JAXX launched in the UK in September and the deal with Lycos follows a partnership agreement with AOL UK. "LYCOS is a high profile brand in the internet community and this deal provides a significant boost to the reach of our brand," said Mark Irvine, Managing Director of JAXX UK. "We have an established track record of building successful third party partnerships in Germany and this is a strategy we are actively exploring to build partnerships and presence in the UK."

The online payment service suspended its funding and spending operations on Monday. Customers have until May 8 to withdraw their balances free of charge.

The new product allows customers to match bets against each other at a starting price determined by an auction mechanism. "It’s early days but already the prices look very competitive compared to the traditional bookies," commented a spokesperson for the betting exchange.

While parent company Rank decided not to pay a final dividend for 2007 as the performance of its Mecca Bingo and Grosvenor Casinos operations continues to deteriorate, Blue Square reported a 34% increase in like-for-like revenues during the first 49 weeks of the year.

The online sports betting and gaming group reported a net gaming revenue (previously disclosed as gross profit) of £30.4m and a group operating profit of £4.2m for the three months ended 31 October 2007, the first quarter of the company's financial year. The strong performance was driven by the European sports betting websites, where amounts wagered were up to £169.6m from £147.5m in 2006, with a 8.8% profit margin, compared to 8.5% in 2006, and over 197,000 active customers, up 7% on 2006.

While it may take six months to have a verdict on the constitutionality of the law which in 2006 made betting exchanges illegal in Western Australia, it appears that High Court Justice Michael Kirby didn't buy into WA claims that the legislation is aimed at protecting the integrity of racing from those who bet on horses to lose. "The fight is really about what you (WA) can extract from them (Betfair) as their licence fee to operate in your state," said Justice Kirby.

Betaland.com, the sportsbook launched in Malta at the end of August 2007, generated EUR 6.5 million in turnover in its first three months of trading allowing the company to diversify away from its core casino business.

The troubled lottery and soccer betting operator said that despite its recent difficulties, core investments are performing well and the company intends to explore a return to the market in 2008.

According to French media reports, Stephane Courbit is in advanced discussion to acquire the UK licensed online bookmaker. The closing of the deal is expected to be announced in early 2008.

The company owner of Italian bookmaker Bestwin and Maltese betting exchange Livebetting has been acquired by Indian investors, who hope to replicate the company's business model combining betting with prepaid cards into the Chinese and Indian markets.

Neptune will use ISWI's SportXction system to add play-by-play wagering to its existing betting offers, which allow cruise ships as well as resort casinos to offer their customers Las Vegas style race and sports book wagering opportunities.

The spread betting firm said in a pre-close trading update that it expects to report a 53% increase in total revenues up to £85m. The company provided no details for its IG Sport and Extrabet sites.

Following the review of the online betting business, parent company Marginbet decided to focus its activities solely within the mining sector and to consider proposals for the sale of Portlandbet to interested parties.

The betting exchange and German betting shop operator said it looks forward at building the joint venture with Bwin to offer retail betting in the Spanish Province of Madrid and across Spain as further liberalization of the Spanish betting market unfolds.

For the first nine months of 2007, the websites run by Maria Holdings, including Mariabingo.com, Mariacasino.com, Carlospoker.com and Carlosplace.com had a total income of SEK 77m and an operating profit of SEK 26m, with almost 12,000 active customers in the last three months.

The account wagering service for Churchill Downs and the Youbet.com subsidiary have signed partnership agreements with mobile betting specialist Phantom Fiber, which will deliver a fully integrated solution that will allow players to view race programs and news, place bets and manage accounts.

Cyber World Group, the company behind GoldenPalace.com, pleaded guilty to charges of running an illegal betting enterprise in the Canadian province after the authorities raided the Montreal offices of the company.

Following the success of in-running place betting on jumps racing and in anticipation of the introduction of Betfair SPs next month, the betting exchange decided to extend its latest initiative to offer in-running place betting on all flat racing in Britain and Ireland.

Mattia Nicelli, Head of Ladbrokes Italy, told Reuters that the company started taking online bets and has around 800 customers betting on the site. Ladbrokes also plans to spend 100 million euros to open 62 betting shops and 51 betting kiosks in time for the Euro 2008 finals.

The online sports book operator filed a motion asking a Washington court to reconsider its prior ruling which permitted 1st Technology to seize Bodog domain names.