/ THE BRIEFING / NEWS
THE SMOKING GUN
s Rumours, gossip and scandal from the dark corridors of online gaming
PEOPLE
NEWS
SUPERMARKET SWEEP
Some operators have been bragging
about the size of bets they have been
accepting on the World Cup, with
1966-1 on England to win outright
perhaps the pick of the bunch.
Marketers’ poetic licence? Not in the
case of a number of bets placed on
Belgium recently, if rumours are to be
believed.
The story doing the rounds is
six bookies have each accepted a
€50,000 bet on the Belgians to win
the tournament at prices ranging
from 18/1 to 20/1. At the same time,
a Belgian supermarket chain realised
its offer of a free shop to customers if
their home nation wins the World Cup
could cost it a whopping €6m.
Surely this isn’t the company
hedging its bets by taking a €300,000
hit now rather than face a multi-million
Euro payout in July? Maybe we’ll never
know…
DAYLIGHT ROBBERY
As most operators were busy finalising
their plans ahead of the World Cup,
Boylesports’ management was
probably scouting for a new security
team after it failed to spot one of
its shop managers stealing around
€600,000.
It would, perhaps, be
understandable if the money had
been taken in one swoop, but this
was no one-off. No, this money was
embezzled over a 22-month period.
And accumulated over 236 separate
instances of theft. That’s two-hundred-
PADDY POWER HEAD OF
MISCHIEF TAKES UP AUS ROLE
and-thirty-six separate instances.
More than 10 a month, or two a week.
Yet it gets worse for Boylesports,
as the money wasn’t stolen in order
to fund essential medical care for a
sick relative. Nope, the stolen readies
were used to feed the employee’s
penchant for gambling – primarily with
Boylesports’ main rival Paddy Power.
Only after the light-fingered gambler
had lost around €400,000 did Paddys
decide to investigate the shop-keeper
and find out who he worked for.
Did Paddys then notify Boylesports
of its findings? We’ll leave that one to
you to work out.
FURRY GOOD OFFER
Foxy Bingo’s recent World Cup
marketing push saw the firm sign up
ex-footballer, and pie enthusiast, Neil
Ruddock as the face, back, sack and
crack of its new ‘Fur Free’ campaign. The
larger than life player is featured getting
his back waxed by Foxy who celebrated
with a memorable set of giveaways.
TSG was delighted to receive a
towel, pair of flip flops and a set of
Brazilian wax strips just in time for
summer. Who said creativity is dead in
this business?
30% 67 €3.5
MILLION
The short-term boost to
Amaya Gaming’s share price
following rumours of a merger
deal with Rational Group’s
PokerStars
W W W. E G R M A G A Z I N E . C O M
The number of complaints
the UK Advertising Standards
Authority received about
the new