Microgaming’s late Friday announcement that it has pulled the software licence of the Linx Media online gambling group on doubts regarding the company’s solvency has been followed by extensive forum discussion and a company announcement on the relevant internet websites.

The Linx announcement reads:

“The Linx Media Group has today announced that it is seeking to put its businesses into liquidation and will cease trading with immediate effect. As yet, the Linx Media Group does not know how long this process will take, but it will provide updates on the situation as and when information casino news becomes available and when liquidators are appointed.”

A further comment from the company said:

“It is with great regret that we make this announcement. I appreciate the concern and frustration that this will inflict on the Eurolinx, BetOnBet, and Linx Casino player community.

“Affected account holders are those individuals who have agreed to a contractual relationship with the Linx Media Group through Eurolinx, BetOnBet and Linx Casino.

“All available player funds are held by these businesses. As soon as we have information on how to lodge claims with the liquidators, we will communicate this via www.eurolinx.com, www.BetOnBet.com and www.linxcasino.com.”

Players on the Casinomeister and 2plus2 forums resurrected the Tusk incident in which an Australian online casino and poker group went into liquidation owing what was believed to be millions of dollars worth of obligations that liquidators are still sorting out. Some players posted that they had tens of thousands of dollars in their Linx accounts, indicating that the Linx affair could be of similar gravity.

In the Tusk Investment Corporation debacle last year, six online casinos and 28 online poker rooms were involved in the business failure.

A poster at the 2plus2 forum summarised the likely sequence of events going forward, based on his Tusk experience and once liquidators are appointed: “In our case they contacted us per e-mail, it took a little over a month… then you will need to submit a claim (takes like 10 min to fill out).” From there, patience is required as liquidators sort through the financial and player accounts to arrive at a fair distribution of what monies can be realised from the remaining assets of the company.

The poker operations of the Linx group operated on the Microgaming Poker Network, around ninth in size on the Internet with an average daily count of real money ring game players of just over 1 750. Other sites on the network include 32 Red Poker, Betway, Canbet, Carlos Poker, Cool Hand Poker, Gnuf, Intertops Poker, Nordic Bet, PokerTime, PokerWize, Spin Palace, and Unibet.

Linx Media launched its latest online casino venture, Linx Casino.com only four months ago. The personalities behind the Linx Media group are at present unknown, but it has offices in Malta, indicating that it is perhaps licensed in that jurisdiction.

If this is the case, the LGA licensing authority will no doubt soon face questions on what arrangements regarding security for player funds (such as ringfencing of mandatory company deposits) are demanded as a licensing condition, and how much those deposits might bring to the liquidator’s calculations.

The initial program for the best casinos on iGaming Asia Congress, taking place from 23-25 February 2010 at the Grand Hyatt at City of Dreams in Macau, is now available online gambling.

The agenda reflects the key cultural and operational challenges of doing business in Asia, and the innovative business models that are emerging in response to regulatory uncertainties in the internet gambling region.

Topics will include:

* Capitalising on Live Dealer innovations

* Developing an Asian-centric product base - What game content has proven successful elsewhere?

* Achieving the best player and product mix to minimize risk and maximize profit

* Cross-marketing of databases and games

* Debating the future of sports betting monopolies

* Evaluating the market for casual gaming and e-sports

* Improving player management, communication and education

* Managing customer service and call centres in Asia

* Creating customer loyalty programmes and devising innovative and competitive bonus schemes

* Attracting finance for and setting up an online gaming business in Asia

* Special jurisdiction round-tables for off-the-record discussions with market and legal experts

The program also features two in-depth pre-conference master classes on Marketing and Payments, on Tuesday 23 February.

Just on 1am Vegas time Tuesday, Day 6 of the World Series of Poker Main Event came to a close after starting at noon the day before and playing casinos through a gruelling five levels. Along the way 121 players had their hopes of WSOP fame and wealth dashed as they were eliminated, reducing the Day 6 starting numbers from 185 to only 64 players left in the race.

Two-and-a-half hours into Day 6, forty players had already fallen by the wayside.

The chip leader going into Day 6, South African plumbing supplies salesman Warren Zackey, is way back in the field, having seen his 4.87 million starting stack dwindle to 1.41 million by late afternoon.

