Parlay announced its intention to launch the online games Alderney-based PGS platform in July to act as a central liquidity solution offering remote online gaming and registration, verification and banking services.

Built on the Parlay5 multi-language and multi-currency technology, PGS allows for a pooling of liquidity across currencies, which is something the firm stated is crucial for operators that wish to expand into the rapidly expanding global market.

“These new customers, and the level of interest we are seeing from our customers and new prospects, validates the expansion of our business model into this value-added services offering,” said Scott White, Chief Executive Officer for Parlay.

“The fact that we are able to utilise our commercial-grade and award-winning technology platform with newly established technology partnerships gives Parlay an enhanced solution, providing more selection to an unlimited customer base. We are very excited about the future of our PGS offering.”

Parlay revealed that the first PGS network partner would launch this week during the European iGaming (EiG) 2009 conference in Copenhagen while the remaining duo would be ramping up throughout September and October.

The poker operator has signed an agreement with Global Betting Exchange (GBE) for exchange and sportsbook software and casinos gambling, including the iBroker solution. The software will enable PKR to automate all aspects of its sportsbook management from the creation and pricing of events right through to settlement.

In addition, the iBroker sportsbook solution will provide the Alderney-based site with automated risk management and dynamic hedging services to create an exciting new experience for its sportsbetting offering.

Brian O’Sullivan, Chief Executive Officer for GBE, said: “GBE has leveraged its experience as the developer and operator of one of the industry’s leading betting exchanges to develop a unique sportsbook platform.

“The ground-breaking GBE iBroker is a low cost sportsbook platform with sophisticated risk management technology. The selection of iBroker by a company with PKR.com’s reputation for innovation and excellence is a huge endorsement for the iBroker product.”

GBE was founded nine years ago in Dublin by Irish businessman Dermot Desmond and provides some of the technology behind leading online sportsbook BetDaq.com. It first showcased the iBroker sportsbook platform at this year’s International Casino Exhibition Interactive (ICEi) in London and will present the service at this week’s European iGaming (EiG) conference in Copenhagen.

“In launching a PKR.com sportsbook, we are determined to deliver a product that meets the high standards for technology and innovation that define PKR.com,” said Malcolm Graham, Chief Executive Officer for PKR.com.

“The GBE iBroker platform is an excellent solution for us and we look forward to delivering a fantastic sportsbook product in the coming months.”

The respected sportsbetting operator will soon launch its new online poker room targeted on the UK market and using Ongame’s impressive P5 Poker Engine.

Martin Lerby, speaking on behalf of Ongame, said: “This new casino partnership showcases the full potential of the P5 Poker Engine and marks the beginning of a new working relationship between Ongame Network and EurosportBET.

“We believe that online poker is an entertainment product and attracting mass-market brands such as Eurosport is part of our strategy.”

EurosportBET is licensed in Alderney through parent SPS SA and its subsidiary SPS Betting (Alderney) Ltd.

“We select business partners who share the same values of working within national online gaming laws. Ongame Network is such a company. The implementation of the P5 Poker Engine has been smoothly managed and we look forward to our UK online poker service taking off, giving us a foundation for future European projects,” said Olivier Ou Ramdane, CEO of SPS.

Lottery officials revealed that the winner had bought the lucky online gambling numbers ticket at a bar in the village, setting the two thousand strong population alight with speculation on who the lucky winner was. The identity of the winner, according to the Agicos agency , was being kept secret.

The winning six-number combination was 2, 16, 38, 67, 70 and 84, the national lottery agency said, and the chances of getting all those digits right were only one in 622 million. The main prize had rolled over a record-breaking 86 times since January 2009, creating a frenzy of European interest and ticket buying.

Villager Giuliano Di Bernardo, interviewed by the ANSA news agency, said he had seen the winner, a 47-year-old local man, buy the winning ticket.

The next draw is on Tuesday, when the jackpot will be slightly less than $61 million.

The internet poker ace, who plays online under the handle ‘zlatan35’ collected the winner’s prize of $391 556 after an exciting heads up against Korean player Inwook Choi, who’s second placing was worth $214 158.

To get there, Choi and Allain had to overcome a field of 326, a tough final table and a tense three-handed clash with veteran JC Tran, who ended up in third place.

For Allain it was a remarkable return on investment, too - he secured his seat through a $5 buy-in online satellite at PKR.com!

Allain, who recently turned professional said: “I’m overwhelmed, this is so wonderful. I qualified for this tournament through a $5 lottery tournament on PKR and end up beating all these top players. Vive La France!”

The young professional will deploy his expanded bankroll (his only previous online earnings are $8 000) to enter further major tournaments around the planet, promising some interesting action judging by his aggressive domination of the APT Macau final table.

Poker Players Research reports that 42 percent of the estimated 20 million online real money poker players now gamble on other activities online, up from 20 percent in 2007, with the bulk of the growth occurring in France, Germany and Scandinavia after the UIGEA constrained internet gambling in the United States.

