iGaming Business – Online gaming operator Unibet has agreed a deal to become the official betting partner of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) mixed martial arts organisation. The deal will come into effect immediately and run for two years until 2016. The partnership will cover the UK, Ireland, Scandinavia, Belgium, Netherlands, France and Australia. Unibet will work on a range of betting offers for UFC events to support the partnership. “The UFC has really established itself as a leader in both sports and entertainment, while Unibet has managed to do the same in the gambling sector,” Unibet’s chief marketing officer…

iGaming Business – Online gaming software supplier Playtech has announced the launch of its Live Games offering across the various platforms of UK bookmaker Ladbrokes. Playtech’s Live Games will now be distributed by Ladbrokes across its platforms, with the mobile platform featuring both HTML5 and native versions for iOS and Android devices. Ladbrokes will also be able to provide an exclusively branded ‘Live’ area, a private area that Playtech said is the largest it has ever developed. In addition, Playtech said a new multi-game interface will allow customers to play three game simultaneously via a single window where games or…

iGaming Business – William Hill has launched its Android application and will include live streaming of horseracing and in-play radio as part of its mobile betting offering. The app complements the bookmaker’s iPhone version, which has been downloaded 1.5 million times, the group said. Juergen Reutter, operations director at William Hill Online, said the Android app was “a significant and important milestone in our goal. Mobile is growing phenomenally quickly and is a fantastic way to engage with our customers anytime, anywhere”. “The success of the iOS app has been breathtaking – reaching 1.5 million downloads is a very proud…

CBS – Bookmakers and organized crime members have long profited in the high-stakes world of illegal sports gambling. New Jersey is now appealing to the Supreme Court to legalize betting on games. The state hopes to collect millions. However, as CBS News’ legal analyst Jack Ford reports on “60 Minutes Sports,” the ruling won’t put the mob out of business. If it becomes legal, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has said there would be strict state oversight, much like the way it works at his state’s Atlantic City’s casinos. But Angelo Lutz, who is a legitimate businessman and restaurateur, told…

iGaming Business – The UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has order Irish bookmaker Paddy Power to withdraw an advert that offered betting odds on the outcome of the ongoing murder trial of Paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius. The decision comes after the ASA said it had received an “unprecedented” number of complaints, an amount widely reported as 5,200 individual complaints. Following the large amount of complaints, ASA chairman Lord Smith has taken the unusual step of demanding that the advertiser withdraw the advert from circulation pending the outcome of the investigation. In exceptional circumstances, ASA procedures under the Advertising Code enable…

Gaming Intelligence – Paddy Power is preparing to roll out a revamped version of its real-money sportsbook offering on Facebook, with a new version of the product set to go live in April. The Paddy Power In-Play! app first launched in August last year, making it the first sports betting app to go live on the social network. However, the operator’s managing director for online Peter O’Donovan explained that uptake of the product has been “limited” so far. “It was the first of its kind, and we continue to refine the overall product proposition to make sure it resonates with…