The Sports Bookie Blog

Today’s bookie headline news

November 29th, 2007

Here’s a quick summary of headlines from today’s news that involve some of our top recommended bookies.

First up we have Paddy Power, our favourite Irish bookie courting controvesy yet again.

Paddy Power backs gay rugby tournament
Irish bookmaker PaddyPower.com has given €100,000 to sponsor an international gay rugby tournament, being held at Dublin University next June. Paddy Power’s marketing director Ken Robertson said the event was highly appropriate for their brand, before adding this was not the type of company that does what people might expect a bookmaker to do.

“This might raise a few eyebrows when it comes to town, but we’re not scared of that.” He also highlighted the fact that the gay and lesbian market represented an important sector of consumer society.

Richie Whyte, the Bingham Cup’s tournament director, said he was delighted at the deal. “Paddy Power has an innovative and risk taking approach to the market.

“Having an international brand throwing their weight behind it represents a huge development for the tournament particularly in terms of developing mainstream interest. We expect our partnership to enhance an already great tournament and help to make it the biggest and best tournament yet.”

Then we see more signs of the ongoing expansion programme Ladbrokes Bookmaker is undertaking.

Ladbrokes begins Italian online betting
Bookmaker Ladbrokes revealed that it had started taking online bets from Italian customers. Mattia Nicelli, Ladbrokes’ head of Italian business, said the company now had around 800 people from the country placing wagers online.

…and finally PartyGaming, the company that owns Gamebookers (historically one of the more innovative European online sportsbooks) is ducking and weaving a bit in the open markets.

Garber cancels share sale
Mitch Garber, PartyGaming’s chief executive, has cancelled a planned sale of his company. Over the past six months Garber has sold over nine million shares in the gaming firm, and currently holds 8.75 million shares.