iGaming Business – Ralph Topping, the chief executive of bookmaker William Hill, has revealed he is opposed to the “clustering” of betting shops in the UK and has called on MPs to take action before the situation starts to “alienate” communities. According to the Daily Mail newspaper, Topping said that he understands why people have objected to new betting shops opening on their local high street and claims to have seen “stark” examples of their direct impact. Topping also suggested handing licensing authorities more power to block such shops sprouting up if the regulators identified a damaging “cumulative impact”. “I’m…

There’s some exciting European Soccer coming up this weekend with a full round of Premier League fixtures to look forward to. The action gets underway on Saturday as Liverpool host Arsenal at Anfield in the early kick-off. Brendan Rodgers’ side will be looking to avenge the defeat they suffered at the Emirates in November and gain ground on the visitors in the title race. Elsewhere, Chelsea welcome Newcastle to London as Jose Mourinho’s quest to bring the Premier League trophy back to Stamford Bridge continues. On Sunday, Champions League hopefuls Tottenham and Everton clash at White Hart Lane, while former…

A Pennsylvania law on sports pool betting that took effect in recent days has triggered a pregame tussle between a lawmaker and the state police over whether certain organizations can legally operate such betting pools on the Super Bowl. Sen. Lisa Boscola, D-Northampton, wants to overturn the call by state police that the betting pools remain illegal under federal law, arguing that the legislation signed into law in November was fashioned to get around a sports betting prohibition in the federal Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act. She wrote in a letter to Gov. Tom Corbett that the state police were…

Gambling 911 – A new bitcoin-only sportsbook made its debut smack in the middle of Times Square this past week, advertising on the Reuters interactive billboard. Coinbet.cc is one of the newest online gambling sites to enter the lucrative bitcoin Web gaming market.  This appears as if it will become a pretty significant trend as we move forward into 2014. But it could prove to be a dangerous one as well. Americas Cardroom, one of the largest online poker networks still catering to citizens of North America, recently implemented a bitcoin platform to its expanding list of cashier methods, but…

Mancunian Matters – Stockport barber Alex Wooliscroft is fighting back against his severe gambling habit by campaigning to get himself banned from every bookmakers in Britain. Father of one Alex, 26 is begging every bookie to stop him coming into their betting shops after blowing £25,000 in eight years on computerised roulette machines. Already Alex has handed photographs of himself to bookmakers near his home in Stockport urging them to refuse him admittance after he became addicted to playing the ‘fixed odds’ terminals. Today he began a round of TV and radio interviews in a further bid to make his self-imposed…

iGaming Business – UK bookmaker Coral has been named as the title sponsor of the 2014 UK Open darts tournament. The event, sanctioned by the Professional Darts Corporation, will run from March 7-9 and take place at the Butlins Minehead holiday resort following a move from its decade-long home of Bolton. The tournament will be shown live on UK digital-terrestrial television channel ITV4. “We are delighted to strengthen our relationship with the PDC through another major darts sponsorship and one which, thanks to its format, promises to thrill sports fans and appeal hugely to Coral betting shop and online customers,”…

Belfast Telegraph – Alarm bells should be ringing for Irish League football. Betting was suspended on two recent games in Scotland’s lower leagues, a level of football on a par with the local game here. Scottish football chiefs already have anecdotal evidence of suspicious activity. Scottish FA Chief Executive Stewart Regan said: “What we are seeing is evidence of activity in the stands where individuals are commentating on matches into laptops on everything from the Lowland League to Under 17 games.” That is, to say, on matches that barely attract one man and his dog. There have also been accusations…

White label solutions provider Genting Alderney, a subsidiary of Genting International, has partnered sports betting platform provider FSB Technology to launch a mobile and online sports book. GentingBet was soft launched in October last year with a desktop and mobile version utilizing FSB’s managed sports betting solution. The branded sports book is now fully integrated into Genting Alderney’s new online platform. Gentingbet.com will become the first operator to go live with FSB’s managed service, which the firm said has been designed to help brand owners offer sports betting products to their existing customer base without having to set up and…