Friday, January 25, 2019
Saturday, January 12, 2019
Madison Square Garden eyes sports betting move - 11th January 2019
The parent company of New York’s Madison Square Garden (MSG) could be set to move into the sports betting market after applying to trademark its MSG brand for sports wagering purposes.
Madison Square Garden Company - which operates MSG, as well as sports and entertainment venues in Los Angeles and yet-to-be-completed venues in Las Vegas and London, plus a number of sports franchises - has filed an application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office referencing the use of the MSG brand across online, mobile and social media.
The filing requests the MSG brand be trademarked for downloadable mobile applications for sports wagering, as well as organising, arranging, conducting and participating in sports wagering tournaments, providing information related to sports bets, and competitions and contests.
MSG also requests that the mobile section of the trademark covers fantasy sports contests, managing and participating in fantasy sports leagues, and for providing sports and esports programming, news, previews, alerts, replays, video clips, web cam feeds and information.
The application also references the use of the MSG trademark for the provision of betting and online gambling services, with a view to arranging and conducting interactive peer-to-peer gambling competitions and interactive real-time gambling under the brand.
In addition, MSG makes specific reference to social media, saying that the trademark would apply to social networking in the field of gaming, provided via a website and web-based services.
However, the application does not feature any language related to land-based betting or in-venue gambling at the arena. MSG is home to a number of major league sports teams including NHL ice hockey team the New York Rangers and NBA basketball franchise the New York Knicks.
MSG is yet to respond to a request for comment from iGamingBusiness.com.
New York is yet to legalise sports betting, but Senator Joseph Addabbo last month pre-filed a bill setting out a regulatory framework for land-based, online and mobile sports betting across the state, to be debated in the 2019 legislative session. Addabbo followed this by filing a separate bill to legalise online poker in New York earlier this week.
Both bills have been allocated to the Racing, Gaming and Wagering Committee.
Turkish government launches sports betting tender - 11th January 2019
The Turkish government is accepting proposals from bidders for a new contract to power sports betting for state-owned gaming operator SportToto.
The tender is seeking applicants capable of providing a central wagering system and risk management solution for fixed-odds and pari-mutuel betting on sporting events.
To secure the ten-year contract, applicants must be able to demonstrate that they have experience of running a sports betting network of at least 500 outlets, with at least 6,000 to be operated throughout Turkey.
They will be required to establish the central betting system within Ankara Province, while the risk management centre must also be based on Turkish soil. The successful applicant will also be expected to employ at least 100 staff dedicated to the SporToto project, including management and technical support staff.
Bids are to be filed in the form of proposed revenue share agreements, which state what percentage of total revenue raised the applicant is willing to receive in return for operating the fixed-odds betting product.
In total, the Turkish government aims to generate 17bn Lira (£2.4bn/€2.7bn/$3.1bn) in revenue from the offering’s first year in operation.
However, companies will not be permitted to form consortiums when applying for the tender, though bids from joint venture companies will be accepted. This means the current operator of SporToto’s Iddaa-branded sports betting offering, the Inteltek joint venture of Intralot and local telecommunications giant Turkcell, will be able to make a bid.
Inteltek, established in 2001, has served as the exclusive provider of fixed-odds and pari-mutuel betting since 2004, and secured a new, ten-year contract in 2008. It then extended the deal by a year in August 2018. Over the past 11 years, SporToto has seen its share of the country's sports betting market grow to 56%, with turnover rising to $3.5bn.
Last year Inteltek announced that it was to establish a software development hub in Turkey, with a focus on developing new mobile wagering products and services, employing more than 100 staff in the new facility.
Bidders have until 09:30 AM on February 11, 2019 to submit their proposals to SporToto.
SporToto is one of only two legal gambling operators in Turkey, alongside national lottery operator Millî Piyango İdaresi.
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