Leading the field now is outsider and little known Darvin Moon on an almost 10 million stack, pursued by Billy Kopp around 8.25 million and dangerman Phil Ivey, who has played a measured, strategic competition and gambling, steadily growing his stack to almost 6.5 million despite the occasional setback.

Departing the race early on Day 6 were John Monnette, Joe Serock, Dag Palovic, Thierry van den Berg, Eric Cloutier, Blair Hinkle, Kasper Cordes, Matt Affleck, Nasr El Nasr, Theo Tran, and at one stage chip leader in this main event, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier. Also out are Hamid Nourafchan, J.C. Tran, 2005 Main Event champ Joe Hachem and 2008 Main Event winner Peter Eastgate, along with David Benyamine, Noah Boeken, Kenny Tran and one of the only two women still in the running at the beginning of the day, Nichoel Peppe, who hit the rail late in the day in 75th position, leaving Leo Margets as the sole representative of the fairer sex left in the field, with a stack of 3.4 million.

Players to watch going into Day 6 include Moon, Kopp and Phil Ivey, but Ludovic Lacay has had a generally good showing and must be regarded as a threat at position five with 6 million in chips. Antonio “The Magician” Esfandiari is also strongly placed at around 5.6 million just behind Lacay. Dennis Phillips, the sole remaining competitor from last year’s main event final table, is on 2.3 million. Still in contention are formidable gambling players like Tom Schneider, Blair Rodman, Joe Sebok, Antoine Saout, Jeff Schulman, Eugene Katchalov, Fabrice Soulier and Prahlad Friedman.

Former main event champion Joe Hachem had some hard things to say about the general standard of players at this year’s main event, comments that were widely publicised in an Associated Press interview with the outspoken Australian.

He was critical of the new brand of extremely aggressive poker players who seem to want to gamble all their chips on every hand in the main event, characterising them as “knowing nothing about poker” and “idiots”, which is unlikely to go down well.

Elaborating on his disparaging remarks, Hachem said: “We’re playing for one of the biggest prizes in history and they’re getting … five hundred million blinds in there with second pair. To me, the reason I’m upset is because it’s disrespectful. We’re playing in the world series, we’re not just having fun at a local home game. These guys are pushing chips around like it’s nothing.”

Hachem added: “Look, their style may be the way they play on the Internet and that’s what they’ve got to do because they can open up another tournament every 10 seconds.

“It’s fine, right, but you’re playing here, you got so much time, you got so much going for you and these guys just want to go to war every hand.

“That’s why a crazy Internet kid is very unlikely to win one of these things,” the former champion concluded.

Unofficial Top Ten chip counts at the end of the day were:

Darvin Moon 9,745,000
Billy Kopp 8,245,000
Phil Ivey 6,345,000
Steven Begleiter 6,315,000
Ludovic Lacay 5,965,000
Antonio Esfandiari 5,610,000
Tommy Vedes 5,430,000
Antoine Saout 5,195,000
Ben Lamb 4,975,000
Nick Maimone 4,900,000

Average stack is currently 3,044,063.

A nineteen year old man is in police custody after arriving nude at a US casino and claiming he was an Arnold Schwartzenegger doppelganger just arrived from the future.

Sean Smith’s Terminator adventure came to an abrupt end when he was tasered and arrested after resisting a police officer called to the US Stateline gambling club on the Californian and Nevada border. He was jailed on charges of indecent exposure and resisting a police officer, SlashFilm reports.

Smith was earlier seen running on the highway, but when ordered to stop by the police he peeled off into the casino. He assured the officer that he was the character Terminator from the popular sci-fi film franchise, before admitting that he had taken LSD and marijuana.

Smith was transported to a local area hospital and later booked at Douglas County Jail.

The British government’s Sports Minister, Gerry Sutcliffe, has reacted to fears regarding the danger of gambling corruption in sport by setting up an advisory panel headed by former Liverpool football chief executive Rick Parry, reports the Daily Telegraph.

“I am delighted that Rick Parry has agreed to lead this vitally important work,” said Sutcliffe. “His expertise in the nation’s most high profile sport, along with that of the other panel members, will give this project the impetus it needs to tackle sports betting corruption head-on.

“We cannot be complacent and need to act now to prevent this becoming a real threat to the integrity of sport.

“There are some complex issues involved and this is by no means an easy task, but I have great confidence in the panel and I look forward to hearing the recommendations.”

