efficiency results, according to Sports Marketing Surveys.
BBC OB takes the plunge
BBC Outside Broadcasts has developed and built the world’s first motorised HD Plunge Camera for the Asian Games Doha 2006 - pioneering broadcast quality HD mini camera applications. The camera, mounted on a 16m vertical track, will capture divers in real time as they free fall into the pool. It will cover all three dive platforms, from 10m to 3m, travelling to 4m below the surface. The HD camera technology the Special Cameras team has developed can be adapted for a variety of sports, to ensure maximum value and flexibility for programme makers. For example, the tracking technology from the HD Plunge Cam can be installed horizontally or vertically, fixed to the ground, or flown from above. In addition to the HD Plunge Cam, the Special Cameras team is building an HD Mini Plunge Cam to capture the vital seconds at the beginning of the race when swimmers enter the pool. This has a shorter track and offers pictures from just above the surface to a depth of 2m, which the director can cut live to, use for replays or overlays for graphic effect shots. The team also designed and built an HD Starting Block Camera, which will offer pictures of the swimmers as they finish. The Special Cameras team continually look to produce technological ‘firsts’, from ground breaking cricket stump cameras to the innovative Post Cam, a remotely-operated 360 degree panning camera which provides enhanced coverage of rugby. At the beginning of September, the team also used HD onboard camera systems for the first time at the Goodwood Revival Meeting, the world’s largest historical motor racing event, fitting 13 classic cars with HDV cameras. In spite of poor weather conditions, stunning HD pictures from inside the cars were achieved, to enhance the viewers’ experience of the motor sport.
Seconds out for PokerStars.com
PokerStars.com is sponsoring the much-anticipated upcoming world championship Super Featherweight rematch between Manny Pacquiao and Erik Morales. The fight will take place in Las Vegas on 18 November. Pacquiao and Morales each own a victory over the other in their two previous fights - both considered ‘Fight of the Year’ candidates - which have attracted over 700,000 pay-per-view buys combined on HBO.
New online coaching tool
FlexxCoach, a supplier of online coaching education in the US, and Sports LearningEdge, the creators of the patent pending On-demand Sports Learning for youths, have announced an agreement to produce an advanced online coaching and skills learning solution for professional sports leagues and sports' national governing bodies worldwide. The combined solutions will enable the leading organisations in sports to offer a single, trusted site to give coaches, parents and their children immediate access to the learning tools they need to coach and increase participation.
Page from ArkSports' Sport and Technology (www.sportandtechnology.com) on 2008-11-21 : News - October 2006 : http://www.sportandtechnology.com/news/0421.html
Billions of dollars have been wiped off the value of the world’s leading online gaming companies following an eleventh hour move to ban internet gaming in the US. Flying in the face of industry opinion, the House of Representatives and the Senate approved a bill at the end of September to make it illegal for banks and credit-card companies to make payments to online gambling sites in the US. President George W Bush is expected to sign the bill, part of broader security legislation, into law by mid-October. Investors reacted badly to the news, with gaming companies globally suffering massive losses, especially those with particularly US-facing businesses such as PartyGaming, SportingBet and 888.com. All three companies have since suspended their US customer accounts. "This development is a significant setback for our company, our shareholders, our players and our industry," PartyGaming chief executive Mitch Garber said. 
Servecast, a provider of broadband video solutions to the sports industry, successfully streamed Cage Rage 18 on 30 September, the increasingly popular martial arts format known as 'cage fighting'. Cage Rage is enjoying enormous success in the UK with a growing fan base and celebrity endorsements at every event. Servecast first webcast Cage Rage 17 as a pay-per-view event in June 2006. Using its advanced Media Studio platform, Servecast hosted, streamed and delivered the mixed martial arts event live and made the competition available on an on-demand basis after the end of the event. This was based on a ticket price of £10 for pre-purchase, £15 for the PPV on the day of the event and £5 for all on-demand purchases after the event.
PokerStars.com is sponsoring the much-anticipated upcoming world championship Super Featherweight rematch between Manny Pacquiao and Erik Morales. The fight will take place in Las Vegas on 18 November. Pacquiao and Morales each own a victory over the other in their two previous fights - both considered ‘Fight of the Year’ candidates - which have attracted over 700,000 pay-per-view buys combined on HBO.
