Germany’s football league has added further pressure on the sixteen German lander (states) currently monopolising gambling, demanding a more open market.

The league is threatening to charge betting companies for use of the Bundesliga fixture list, unless regional states open up the sports betting market to more competition, reports the Reuters news agency.

The fixture list of 612 matches played in the top two tiers each season is a unique database and should be protected by intellectual property rights, DFL soccer league manager Christian Seifert said on Wednesday.

“Professional sports and amateur sports have to get their share of the income,” if necessary by charging others for using Bundesliga fixture lists, Seifert said.

Reuters reports that Germany’s 16 states have an iron grip on the gambling market, although they are considering the award of seven nationwide licenses for sports betting companies from next year. Licensees will be required to pay one-sixth of the betting income to the states as fees.

Independent online gambling companies such as Bwin.party digital have criticised the states’ plans as anti-competitive.

The German sports betting market is estimated to be worth about €5 billion ($7.2 billion).

The company is reported to be positioning itself as a comprehensive provider of online gambling services in the U.S. market including software, legal and licensing advice, website operation, advertising and marketing on the prediction that online gambling will become legal in the U.S. in the near future.

“We want to be in position to be able to move forward quickly,” said U.S. Digital Gaming, Founder, Richard Bronson .

The company reportedly has $6 million at its disposal with $3 million raised from outside investors, including real estate developers, a mall developer who owns the Indiana Pacers basketball team and others.

Bronson is staking his hopes on a mix of state laws spreading across the country and has hired lobbyists to push that view in several states reports WSJ.

Bronson’s view is that state-by-state legalisation would create a mix of commercial casinos, state lotteries, and Indian tribes that would require assistance in setting up online operations.

USDG claims it has licenced online poker software and has acquired age verification and geo-location technology in anticipation of the possibility of legalised online poker in the U.S.

“This is a matter of being in position when legalisation occurs, if they never legalize poker online then we’ve made a bad bet,” said Bronson.

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“At the end of the first four months of operation, results are in keeping with estimates: 37,753 subscribers, of which about 60% were considered active, and revenues of some $7 million. Development of a complete and competitive offering will continue over the coming years,” the report notes.

In other gambling activities, Loto-Québec’s 2010-2011 Annual Report posts net earnings that have remained stable despite lower revenues.

The corporation reported consolidated revenues of $3.675 billion and net earnings of $1.338 billion for the period, with net earnings similar to last year’s figures, despite an $80 million decline in sales, thanks to strict control over expenses.

Despite a significant decline in the North American casino industry, the four Quebec land casinos experienced only a small drop in revenues.

Video lottery revenues decreased by 4% due to the economic slowdown and reduced network size. Lastly, land bingo activities weakened by 2.2%.

Over 20% of total sales were contributed by the corporation’s Lotto Max product. Quebecers won 62 million dollar or more lotto prizes, double that of the preceding year. One lotto player broke all records to become Quebec’s biggest ever lotto winner at $37.6 million on Lotto Max.

Bingo and lottery winners pocketed $935 million, commissions to lottery, video lottery and bingo partners totalled $350 million and purchases from suppliers doing business in Québec reached $310 million, whilst $31.1 million was invested in fighting compulsive gambling; contributions to non-profit organizations reached $17.7 million while the Fonds d’aide à l’action communautaire autonome and the Fonds d’aide à l’action humanitaire internationale received $14.8 million and $3 million, respectively.

Spending on sponsorships in support of 136 events was $13.9 million. A contribution of $10 million was made to the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal through the Ministère de la Culture, des Communications et de la Condition féminine.

The report notes that Loto Quebec paid out a total of $391,000 in therapy expense compensation following a provincial government decision to reimburse compulsive gamblers for documented therapy services received from 1994 to 2002, regardless of the games played.

The addition of Sportingbet will enhance player liquidity on the network and also bring the recreational players that Ongame is consciously targeting to maintain a healthy poker ecology and revenue growth, a statement from the company notes.

“Ongame has a great track record as a poker partner for major sportsbook brands”, said Ben Freeman, poker manager at Sportingbet, this week. “We are impressed by their approach to network ecology and we’re excited to widen our offering with increased liquidity and better promotions to our players.”

Ongame’s network includes poker brands owned by Betfair, bwin, Betsson, Unibet, PAF, EuroSport, Bet24 and Gioco Digitale as well as twenty other premium brands.

Ongame offers a unique business model called Essence that measures each player’s contribution to the poker network in real-time and rewards each operator accordingly. This means that operators that have a lot of recreational players receive more revenues, prompting them to invest more in poker.

“With Sportingbet we are building on our position as the premier choice for sportsbook operators,” says David Pittel, managing director of Ongame Network. “Sportingbet not only brings us increased liquidity and reach in further markets, but more importantly they share our view of poker. We are really looking forward to working with them.’

Ongame claims that it is the world’s largest B2B poker provider. The global network includes more than 25 of the e-gaming industry’s strongest brands and operators and up to 45,000 concurrent players at peak hours.