Excluding the Americans, the number of online poker players who wager on other Internet forms of betting has grown by 55 percent since 2007. The main winner in the trend is sportsbetting, now played by 28 percent of poker players, compared to 14 percent a year ago, with 10 percent of these betting at least weekly, the PPA survey found. Online blackjack was also a popular alternative with poker players and is now played by 27 percent of poker players, significantly up from the 15 percent noted a year ago.

Brenda Bailey (60) of South Charleston claimed her ninth West Virginia Lottery prize, last week, picking up $7 000 in the Gem 7s instant game.

The win brings her total winnings since last September to $159 000 from five instant tickets - a total $165 800 in prizes from instant and online games since 2000.

She’s not the only lucky one in the family. Her husband Richard claimed a $6 000 instant game prize in January and a $10 000 prize last September.

The Kentucky Supreme Court will now either throw the state’s case out and support the iMEGA-positive decision of a three judge panel in the Kentucky appeals court, or will perpetuate an already expensive and drawn out legal process by deciding for the state or ordering further arguments be submitted.

The case has its roots in the covert seizure by a Kentucky lower court judge last year of 141 international domain names belonging to online gambling firms domiciled outside the bluegrass state. The seizure was an attempt by the state governor, using outsourced lawyers on a contingency payment basis, to destroy online gambling competition to the state’s interests in land and internet gambling on horseracing, with the possibility of claiming monetary damages mentioned by state government spokesmen as well.

The action was strongly attacked by legal teams from iMEGA and the IGC in an appeal case that attracted worldwide attention and exposed the threat to the freedom of the Internet and US Constitutional standards which the Kentucky initiative constituted.

The appeal was successful, and the seizure order set aside. Almost immediately, and again using outsourced, contingency-compensated lawyers, the governor of Kentucky, Steve Beshear, launched an appeal against the appeal, which is the current action now being considered by the Kentucky Supreme Court.

This week, attorneys representing Kentucky Justice and Public Safety Cabinet Secretary J. Michael Brown filed a 20 page response brief to iMEGA’s earlier submission to the Court. In procedural terms it appears that the Kentucky lawyers screwed up and missed the deadline for their submission, which was June 17th. Although the court accepted the submission, it required the Beshear legal team to file a Motion for Enlargement explaining the one day delay.

The motion blamed the complicated nature of the action, saying:: “In this action, ten separate parties have sought to participate in this litigation as amicus curaie parties, with many such motions still pending, and numerous parties currently litigating this case as Appellees.” The Commonwealth’s lawyers added that the deadline had been miscalculated.

Judging by the state’s current arguments, the issue is set to become even more complex, with debate regarding the right of Cabinet Secretary Brown to bring a civil suit against the owners of the previously seized domains, and whether Kentucky can institute a civil action to prosecute a criminal illegal gambling charge. The original grounds for seizure of the domains were, however, based on criminal law. The question of whether the lower court ordering the seizures had jurisdiction to do so is also argued again.

Both parties, and indeed the industry as a whole, now await the Court’s finding.

While this persecution of the online gambling industry has been ongoing, Governor Beshear has somewhat hypocritically been pushing for an expansion of land gambling in his state, and after weeks of political manouevring and debate in the state legislature he appears to be within striking distance of his objectives.

Business Week reports that gamblers at Kentucky race tracks could soon be able to put their money on more than horses under a measure that’s made it halfway through the state legislature and now awaits only Senate approval and the governor’s imprimatur.

House lawmakers approved Beshear’s legislation Friday that would allow Kentucky’s tracks to install video gambling terminals offering casino-style games like slots and poker.

Beshear had earlier called lawmakers into a special session of the House to address a projected $1 billion budget deficit. He included the gambling proposal on the agenda, saying it could generate about $300 million a year for state coffers, a portion of which will be used to leverage construction bonds to pay for some $1.1 billion worth of school upgrades.

The measure, which passed 52-45 after some four hours of debate, has been touted as a means to bolster a struggling horse racing industry and to stimulate the state’s faltering economy with additional construction money.

The proposal could run into trouble at Senate level, however.

Senate President David Williams said the legislation lacks the support it needs to pass in his chamber, and he is offering a proposal to funnel money to the state’s horse tracks through a surcharge on lottery ticket sales in the state instead. It was unclear Friday whether the measure passed by the House will even be called for a vote in the Senate, though it’s sponsor, House Speaker Greg Stumbo, joined the governor in calling for one.

Anti-gambling groups contend backers of Beshear’s measure “bought votes” from lawmakers with promises of school construction projects in their districts.

“Today, we saw political corruption at its finest,” said David Edmunds, a policy analyst for the Kentucky Family Foundation, a Lexington-based group that opposed the measure. “We know that school construction jobs were held over the heads of legislators who normally would not vote for this measure.”

