Bwin.Party announced the launch of a bunch of AAMS licensed online gambling brands back in July and among them was Gioco Digitale.it.

I figured back then it was only a matter of time before they added live dealers, and now they have.

You only had to join the dots…

• Bwin.Party already has a live dealer casino powered by Evolution Gaming (at Party Casino);
• Evolution Gaming secured AAMS certification for their live casino platform back in May;
• Evolution Gaming have also tailored live games to the Italian playing market, adding Venezia Roulette and Italian speaking dealers; and most telling of all
• Italian men can’t resist the belle donne!

It’s a match made in heaven.  I can just see Silvio Berlusconi banging away on his laptop in between court appearances and time spent planning his triumphant return to politics; head over heals in love with those Latvian beauties dealing up storm.  What’s the bet a few dealers would get an invitation to visit his Sardinian party villa!  Or maybe he’d just drop them a line from one of his soon to be released love songs (not a joke…reported by La Stampa )…

“Listen to them when you have a thirst for caresses, sing them when you are hungry for tenderness.”

Yep, if their former Prime Minister is ANY indication, Italians will go wild for live dealers!

I suspect Evolution Gaming’s Italian CEO, Gionata La Torre agrees with this sentiment, although he expressed it very differently in a company press release, saying, “Italian customers are going to be very excited by the arrival of the Gioco Digitale Live Casino”.

Gioco Digitale won’t be Italy’s first taste of locally licensed live online gaming.  888.it’s live casino (also Evolution Gaming powered) has been up and running for a couple of months now.

Related pages:

• Live casinos for Italian players
• 888 live casino now open to Italian players

The world’s biggest social network already has ‘fun play’ games like Gamesys’ Jackpot Joy slot that allows users to spin the reels for virtual credits (as if real money slot games aren’t boring enough!), used by as many as 1.7 million Facebookers.

Now they want to introduce real money games, and have decided that Britain will be the testing ground for the controversial move.

They’ve already been in discussions with a bunch of online gambling operators vying for the right to supply them with games, eight of whom will be awarded licenses early in the new year. 888 Casino is said to be first in line.

Understandably, there’s plenty of opposition to Facebook’s plans.

Over 3 million of their British users are aged 13 to 17.  Another million are estimated to have lied about their age to gain membership and are in fact under 13 years of age. The challenge for Facebook and their gambling partners will be to make sure none of these young members can play the real cash games…and convince the powers that be that the’re up to the task.

Concern has also been expressed that Facebook will be perceived by young members to be endorsing gambling as a trivial pastime.

“Protecting children from the normalisation of gambling is vital,” says Lauri Moyle from Christian Action Research Education (CARE).  I’m tipping Lauri would be just as unhappy about live roulette being broadcast on Channel Five every evening!

Here are our best picks.

bet365′s 12 Levels of Christmas

• Running: 1^st to 31^st December
• How it works: Bets on all casino games (including live) earn comp points. You then win a prize based on the comp point level you reach. 12 levels in all.
• What you get: Prize is determined by the level you reach (see below)
• More details: here or at bet365

888 Casino’s New Year Prize Giveaway

• Running: 1^st December to 1^st January
• How it works: Every £50/$50/€50 deposited and wagered in their live casino gets you a ticket in a draw that will take place on 2 January.
• What you get: 8 winners will receive prizes as follows:
  1^st - £3,000/$3,000/€3.000
  2^nd - £2,000/$2,000/€2.000
  3^rd - £1,000/$1,000/€1.000
  4^th - £800/$800/€800
  5^th - £500/$500/€500
  6^th - Lamborghini Laptop
  ^7th - Sony PSP Vita
  8^th - Samsung Galaxy S2
• More details: here or at 888

Betfair’s £40,000 Christmas Races

• Running: 1^st to 31^st December
• How it works: Every bet staked of £5 or more in their live casino earns you a race point. The more points you get the higher up the live leader board you go.
• What you get: Bonus cash (10x wager requirement attached) in accordance with below table.
• More details: here or at Betfair

Supercasino’s Prize-a-day Christmas Advent calendar

• Running: 1^st to 25^th December
• How it works: Every day until Christmas they’r holding  a prize draw.  To be in it all you need to do is deposit £20 or more and play in their live casino on that day.
• What you get: Prizes vary each day and include iPhone 4S, Kindle, Wii Fit, iPad2, LG home cinema system, golf clubs, HiFi systems, Sony Playstations…
• More details: here or at Supercasino

William Hill’s Live Casino Christmas Calendar

• Running: 1^st to 31^st December
• How it works: Each day there’s  different prize and different qualification criteria.
• What you get: Prizes include entry into a £2,012 cash prize draw, iPads, iPod Touch’s and HTC Wildfire’s
• More details: here or at William Hill (Vegas)

Mystery Advent Calendars from Unibet and Smart Live Casino

• Running: 1^st to 25^th December
• How it works: Each new day unlocks a surprise Christmas bonus.
• What you get: We don’t know! Future dates on the calendar are locked. You’ll have to find out on the day!
• More details: at Smart Live Casino or at Unibet

                              Merry Christmas!

