The regulatory auditing and testing agency eCOGRA has been selected by leading Stoke-on-Trent based online gambling group bet365 to serve as its "third party regulatory testing and certification partner".

Companies are increasingly recognising the value of partnerships that will oversee and conduct independent specialist audit and testing procedures to streamline the often complicated and varying matrix of national regulatory requirements in newly legislated, as well as existing, markets in Europe.

Bet365, as one of the world’s largest online gambling groups, identified the need to appoint a strategic partner that would provide it with quality and cost-effective compliance and audit services ensuring each aspect of its business is in sync with the myriad of legislative requirements adopted by the various markets it operates in or intends to enter.

eCOGRA’s 17025:2005 testing laboratory accreditation by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) and extensive mix of professional Big 4 audit firm, IT and industry experience, ideally places the firm to perform compliance and audit services across the diverse spread of regulation and testing principles and methodologies being adopted throughout Europe.

Andrew Beveridge, the chief executive of eCOGRA, welcomed the appointment saying: "eCOGRA specialises in providing services to tier 1 software suppliers and operators, and bet365 certainly meets this requirement. eCOGRA looks forward to assisting bet365 with future certification endeavours while ensuring the group remains compliant in the markets in which it currently operates."

Steven Degg, regulatory compliance and information officer of bet365 commenting on the appointment said: "bet365 selected eCOGRA based on the depth of skills, experience of their resources and a successful track record in providing compliance services to other leading operators and software suppliers. Bet365 successfully submitted challenging Spanish and Danish certifications in partnership with eCOGRA, and look forward to working with eCOGRA as we expand into new markets going forward."

About eCOGRA

Founded in 2003 to set and improve operational standards and player safety in the online gambling space, eCOGRA has amassed a wealth of experience in implementing international best practice standards and requirements and ensuring these are maintained through regular review and monitoring.

Over 200 of the most established and successful internet gambling websites are accredited and policed by the independent, London-based company, which is staffed by professional auditors with Big 4 auditing firm experience, information system experts and responsible gambling specialists.

The company is an accredited testing agency with several jurisdictions, and has been awarded the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) ISO approval ISO/IEC 17025:2005 : General Requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories. This accreditation is one of the quality assurance requirements for approval as a testing agency in various European remote gambling licensing jurisdictions.

About bet365

Bet365 is a world leading eGaming company and a driving force in the development of Enterprise and Internet technology. Established in 2000 from a portakabin in Stoke-on-Trent, bet365 has grown into a global operation that employs over 2,000 people, is live in 17 languages and delivers an unrivalled online experience to over 9 million customers worldwide.

Giving its development teams the freedom to innovate is key to bet365’s success. The company has worked hard to cultivate a culture of innovation where good ideas and a techno-entrepreneurial attitude are encouraged and rewarded. Today bet365 continues to push technological boundaries and break new ground in software innovation.

The Gauselmann Group is a German gambling and gaming giant; they have taken a huge leap of faith to get into the British gambling market. Their target is the UK amusements market with the purchase of Praesepe from private equity firm – Marwyn Management Partners. Gauselmann is best known for their Merkur brand, and it is this division that will take control of Praesepe’s 159 adult gaming centres, nine bingo clubs, five family entertainment centres, and Beacon Bingo online. The new company vehicle for this is Merkur Casino UK.

The current Merkur Casino compliment includes 240 arcades throughout Germany, and also has venues in Central and Eastern Europe, the Netherlands and Spain. There is also Merkur Win outlets in Italy. They are best known for their supply of slots, AWPs, Server-based gambling systems and VTLs. The vvast majority of employees is based in Germany; this is a staff compliment of somewhere around 6300.

The Chief Financial Officer of Gauselmann – Ulrich Wuseke – now becomes chairman of Merkur Casino UK. Nick Harding who is the founder of Praesepe, remains in the CEO role of the new company – at least for the time being. Wuseke commented that Praesepe has a good reputation in Britain across the markets it serves. They own the largest land bingo club in Europe and the UK, as well as the Crystal Rooms in London’s Leicester Square; this venue is world-famous.