One Senator said the proposal would not pass the Senate, saying baldly: “You can already stick a fork in it - it’s done!”

Betsson joins a tier one group of gaming merchant clients that includes Unibet and Expekt, consolidating Ivobank’s position as a payment solution for online gamblers across Scandinavia.

Betsson’s customers will also enjoy the incremental benefits of opening an Ivobank account, which include:

* Secure, instant and discreet means of depositing into gaming accounts
* No loading fees on credit and debit card deposits until 30 August 2009
* Interest paid on gaming funds
* Fast and free withdrawals
* VIP Service for high rollers
* Government protected funds up to GBP 50 000

Ivobank was launched in 2008 as a specialist online bank designed with the gaming industry in mind. Since then the bank has created a successful niche for itself as the only FSA regulated bank to cater specifically for the needs of the online gaming industry.

Neil Cauldwell, Director of Business Development said: “Signing up Betsson as a merchant is a great win for Ivobank. It is one of the world’s leading gaming operators and its customer base is one of the largest in Europe. We’re looking forward to working with it in a mutually profitable partnership”.

Hans Martin Nakkim, Director of Sales and Marketing at Betsson says: “We are very happy our customers can now open an Ivobank account through Betsson. The ability is there for customers across Europe to manage their entertainment budget via a specialised bank account which charges no transfer fees, offers excellent value and unrivalled security”.

In the end it was none of these whom Baldwin faced in the heads up, which saw him pitted against Jonas Klausen, a professional poker player from Denmark.

The departure of Young Phan engineered by Ben Scholl formed the final table, which featured Klausen with a clear chip lead on 2 535 000. His closest rivals were Baldwin on a chip count of 1 586 000 and Benjamin Scholl n 1 075 000, followed by Steven Bradbury (942 000), Andrew Youngblood (895 000), James Taylor (859 000), Martin Jacobson (686 000), Roland de Wolfe (419 000) and Eric DeFontes (385 000).

In the end, Baldwin and Klausen used their dominating stacks to dismiss the rest of the final table, leaving them in the heads up.

Klausen - an aggressive and highly successful Internet poker player, usually on Pokerstars, was a formidable opponent although Baldwin went into the heads up a little ahead on chips. The lead changed hands several times but the deciding hand was a real cooler which saw Klausen flop top two pair on a Q-10-4 board, only to find that Baldwin had pocket fours for bottom set and managed to fade queens and tens to double up and take a commanding 7 to 1 lead in the match. The game ended in a Baldwin victory a few hands later in a preflop race with Baldwin holding a pair of tens that held against Klausen’s A-Q.

Jonas Klausen’s second placing was worth $322 371.

A former college basketball player from Wisconsin, Baldwin may be young but he’s no stranger to live tourney action, having previously cashed in the Venetian Deep Stack and Bellagio tournaments.

“I was coming out here [to Las Vegas] several times a year for some tournaments so I figured I would just buy a place out here,” he said, explaining his move to Vegas. “Plus I hate shoveling snow!”

The win this week is his biggest poker achievement in terms of the gravitas of the competition, the quality of his opponents and the size of the paycheck.

“It’s head over heels above anything else I’ve done in my life,” a delighted Baldwin said. “The bracelet is the measuring stick that most people look to in judging poker players.”

Event 35 - the $5 000 buy-in Pot-Limit Omaha competition ended in victory for Richard Austin in a spectacular double elimination with millions on the table before the flop.

The event attracted 363 players who generated a prizepool of $1 706 100, and going after the money were Internet and live tourney aces like Jesper Hougaard, Sorel Mizzi, Cliff Josephy, Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, Fabrice Soulier, Isaac Baron, Van Marcus, Sandra Naujoks, and David “Devilfish” Ulliott.

Entering Day 3 of the event it looked as if Mizzi might carry the day; he was playing strongly and held a good chip lead. However, when it came to the final table Cliff ‘Johnny Bax’ Josephy was leading the pack on 1 027 000, followed by Rifat Palevic (989 000), Sorel Mizzi (869 000), Richard Austin (563 000), Van Marcus (544 000), Felipe Ramos (452 000), Peter Jetten (430 000) and Dan Hindin (282 000).

Down to three-handed action it was Josephy and Mizzi ahead with Austin contending strongly, when the game came to a spectacular and totally unanticipated end. Austin knocked out both of his rivals in a single hand where each player had wagered around a million chips before the flop. Mizzi and Josephy proved that talent counts but you need good cards too when they were busted out with some bad luck on the final hand - Mizzi’s aces were outflopped by Josephy’s kings….and Josephy’s kings fell to Austin’s gutshot and flush draw combination.

Austin will be boosting his bank account by $409 484 thanks to his victory, and of course he will be the proud recipient of a WSOP bracelet - his first.

A surprised Josephy left the table with a third placing and $166 771, whilst Mizzi claimed the second spot and $253 048.