Happy for them, but I wasn’t overly excited by the news until skim reading further into the piece and seeing that they are giving their live games more prominence:

“Highlights include Live Casino tab in the lobby providing easier access to registration and the Live Casino arena”

Now you’re talking. Faster, easier access to real dealers is always a plus in my book.

Related pages: 888 live casino review

You can read the full details, including how to put yourself in the running here.

As an enthusiastic red wine drinker this promo caught my attention at first glance. It then lost some of this attention when, on further reading, I discovered that they don’t tell you exactly what wine you will be getting.

Which of course begs the obvious question…just how classic and how fine are we talking here?

An old-ish Penfolds Grange or St Henri Shiraz would be on my wish list. It would also be nice to sample a couple of beauties from further afield… a recent Chateau Lafite, Chateaux Marguax, Chateaux La Mondotte…or any other label beginning with Chateau and retailing for more than $250 a bottle!

But the pessimist in me suspects the winning 6-cases may fall slightly short of this lofty mark.  Hope I’m wrong.

What is for certain, is that your case will definitely not contain any of the following bottles of wine…claimed to be among the world’s top ten most expensive by the Huffington Post.

1.  1947 Château Cheval Blanc: $304,375
   Regarded by some as the greatest Bordeaux of all time, a bottle now sits gathering dust in the no doubt ample cellar of a Swiss collector who snapped it up at auction for $304,375 at Christie’s in Geneva.  Enjoy now or cellar for another 50 years or so says Christie’s wine expert Michael Ganne.
2. 1907 Heidsieck: $275,000
   200 bottles from Russia’s Heidsieck vineyard that were on their way to the Imperial family back in 1916 went missing in a shipwreck.  Found in 1997, they are now on sale at Moscow’s Ritz-Carlton for a lazy $275,000 per bottle.
3. 1869 Château Lafite: $233,972
   An anonymous Asian buyer (888′s Asian office rep maybe?) paid this much for one of these in 2010.
4. 1787 Château Lafite: $160,000
   This is how much Malcolm Forbes paid for the 1787 Lafite back in 1985 – closer to $300,000 in today’s dollars. And it’s not even drinkable!
5. Romanée Conti 1945: $123,900
   Only 600 bottles of the ’45 Romanée were created and few remain today.  One is owned by an American collector who paid $123,900 at a Christie’s fine wine auction.
6. 1811 Chateau d’Yquem: $117,000
   Some believe this to be the most supreme vintage of one of the greatest Bordeaux’s of all time. Sommelier Christian Vanneque is one of the believers, forking out $117,000 for a bottle that he plans to open in 2017 to celebrate 50 years in the wine-snobbery business.  Hope it’s not corked!
7. 1787 Chateau d’Yquem: $100,000
   Bought by a US collector recently for an even $100k.  Looks like the older you go with the d’Yquem Sauternes the cheaper they get. Put me down for a 1550!
8. 1945 Chateau Mouton-Rothschild: $47,000
   That price is per-750ml. A 6l bottle of the Chateau Mouton-Rothschild was sold by Sotheby’s New York for $310,700.
9. 1865 Château Lafite: $27,000
   A magnum of the 1865 Lafite was sold by a Floridian businessman to a European collector for $111,625, or around $27,000 per 750ml.
10. 1978 Montrachet: $24,000
    A case of 7 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Montrachet’s were sold in 2001 for $24,000 per bottle!

More tables!  Not just a one or two more.  Many more.

Evolution Gaming has almost doubled the number of available tables and dealers available for live blackjack and it’s a very welcome increase, because it was getting difficult to get a seat during busy times. Before the increase, 6 – 8 tables were on offer at most casinos depending on the number of dedicated tables they licensed.  Now players will have up to 15 tables/dealers to choose from – the largest live blackjack table range currently offered.

While roulette and baccarat can be provided as a ‘one to many’ games (ie a single table/dealer can theoretically serve a limitless number of players), a 7 seat live blackjack table can only serve a maximum of 7 players. Variations to the traditional 7-seat format have been devised by some operators to try and get around this issue…eg Playtech’s unlimited live blackjack, and Smart Live Casino’s ‘one to many’ version on the game.