Traditional bookmakers, betting exchanges, the police, supporters groups as well as officials from racing and football are represented on the panel, which will make recommendations to the minister within the next six months.

“I am confident that we can build on the work already done to ensure we have the toughest possible approach to corruption - protecting and preserving the reputation of sport,” said Parry.

Previous football betting scares have recently been topped by a possible gambling irregularity on the first round of Wimbledon tennis games, raising fresh fears about the probity of top-flight tennis, and the need to stamp out any corruption in sport.

The government’s panel will address issues concerning the integrity of sport, with particular reference to the rise in new formats of sports betting.

Telegraph Sport reports that the government has concerns about the ability of the Gambling Commission to investigate allegations of match-fixing, and the new panel is intended to bolster the official response to the issue.

The ability of online betting firms, equipped with sophisticated software capable of flagging suspicious betting patterns, to help in the fight against corruption is now widely respected, with several incidents across a range of sports being initially identified and passed on to sport integrity units. This capability constitutes a useful weapon in the fight against corruption and will no doubt feature in the panel’s deliberations.

Mark Davies, managing director of Betfair, said: “We have a memorandum of understanding with the Tennis Integrity Unit which allows them to see patterns of all the betting which takes place on our site and we alerted them to this [the recent Wimbledon incident]. They can make a judgment whether there is something more sinister in this or whether it is just a question of people being aware of a player who was already significantly underrated carrying an injury that meant that he was likely to lose.”

The panel will assess rules relating to sports betting, examine ways of improving communication of suspicious betting patterns between bookmakers and governing bodies, and delivering better education of athletes. They will also consider whether some bets should be forbidden.

The Telegraph opines that the panel is certain to see some friction, with racing and football both pressing for bookmakers to make a financial contribution towards integrity issues in exchange for running markets on their sports. There is also tension between the traditional bookmaking industry and online betting exchanges such as Betfair.

The World Poker Tour has announced 12 stops in its Season 8 schedule, which starts at the Bellagio in Las Vegas with the Bellagio Cup V on July 13 2009 and ends back at that venue on April 17th with the massive casinos $25 000 buy-in WPT World Championship.

The schedule also shows the usual WPT stops at Bay 101 in San Jose, California; the Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles; Beau Rivage in Biloxi; the Borgata in Atlantic City; Commerce Casino in Los Angeles and Foxwoods Resort in Mashantucket, Connecticut.

Joining the tour as a new stop is the inaugural Hollywood Poker Open in Lawrenceburg, Indiana where on top of the $10 000 buy-in main event there will be three non-televised WPT tournaments with buy-ins ranging from $3 000 to $5 000.

Season 8 will be filmed in High Definition and broadcast on Fox Sports Net (FSN) in the United States.

Jeffrey ‘Iceman’ Lisandro (43) has continued his remarkably successful run at the 40th Anniversary World Series of Poker by winning his third bracelet this year - a feat matched previously by only four others in the 40 year history of the world’s greatest poker extravaganza. The last WSOP player to make this benchmark achievment was Phil Ivey in 2002.

‘Iceman’s” previous victories this year were in Event 16 ($124 959) and Event 37 ($431 656).

The Aussie-born but Italian resident Lisandro defeated all before him in the 315-player, $792 500 prize pool Event 44 - the $2 500 buy-in Seven Card Razz competition to claim the $188 370 main prize and his third bracelet this year, bringing his career bracelet haul to 4 and total winnings to $3 957 388 in a track record that includes 9 first place finishes in major international tourneys and 46 cashes.

The current win positions Lisandro among the all-time greats of stud poker with a bracelet in each discipline - stud high, stud eight or better, and Razz.

With a 2 to 1 chip lead going into the final table of the event, the poker ace demolished his opposition, taking out four of the final table players in an impressive display of cool, accomplished poker. Arrayed against Lisandro on 814 000 were Ryan Fisler (412 000), Michael Craig (343 000), Warwick Mirzikinian (271 000), Kenna James (210 000), Eric Rodawig (171 000), Steve Diano (96 000) and Allen Bari (55 000).

Going into the heads up Lisandro held the chip lead at 2 153 000, well ahead of his last opponent, the author Michael Craig on 210 000 who was at a massive disadvantage but nevertheless gave the champ a really good run for his money before being defeated and leaving with the second prize of $116 405

Event 42 - the $2 500 buy-in Mixed Games contest also concluded, with 32-year-old American poker pro and book author Jerrod Ankenman (he co-wrote “The Mathematics of Poker” with two-time WSOP gold bracelet winner Bill Chen) taking the honours, his first WSOP bracelet and the first prize of $241 637.