The deal with Ongame means that Sportingbet will be offering its players access to the Ongame network as a second option in addition to GTechG2′s International Poker Network.

The firms “Ultimate Package” now contains 18 languages, over 100 download and instant-play browser games, live dealer table games and sportsbetting, along with a new back-office and affiliate area.

Paul Edwards of TotalESoft said, “We continue to strive to consolidate our position as the number one White Label Casino and Sportsbook company.

To that end, we feel that this major investment has allowed us to create the most fully-functional software and back-office in our sector – we’ve had extremely positive feedback from our current White Label clients, who believe that this upgrade will help their businesses go from strength to strength.”

“Most people can’t understand why, in the modern world, the Government should be even a part owner of a bookie,” said Gambling and Racing Minister John Penrose . “So we pledged last year to end years of dithering and resolve the future of the Tote, and today we have done just that.”

A number of undertakings Betfred has agreed to provide include the continued payment of the Levy to racing even if part of the Tote business moves offshore and that the pool betting part of the business will not be sold off.

Among the specific terms of the deal:

• Betfred has agreed to pay a headline value of £265 million for the business. This is comprised of an initial payment of £150 million and deferred amounts, including accrued interest, of £115 million;

• After deductions including debt and pensions, the net equity value to be paid to Government by Betfred is over £180 million;

• The taxpayer will retain over £90 million as its 50 per cent share of the net proceeds of the sale;

• Racing will receive over £90 million as their 50 per cent share of net proceeds from the sale (use of which will be subject to compliance with state aid regulations).

In addition, Betfred has committed to making commercial payments to racing of £11 million to March 2012 and an expected £9 million annually over the following six years;

• The Tote Pension scheme will benefit from a £25 million upfront contribution to the plan; and

• Tote employees will have assurances on jobs and an end to many years of uncertainty.

As part of the sale process Betfred will receive an exclusive seven year licence to operate Pool betting operations on all UK racecourses, one condition of which is a requirement to provide pool betting on every approved racecourse in the country.

Betfred have also publicly committed to the establishment of a Tote Racing Development Board with racing to help run the pool and foster wider collaboration. The Tote brand will remain on all UK racecourses.

Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt added: “It was a closely fought contest which has ended up giving the Tote business and the racing industry the certainty they have been looking for. Of the £265 million in the headline price only just over £90 million will end up being paid to the Treasury. So this deal has been carefully calculated to make sure that the interests of racing, Tote employees and the Tote Pension Fund were given the greatest possible weight.”

Completion of the sale is subject to consultation with employees and is expected to take one to two months.

A corporate statement this week from the Canadian company Heads Up Entertainment International identified it as one such competitor, revealing that it has consolidated its poker operations into a separate division that includes the Canadian Poker Tour, Canadian Poker Player Magazine, and the Canadian Poker Player Television Network interests of HEI.

The company is in the process of recruiting a president for the new division, the company statement announced, with HEI chief exec, Kelly B. Kellner, adding:

“As the result of recent expansion, new market opportunities and potential interest from acquirers we have decided it would be in the best interests of the company and its shareholders to consolidate all poker operations into one unit.

“We have begun to actively recruit a president for that division who not only understands the industry but shares the passion we all embrace at HeadsUp. We anticipate announcing the successful candidate for this position in the next two weeks.”

Kellner says that HEI has entered into an agreement with World Poker Showdown, an American firm, to further its ambitions.

“The partnership between WPS is also positioning itself for the impending legalisation of online poker in the U.S. and we have been developing relationships with land-based casinos throughout North America for this scenario,” Kellner concluded.

Companies like Cantor Gaming have been developing, testing and lobbying for the gambling extension for years.

The newspaper USA Today reports that the measure specifically lifts a ban on the use of mobile gambling devices inside hotel rooms.

The facility may not prove as popular as first thought; USA Today reports that a survey of guests conducted by Hotel Check-In asked a sample of 838 respondents “Should Nevada regulators allow gambling inside hotel rooms?”

The results were:

59% – No, there are enough options in the casino

30% – Yes, I want to gamble when and where I want

12% – Only if they can prevent underage gambling

Supporters of the measure say the hotel gambling devices have efficient identity verification systems in place to obviate the risk of underage gambling, an important precondition in all gambling expansion activities.

The bill, which if passed would still leave the final permission in the hands of the Nevada Gaming Commission, is generally supported by land casino operators in Nevada.

The action, lodged in the Stockholm District Court on May 5, asks that Redbet fully settle a debt of €747,991 plus interest awarded to Abbantina on October 25 by the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce.

The original complaint dates back to 2008 after Abbantina cancelled a ‘white-label’ agreement with provider Redbet Limited that it had established the year before.

The Malta-based operator claimed that the subsidiary had not fulfilled its contractual obligations and ‘did not constitute an independent business as all relevant functions were integrated with Redbet Holding’.

“Since Redbet Limited in addition has proven unwilling and unable to settle its debt, Abbantina has filed this lawsuit with the Stockholm District Court,” read a public statement from Abbantina.