Sport is made for betting

Could a politician attempt a more impossible task than this one? New EU Commissioner Wants to Settle Online Gambling Mess The confusion over online gambling in EU member states is set to be ironed out by new Internal Market Commissioner Michel Barnier, a move that will be closely followed by Malta. France, Italy, Greece, Portugal, Germany, Norway, Poland, Sweden.. the list goes on of countries who want to set their own rules and defy European Union directives, or at least bend them a bit. Forcing these EU members states to comply is like telling banks they have to start responsible and not giving out individual bonuses bigger than the GDP of a third-world country. Or trying to get football players to act as role models and respect referees like rugby players. In a line from the classic Aussie film, The Castle, "Tell him he's dreaming!". In another note, I notice that Betfair have given up their respect/fear of French authority and now have the betting site in French as we...

There have been several stories around in recent weeks about the threat of gambling bans being introduced in Poland, mostly a lot of speculation about what might happen and panicking about complete bans. This latest report centres on advertising and marketing bans which will strip Polish football clubs and the second division of millions of euro. Exclusive: Bwin, Mangas, Unibet sports sponsorship threat Current deals between egaming companies under threat from the law include Expekt’s sponsorship of the Polish national team; BetAtHome’s shirt sponsorship of Wisla Krakow, champions of last year’s Ekstraklasa top league in Polish football; Betclick’s shirt sponsorship of Ekstraklasa team Lech Poznan and Bwin’s role as a principal sponsor of Ekstraklasa team Legia Warszawa. The loss of Unibet’s title sponsorship of the second tier of Polish football, Unibet 1.Liga, could alone cost the Polish National 2nd League €4m a season. The Polish prime minister announced a clampdown on all forms o...

When it comes to European nations taking their time to adhere to European Union directives regarding breaking down the monopolies of state-run gambling companies, you can't be surprised that the French have been dragging their heels on it. ZeTurf, a Maltese-based gambling firm which focuses on French racing, angered the French government last week when a 'press release' appeared in the free daily Metro paper in Paris, just two days before the Prix de L'Arc de Triomphe. Zeturf French advertising condemned Online operators have become increasingly impatient in recent months ahead of the market liberalisation which is planned for early 2010, entering into media and sports sponsorship deals as they compete to establish themselves ahead of the market opening. France’s proposed gambling bill will be presented to the National Assembly for discussion on Wednesday.

I don't get into political betting much but after my last success with the Gordon Brown's speech and doing an MBA at the moment, perhaps I should. With the work and pensions secretary James Purnell resigning tonight, a leadership challenge is imminent. When that was announced as breaking news on the 10pm BBC News, the market for Brown Exit in June collapsed - shown in the circled area below. If you have any idea who the new Home or Foreign Secretary might be ( politicalbetting is reporting that Milliband may resign tomorrow as well ), then the Betfair markets are wide open at the moment.

Once again American politicians are showing their hypocritical attitudes to life and wanting to interfere with the lives of their citizens. Minnesota, a state famous for being freezing cold and.... um, not a lot else, are now planning to force ISPs to block all online gambling sites. Minnesota orders block of online gambling sites In an effort to block online gambling sites from Minnesota residents, the Minnesota Department of Public Safety Alcohol and Gaming Division (AGED) has asked 11 national and regional telephone and Internet Service Providers to prohibit Minnesota-based computers from accessing nearly 200 online gaming sites. In an announcement made Wednesday, the AGED said written notification of this request has been served to AT&T Internet Services, Charter Communications, Comcast Cable, Direct TV, Dish Network, Embarq, Sprint/Nextel, Frontier Communications, Qwest, Verizon Wireless and Wildblue Communications on Monday. When asked why AGED was seeking to block online gam...