But for good old fashioned 7 seat blackjack (which some would say is way the game should be played!) … if you want to serve more players you need more tables and dealers.

Well done Evolution Gaming!

New tables galore at Unibet, William Hill and Paddy Power, and plenty of spare seats!

But now one of the major platforms have come out with live dealer games that are purpose developed to be played on your iPad.

EntwineTech sent us their release yesterday and they seem pretty chuffed with themselves.  Understandably so, as they’re now the only platform capable of servicing any of the 30 million or so (and counting) iPad owners wanting to play real deal blackjack, roulette or baccarat on their device without having to mess around with iSwifter or some other Flash work-around.

I’m tipping Evolution Gaming and Playtech will be all over this and have their games iPad compatible before too long.

Until then, you can enjoy the hospitality of EnwineTech’s Philippine dealers who you’ll find at 888 live casino or VC live.

Enjoy!

In a press release issued today, they are claiming to be the first AAMS licensed casino to offer live games in Italy…

“888.it is the first online casino in Italy to offer casino LIVE tables, where players interact with live streamed professional dealers in a range of table games including baccarat, roulette and blackjack, to create a virtual Vegas-style thrilling casino experience.”

They may be the first, but they certainly won’t be the only (for long anyway) with William Hill announcing they’ll be launching Williamhill.it before the end of the month and bwin.party already up and running with giocodigitale.it and bwin.it where they plan to expand game range to include live dealers in coming months.

888 live casino is already tailored to the Italian player market, with platform provider Evolution Gaming earning AAMS certification back in May, and games developed with Italian speaking dealers.

888.it CEO Pier Francesco Geraci said of the launch,

“Launching our fully certified casino in the booming Italian market is a formidable milestone for 888 made possible by a great team of experienced professionals working hard on the project for over a year. As well as our classic casino games, we are proud to be opening the Italian door to the Casino LIVE, a unique and innovative offering and we are planning to launch more exciting and ground-breaking games in the coming months.”

Italia Roulette, Blackjack, Baccara Dal Vivo!

Related pages:

Italy live casinos

Casino dal vivo con belle croupiers di lingua italiana

William Hill gets AAMS license

Yesterday shares in Sportingbet PLC surged 16% on the news that it had received a ”highly preliminary approach” from larger rival Ladbrokes.

It seems Laddies’ fervent attempts to transform their online business through acquisition are set to continue despite failed attempts to get something going with 888.com and Playtech already this year.  It was only a month ago that CEO Richard Glynn instructed his bankers, UBS and Greenhill, to close discussions with 888 and now they’re talking to Sportingbet (not sure if the Playtech merger deal is still bubbling).

Two things are clear though…

1. Ladbrokes are DESPERATE to buy another online gambling business; and
2. UBS and Greenhill should think about changing their fee structure with Ladbrokes from a success fee to a daily rate.

The Sportingbet approach is an interesting one given the fact they (Sportingbet) have just completed a £119 million purchase of Centrebet.com – one of the ‘big 4′ Australian online sports betting operators.  Ladbrokes were also sniffing around that deal (of course) but left the picture when the bidding got too high and made no secret of the fact that they thought Sportingbet had paid way too much.

Now, if they end up buying Sportingbet, they inherit the overpriced Centrebet by default. But I guess if you’re that desperate to buy an online business you have to be prepared to make compromises here and there.

Never a dull moment in the land on Internet gambling!

Born José Santiago Cañizares Ruiz, known as the Dragón by adoring fans, Cañizares helped Valencia FC to a swag of finals (Spanish Cup, Supercup, UEFA Champions League x2) as well as titles including  La Liga (2002, 2002) and UEFA Cup (2004).

In all he played 500 La Liga games and was the Spanish goal keeper on 46 occasions between ’93 and 2006.

Now he’s the face of 888′s house of brands including poker, casino and sport betting, signing on as their European ambassador.

Online casino licenses have already been issued in Spain and 888 look like they’re pretty keen to jump aggressively into this market and local hero Cañizares will be a crucial part of their marketing and brand awareness campaign – much as Shane Warne has been for Australia and other cricket playing markets.

According to 888′s Senior VP, Itai Pazner,

“The partnership agreement with Santiago Cañizares will bolster the 888 brand presence in Spain and beyond, and we are delighted to have a sportsman of his caliber on board. We are fully confident that our exclusive partnership agreement with Cañizares will be beneficial to our brands; 888casino, 888 poker and 888sport.”

The current deal will run for 12 months from June 2011.

Related pages:

• Live casinos for Spanish players
• Licensed remote gambling for Spain