Following its acquisition of the UK Tote , Betfred will meet with Tote management to develop the future direction of the company reports business newspaper CityAM.

Betfred’s founder Fred Done is looking to expand the Tote pool to improve liquidity into markets such as South Africa, France and Hong Kong while remaining focused on revitalising the existing business.

Under discussion will be the re-branding of the Tote’s betting shops as Betfred but racecourse sites will reportedly remain Tote branded.

A search for a new chief executive to lead the operation will be undertaken while Done will remain as Chairman of the company as set out by the bank financing the deal.

Any redundancies, which the UK bookmaker has assured Tote employees will be no more than 150, will take place at a head office level over the next year once the merger is complete.

The newly merged company will employ 9000 employees and have 1350 stores and is set to be finalised within the next month.

Olympian Trading Limited, parent company to IAM Corp who represent multiple online gaming brands including GR88 and Bulldog777 has entered into an agreement with gaming software firm EveryMatrix for the provision of its OddsMatrix sportsbook, GamMatrix gaming management platform and RakeMatrix bingo network.

The GamMatrix gaming management platform will enable the seamless integration of third party casino products from Microgaming and CTXM as well as poker from Merge.

The online gaming brands represented in the deal will offer mobile sports betting via the new OddsMatrix Mobile Sportsbook set for launch late July 2011.

Peter Karroll, CEO, IAM Corp said: “IAM Corp is extremely excited to embark on this new adventure and partnership with the EveryMatrix products, working with them not only for the current brands but also for the future IAM Corp clients who wish to enjoy the most efficient and experienced turnkey online gaming operations available anywhere in the world.”

The Italian media is reporting the arrest of sixteen people, including former Serie A, Serie B and Lega Pro footballers, others still playing and managers of Lega Pro clubs, in a major police swoop aimed at eliminating corruption from football by attacking rigged betting groups

Police spokesman told local media that the Cremona flying squad, in collaboration with the central operational service (SCO) conducted the raids, which included suspects’ homes, several betting shops and a firm of accountants.

Investigators alleged that those arrested may have ‘fixed’ a number of matches in the Serie B and Lega Pro championships in recent months, and magistrates in Cremona issued seven orders for pre-trial detention in prison and nine for house arrest. Initial investigations indicate that several hundred thousand Euros could be involved in the scam.

All those involved face charges of fraud or sports fraud-related criminal association. Investigators believe that the organisation’s bets on each match were worth several hundred thousand euros.

Besides football players and officials, it is understood that betting shop owners are involved, and that a further 28 people are currently under investigation but have not yet been detained.

The arrests quickly spread from Cremona to a wide range of Italian towns and cities, including Bari, Como, Bologna, Rimini, Pescara, Ancona, Ascoli, Ravenna, Benevento, Rome, Turin, Naples and Ferrara.

Making the headlines were reports that former Lazio captain and Italy striker Beppe Signori, is under house arrest following the police actions. Ascoli defender Vittorio Micolucci and midfielder Vincenzo Sommesse are also confined to their homes, whilst Gianfranco Parlato, a former Serie B and Serie C footballer currently working for Viareggio has been jailed.

The police have revealed that the actions this week were preceded by over six months of investigations.

Sergio Lo Presti, head of the Cremona flying squad, detailed what appears to be the trigger for the investigations – an incident in which he said six Cremonese players suffered food poisoning after drinking beverages in November 2010. The police believe that the food poisoning was a deliberate attempt to rig the result of the match which was about to be played.

Baltimore has one of the worst crime rates in all of the United States. Out of more than 10,000 cities in America, Baltimore ranks number five in murders, behind only New Orleans, Richmond, St. Louis and Detroit. Trying to get that cesspool in order, authorities cracked down hard last night on the scourge of…wait for it… online gambling.

Monday night, 11 bank accounts located in five countries were seized and 10 Internet domains were seized. The most famous seized domain was DoylesRoom.com, the online poker room sponsored by Doyle Brunson. Doyle recently announced that he was terminating his relationship with the company out of fear that something like this would happen.

On Monday, a federal grand jury agreed to indict two gambling business that owned the domains, ThrillX Systems and K23 Group Financial Services. The indictments were part of a two-year federal investigation. During that time period, almost 500 people were murdered in Baltimore, but more importantly to the feds, a lot of people played Texas hold’em online.

During a two-year sting operation by the Homeland Security Investigations (HIS), which is a division of ICE, the feds set up a fake payment processing business called Linwood Payment Solutions. Using that fake organizations, they processed $33 million in transactions between the indicted companies and residents in Maryland.

Maryland U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein defended the operating by saying that “it is illegal for Internet gambling enterprises to do business in Maryland, regardless of where the website operator is located.” The sting operation was just part of an effort to make sure people don’t spend their money playing poker when instead they should be going to a Ravens game or something.

HSI investigates a wide range of crime, most of it involving immigration and trafficking. They primarily deal with human smuggling, drug smuggling, gun running and human rights violations, but they also deal with cybercrime, which is what the online gambling businesses fall under. HSI’s mission is to investigate immigrations and customs crimes that threaten America’s national security, but I guess they were able to make an exception for gambling operators. Or maybe they see poker as being as much of a threat to America as the MS-13 gang from Guatemala.

Here are the 10 Internet gambling domains that were seized in the case:

Bookmaker.com

2Betsdi.com

Funtimebingo.com

Goldenarchcasino.com

Trupoker.com

Betmaker.com

Betgrandesports.com

Doylesroom.com

Betehorse.com

Beted.com

Tags: government control, Maryland gambling, seized domain names

Amid widening reports of delayed payments to US affiliates and players, the Europe-based e-payment company Quick Tender-UseMyWallet confirmed this week that it has stopped sending funds to US players.

In a public statement, the company says it has reliable and efficiently served the industry for several years, but goes on to caution that it cannot always predict the “vagaries of the US administration,” a reference to the actions of US federal enforcement agencies, which have been using the UIGEA and banking laws to shutdown internet banking financial transactions in the United States and freeze bank accounts.

“Over the past 2 weeks we have in good faith transmitted withdrawals initiated by Quicktender account holders to beneficiary bank accounts in the US,” the statement notes.

“The money left our account in Europe. It was only in response to increasing complaints from our customers that we recognised there was a problem, and asked our bank to investigate.

“It emerges that the money has been accumulated in our bank’s correspondent banking partners accounts in the US, and has been frozen. We suspect it is possible that these funds may be subject to a seizure order by the US authorities.

“We would stress that we do not have bank accounts in the US of our own, and that the funds have left our account in Europe.”

The statement goes on to assure users that the company’s intention is to ensure that the funds of account holders are safe.

“For this reason we have decided to suspend future withdrawals until we understand what has happened to the money that has been frozen. If we continue to transmit bank wires into the US we could find that these funds also do not reach their ultimate beneficiaries. This would simply make the problem worse,” it concludes, asking users to be patient whilst clarification is obtained.

In the meantime, the company is assessing its current exposure and how best to reintroduce withdrawals in a safe and reliable manner, bearing in mind that the US actions could impact the viability of the company.