"The company is placing significant importance on acquisitive as well as organic growth. Centrebet recently appointed an adviser for the purpose of assessing acquisition opportunities and is actively exploring acquisition targets," Chief Executive Con Kafataris told shareholders at the company's annual general meeting.

Barry Coulter, Chairman of International All Sports, owner of IASbet and Canbet, said at the company's general meeting that confidentiality agreements have been signed and that the board named a Sale Committee to seriously consider any genuine offer.

"This move combines all our Backgammon players in one place. GameAccount offers leading browser-based Backgammon software with a particular strength in cash games, tournaments and localisation for European markets. This deal gives our players access to one of the largest Backgammon communities in Europe equipped with the best-value tournaments, and fits with our strategy of consolidating our supplier base to a smaller number of strategic partners and providing our customers with the best possible experience as a result," said Paul Roberts, Group Director of Products at Sportingbet.

The sports betting operator decided that in the current competitive global sports betting licensing market it will not renew its licence with the Alderney Gambling and Control Commission.

Peter Mandelson called one more time the United States to open their online gambling market to foreign companies instead of trying to compensate European firms for shutting them out. "What we really need is for the legislation to be put right and for foreign operators to stop being excluded and discriminated against in the way the present U.S. legislation does," he told Reuters.

The service developed in collaboration with mobile technology specialist Mfuse allows Centrebet users to check the latest odds as well as to place bets from their mobile phones.

The HedgeStreet Exchange, which listed binary option contracts on forex and commodities before suspending operations at the end of September, has total liabilities of $1m and operating costs of $325,000 per month.

The world's largest betting exchange announced the development of a new core betting engine which allows for increased transaction volumes at reduced costs. The new Flywheel engine processes 100,000 transactions per second while reducing the cost per transaction by 200 times.

The Association of Tennis Professionals also established that from now on tennis players must notify officials within 48 hours if they hear any information about gambling or match fixing.

Terry Lanni, CEO of MGM Mirage, and Gary Loveman, CEO of Harrah's Entertainment, predicted that online poker will be legalized in the United States in the next two years.

While the Internet Media Entertainment & Gaming Association called the proposal from Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick to ban online gambling in the state an unconstitutional infringement of Americans' digital civil rights, the House Judiciary Committee heard a testimony on the need for the United States to change their policy related to internet gambling.

The UK betting firm told Reuters the French offer to open up its pool-betting market while keeping its fixed-odds market closed was inadequate.

The British bookmaker is believed to have approached Brian Wallace and John O’Reilly, respectively Finance Director and Head of eGaming at the rival betting firm, about the vacant CEO post.

The UK bookmaker posted a trading update for the four months ended October 31 showing a 84 per cent increase in profit, with a strong contribution from telephone high rollers offsetting a below target performance in the UK retail segment.

The Austrian bookmaker reported a 20 per cent increase in total revenues for the third quarter 2007 to EUR 86.2 million, with sports betting revenues up 15 per cent to EUR 47.3 million and a sports betting margin of 8.5% (Q2 2006: 7.2%). Reduced marketing expenses, which in Q3 2007 were down by 44% to EUR 29.1 million, allowed Bwin to narrow its loss after tax for the quarter to EUR 5.1 million, compared to a loss of EUR 22.6 million for the same period the previous year.

For the year ended 30 June 2007, the Australian betting firm reported a loss of over $3 million, as the income generated by the betting activities proved to be insufficient to cover the operating expenses, which were funded out of the company’s working capital.

Citadel Rapid Bank Transfer is a revolutionary payment solution that allows consumers to instantly and securely pay for goods and services using local bank transfers, with real time notification of funds receipt to the merchant. The service, which is accomplished by the consumer logging into their own internet banking system and sending a payment to a Citadel owned bank account, presently supports real time payments from Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Mexico, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, Spain and United Kingdom.

According to the Telegraph, the auditor told the UK Government the racing consortium offer to buy the Tote for £320 million is too low and any deal at such price risks to be blocked by the European Community for contravening state aid rules.

Just ahead of a congressional hearing that will examine US policies in relation to internet gaming and while a CBS4 investigation revealed how Americans are still able to place their bets online using a credit card as a method of deposit, the Center for Regulatory Effectiveness said the proposed UIGEA regulations are in violation of the Paperwork Reduction Act.

The Harlem-born Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee said after a meeting with Antigua's representatives that the United States are wrong in trying to withdraw gambling from their WTO commitments.