At the moment the merge is examining a progressive philosophy which is where their investment efforts will take place; they believe they have a unique approach to gambling entertainment in the UK. They also have Blueprint Gaming on-board – another UK subsidiary – these people develop both games and devices. This means that Gauselmann now has a complete range of products to cover the UK market.

Gauselmann is one of the most inspiring business stories in the gambling/gaming industry; the company was launched in 1957, and fast grew into a €1.7bn internationally recognised enterprise. It is a business with back-bone which has survived the double-dip recession, and the Praesepe/Gauselman merge is set to cement this company into UK gaming history.

We mentioned the fact that the largest bingo club in Britain is also part of the Praesepe/Gauselman deal, so, feel that now might be an appropriate time to mention a little bingo aside. The future of UK bingo is also about to change, with the resignation of Paul Talboys from the Bingo Association. Miles Baron is the new appointee, and hopefully with this new blood will come some radical changes in what we believe we have seen become a stagnating representative body for bingo.

Bingo has been enjoying a new breath of fresh air online for the past ten or more years, and we would like to see the same happening in the land version of this game. Miles Baron takes up the post today – Monday 8th October – he has a wealth of industry experience, after leading as Sales and Marketing Director of Mecca Bingo since November 2006, and is no stranger to the Association.

William Hill might be one of the biggest bookmaking brands in the UK, but when they heard that the USA might be making online gambling legal in the near future, they were madly keen to get into this market. First off, gambling online will start intrastate, and this means individual states will be responsible for making their own laws in this regard.

One of the first at the starting gate for state-legislation was Nevada, and William Hill took a very big gamble by investing $53.25 million in three Nevada gambling concerns. These acquisitions are; Brandywine Bookmaking, American Wagering Inc and Club Cal Neva Satellite Race and Sportsbook.

It appears as though this gamble has paid off and will continue to pay off big time, as the need to supplement state coffers through additional tax revenue schemes, spreads like wild-fire throughout the USA. Nevada state administration has ensured that they are now legal to offer online gambling licenses, and William Hill is one of the first to be granted a license from the Nevada Gaming Commission.

William Hill has a wealth of experience in the online gambling business; this brand is not only about High Street retail betting shops. They have been offering super services online for a good deal of time in the UK. The UK as we know has a well-developed infrastructure for the Internet gambling industry. They offer online sports betting, online bingo, a casino, virtual gaming such as Rugby Union, snooker and more; poker, financials, skill, mobile, Arcade and Vegas-type games. UK customers have developed an eclectic and sophisticated taste for these types of games, so, William Hill is well placed in Nevada to offer a superior online service.

It made good sense for this brand to get into the US at the very beginning, as getting a foothold in the US market while legislation is under review, is the way to make sure they get in on the ground-floor with a chance to win. Online gambling was extant in the USA prior to 2006; however, the promulgation of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Act (UIGEA) changed all of this. So, essentially the USA is six years behind the UK in relationship to this virtual industry – we all know just how fast technology advances, so, they are way behind.

This is a significant step by William Hill as the ban is expected to be relaxed in the future state-by-state. To date we have no idea if UIGEA will change Federally, but according to Federal Government. It is up to each state to decide whether they wish online gambling to be made legal.

The acquisitions of the three Nevada-based gambling concerns were dependent on the outcome of the William Hill license applications being granted. Now that this has taken place, we can expect it to be all systems go. Obviously the sooner they get websites up and running, the sooner they can expect a return on their investment.

There are some fabulous wealth creation ideas and schemes doing the rounds on the World Wide Web. While some are scams, most are pretty genuine, it’s just how you look at the scheme that makes the difference. We all know that knowledge is key to success, so the more we know about any wealth-creating scheme, the better informed we will be. However, if you are prepared to take a gamble, and don’t feel like working for your money, why not take a look at online gambling? There is definitely money to be made, but you must realise that luck counts!