The event attracted 412 entries and recorded a prize pool of $947 600.

Ankenman started final table play with over half-a-million chips more than his nearest rival, Jon ‘Pearljammer’ Turner (591 000) who was followed by Russian ace Sergey Altbregin (387 000), Eric Crain (355 000), Jeff Tims (260 000), Chris Klodnicki (109 000), Dario Alioto (103 000) and Layne Flack (60 000).

The surprise player was Klodnicki who despite starting with a relatively low stack managed to hang in and make third place and a $97 897 payday before being bundled out by Ankenman to set up a late night heads up between Ankenman and Altbregin. Although the duo started the action on a more-or-less even footing, it was not long before Ankenman began to dominate - especially in the Omaha 8 action and later the Stud game, with Ankenman cheered on from the rail to victory by his co-author Chen.

Altbregin had the consolation of a second prize of $149 342.

The win gives Ankenman - a real ‘math’ player - his first gold bracelet, outranking his previous 7 firsts in major tournaments and 36 cashes, which have given him career earnings of $807 531….so far!

Event 41 - the $5 000 buy-in No Limit Hold ‘Em Shootout, which offered a prize pool of $1 316 000 from an entry field of 280 has also been decided, with Hungarian player Peter Traply (22) winning against exceptionally aggressive competition to collect his first gold bracelet and the first prize of $348 728.

Traply, who is a young pro player from Budapest, took just under five hours of final table action to emerge the winner in a five-player thriller that had the railbirds cheering. At the death it was Traply vs. Andrew Lichtenberger in the heads up, with a recount proving necessary at one point when Traply thought he had won, but it transpired that Lichtenberger still had 250 000….and went on to briefly seize the chip lead.
Playing a masterly game, Traply fought off the attack and went on to win, claiming a first ever WSOP bracelet for his country and ending a WSOP run in which he had not yet cashed. Lichtenberg collected a well-earned check for $215 403 as the runner-up in great event.

“I feel amazing,” said Traply. “This is one of my poker dreams and it came true.” The Hungarian paid tribute to his final table opponents, Danny Wong, Nasr El Nasr, Maxim Lykov and Lichtenberger, saying it had been a tough table to beat.

Event 43 - the $1 000 buy-in Seniors No Limit Hold ‘Em World Championship predictably attracted a massive field of 2 707 entrants, generating a prize pool of $2 463 700.

The event culminated in a final table comprised of Barry Bounds, Dan DeLatorre, Robert Beck, Michael Morusty, Richard McCall, Art Duncan, Charles Simon, Michael Davis and Scott Buller, and although he was one of the lower stacks at the start Michael Davis was the last man standing after playing smart, often low-profile poker but gaining ground steadily.

Davis entered the short but exciting heads up with Scott Buller, who had earlier looked like the man who would prevail and started heads up play with the chip lead. But in the last quarter hour of heads up play it was Davis who took the lead and called the shots to win the game.

Davis, who told reporters that he had just sold his business, picked up a check for $437 358 and a bracelet for his time and trouble, leaving Buller with a second place payday of $268 507.

The sophisticated software systems at major online betting exchange Betfair have again proved their value to the wider gambling industry by alerting tennis watchdog officials to suspicious betting action.

The Times tennis blog reported on the incident, which involved a first-round Wimbledon match Tuesday between 109th-ranked Wayne Odesnik of the United States and 30th-ranked Jurgen Melzer of Austria.

Betfair.com alerted authorities after the betting exchange staff noticed an unusual spike in action.

A Betfair spokesman said that the online gambling site saw six times the wagers it would normally see on such a match. “Betfair received about $980 000 in wagers on the match,” he said. “The average for a first-round match at Wimbledon is less than $163 000.”

Odesnik, who lost to Melzer in the first round of Wimbledon, said he has no connection with an unnamed European online gambling site. Odesnik said he had never been approached about fixing a match. “I know at Wimbledon they have people in betting shops but I have no control over it,” he said. “I’m from the U.S. and if they have been betting on a European site I have no connection with that at all.”

The international tennis authorities are sensitive to the dangers of rigged games and corruption in the sport following the late 2007 gambling scandal in pro tennis following an investigation of matches involving Nikolay Davydenko.