Online gambling – that means over the Internet – is a mainstream industry today. It is regulated by authoritative bodies such as eCogra, and others. Many online gambling firms have gone the IPO route, and are listed on major stock exchanges. The London Stock exchange probably listing the lions’ share of these firms, as the UK is where the online gambling industry is also the most mature.
We find names such as William Hill, Virgin, Stan James, Victor Chandler, Betfair, Paddy Power, Gala, Mecca and Bet365 online, and we find many more too. We find websites powered by major movers and shakers in the online gaming industry; brands such as Microgaming, Playtech and Net Entertainment, and if you think we are scamming you, let’s take a look at the facts.

All three of these software brands operate massive networked slots games. This means there is loads of money going, if only you are lucky enough to win. But there are loads more ways to win when gambling online, than wagering on the slots. After all, even though the prize money is huge, and we are talking in the ‘millions’, slots are still a long…long shot!

More and more people are taking their online gambling and going mobile with it; in other words getting their gambling ‘on-the-go’. The biggest majority of gambling fans getting their thrills the mobile way are the sports-betting clique. In the UK and Ireland growth has been phenomenal.

Now fans take their favourite sports – football being only one – and get some extra pleasure by placing money on it. Online betting exchanges such as Betfair are popular too; it takes the bookie out of the equation, so, fans can decide their own odds, as well as bet against each-others’ predictive powers. Punters find being their own bookie great fun, and it adds an extra element of excitement to the game.

For now, if you are not an advanced punter, and you would like to play online slots to get a better feel for these games, let’s offer you extra incentive. On Christmas Eve 2010 at Bet 365; Tlaloo1 won £3 922 736 playing Clover Rollover. Microgaming has paid out over €320 million worth of prizes and has made something like 17 slots millionaires; including one whopping win of €6 374 434.00, which was once a world record slots win. But Net Entertainment now holds that world record with a massive online slots pay-out of over NINE MILLION EURO. So, prizes are getting better, and yes, there is big bucks to be made.

In 2010 UK gaming site woke up and rejoiced as news broke out that the four year ban which had been imposed upon US online gamblers was soon to be lifted as per the government’s reviews of its 2006 legislations and its prohibition of online real money betting.

As the 2006 legislation was enforce in September of 2006 across the USA, the UK’s multibillion pound gambling industry came close to collapse at the overnight loss of one of its largest online clients.

And, with the economy well on its downward spiral already, the last thing the British economy system needed was another attack on its annual revenue income.
Yet the loss of the US players to such profitable and reliable UK gaming sites like 888 Limited and Party Gaming meant that their shares saw a drastic drop of between 26% and 54% for each site respectively which equated to an overall loss of £4billion in stock shares.

And whilst the UK tried and failed to make the best of a bad situation by exploring wider gaming opportunities further afield than the scope of the US, nothing has been able to come close to the amount of revenue that US patronage produced which has in turn meant the inability of the gaming industry to recover fully from the revenue deficit the loss of the US backing cost.
However with the repeal on the mind of many a US governing body, a new hope was instilled amongst a struggling yet slowly re-growing online gaming industry as that age old controversial discussion on whether or not online gambling should be made legal was once again sparked off.

Nevertheless whilst UK and US Online Gambling supporters remained hopeful that the band would soon be lifted, expert predicted a drastic stall in repeal proceeding as midterm elections swept the nation and seats changed hands.

Yet when the stall experts predicted finally did came it was a surprised that its consequence was not that of any governmental election taking place, but rather that of the US states realising that the same legislations they had been abiding by and upholding since the 1961 Federal Wire Act could actually be used to help their own internal state economy without having to seek legal online gambling in overseas places like the UK.

Once again, the UK along with the rest of Europe were left to weigh the pros and cons of the US government lifting the ban on online gambling in the USA and realising the possible negative implications that lifting such a ban would have on their economy if US casinos and gaming halls chose to exploit this new freedom and establish themselves as rival gaming providers for US players within the actual US.

Two years on from the initial discussion to quash the 2006 prohibition of online gambling legislation in the US back in 2010, and still no decision has as yet come to fruition as the online gambling US drought continues.