The UK’s Daily Mail reports that a single bet of GBP 365 000 is what sounded the alarm for Betfair and the Tennis Integrity Unit: “Reporting what they termed ‘extreme’ gambles on a relatively obscure encounter, they were alerted by a dramatic hardening of the odds in favour of Melzer before and during the match,” the newspaper reported.

Paddy Power and Ladbrokes, two other online betting sites, stopped taking bets an hour before the match began, citing the unusual amount bet on a 3-0 result.

Betfair spokesman, Mark Davies, said he doesn’t suspect any wrongdoing, but the serious money backing Melzer to win in straight sets was enough to prompt an investigation. The Austrian won 6-1, 6-4, 6-2.

After the match, when asked about the suspicious betting, Odesnik said he knew nothing of it, according to the Guardian newspaper. “It’s only my second time playing here, I’m young, I’m here to play,” he said. “I’m here with my coach and friends and I would never do anything like that to jeopardise my future.”

The Guardian also reported that Odesnik had been spotted the night before in a London pub (the player said he was there “for dinner”). But Odesnik confirmed he was not fully fit. “I had a little bit of an injury in my last grass-court tournament this year,” he said.

Independent statistics show G-Tech subsidiary outperforms all non US facing poker networks

G-Tech subsidiary Boss Media made some strong claims for its International Poker Network this week, claiming that the online poker site outperforms all other non-US-facing poker networks. The company cites numbers from the independent poker statistics portal PokersiteScout.com as the basis for its boast.

Since the acquisition by GTECH last year (see previous InfoPowa reports) Boss Media has continued to achieve significant increases in revenue across all products. The International Poker Network (IPN) continued to grow during the last quarter (Q4 2008 v Q3 2008) through strong player acquisition supported by the launch of the grand Euro 1 000 000 guaranteed tournament and recently launched Bad Beat Jackpot, which currently stands at Euro 200 000.

With a 14 percent increase in active daily players, 22 percent increase in maximum concurrent players and a 28 percent growth in daily registrations the IPN was the fastest growing independent European network during 2008.

Commenting on the achievement, Rahul Parekh, CEO of Boss Media says: “I’m delighted with our progress. Following the acquisition of Boss Media by G-Tech in Q2 2008, we recognised that we had some challenges and opportunities to address. Whilst we still have more work ahead of us, we’re heading firmly in the right direction.”

Continuing the success with Svenska Spel and Austrian Lotteries, Boss Media became one of the first to launch an online poker network in Italy in cooperation with Lottomatica Scomesse, one of the world’s leading gaming operators. This makes Boss Media the only European supplier of poker for 4 poker networks with more than 100 000 players using the software each day.

Björn Lundsten, Poker Product Manager, says “With our substantial increase in technical resources and capacity well underway, we expect to surge forward on this positive path. Our licensees and lottery customers can look forward to the benefits of our investments in the coming months”.

Boss can look forward to further growth in player liquidity as it heads into 2009 - late last year the online gambling software company Cryptologic announced that its online poker clients will merge with Boss Media during the first quarter of 2009, leaving Cryptologic to concentrate on its core business of games and software development.

Independent survey will look at how online betting experiences differ across different cultures

The online gambling group Betfair has commissioned another interesting and independent study of factors influencing Internet gambling, hiring cxpartners to look at how online betting experiences differ across different cultures.

The outcomes of the qualitative study will enable Betfair to tailor its gambling products and services to users across the world, making its product portfolio more usable and appropriate to different target audiences, reports Netimperative this week.

The manager responsible for user experience at Betfair, Louise Croft Baker, said: “The way in which people bet online differs, according to a number of factors; language, culture and regulation all affect the online experience. By conducting usability studies in a number of countries we hope to understand further how these habits differ and to use this intelligence to make sure Betfair is providing the most relevant service for such a diverse customer base.”

The cxpartners research will be carried out by a network of agencies across a number of countries over a two week period.

Giles Colborne, Managing Director at cxpartners commented: “Our experience of conducting these kind of studies is the perfect fit for Betfair as we have a proven track record of conducting qualitative usability research for organisations in the leisure industries. This study will help Betfair to further understand its customers’ needs and in doing so create opportunities to make its services more relevant to users across the globe. This is a significant contract for us and we’re very much looking forward to seeing the outcome.”