There has been a shift recently, in the world of online gambling, away from match for match bonuses to straight, out and out, free money upon sign up. Those players yet to have joined these sites can take advantage of this bonanza as the gambling sites fight for the new clients that they need to become more financially successful.

Free Poker Money is a Big Temptation

The temptation for many newbies is to see the ‘free’ money as just that – free. But the reality of the situation is that the money bonus is a sum that has been calculated by the companies that offer them to be an amount that each new client is ‘worth’ in terms of long term revenue. So for anyone out there that perceives this rash of free money offers as a cash grabbing free for all, please stop to think and assess what it is they are offering and just exactly what you are giving in return.

There seem to be three main arenas of competition for new client attraction, no deposit casinos and no deposit bingo bonuses followed closely by the ever popular free poker money offers. a quick scan around the search engines this morning shows me that the range of tempting offers is quite large, from £20 free bingo games to £1250 casino money to play with once you have signed up as a real player and been validated. There seems to be a very large amount of potential money around and a savvy player could do their research and try to make the most of this situation. But as with all things to do with gambling, whether online or offline, only play with what you can afford to lose and remember it is all supposed to be fun, make sure that you enjoy yourself.

Betfair Poker, the large European online poker provider, have said that they will increase their Rakeback percentages whilst the world series poker is running in 2010. They have dispatched an email to their clients stating that “We are pleased to announce our fantastic 40% Rakeback promotion to go with our other great Poker World Cup 2010 Promotions!”

This means that any person signing up to the site in June will get a forty per cent Rakeback immediately.

It doesn’t matter how much that person rakes, there are no rake requirements, so they will receive the forty per cent immediately.

The rake back is paid out on a bi-monthly basis, the third and first Thursdays of each month.

Additionally they are running a Points Chase of $125,000; this means participants get a bonus of $50 or $100. This opportunity exists between the 11th of June and the 11th of July 2010.

It works out at an extra 10% value back additional to the current Rakeback deal. More information can be found by visiting www.luckyroom.com/betfair-rakeback.

Betfair, an online gambling website that won the Queen’s Awardfor Enterprise in both 2003 and 2008, is offering free £25 bets to new customers.

Betfair offers the free bet to anyone that opens an account, and desposits and bets a minimumn of £25. If the better looses, then Betfair will credit their account with the free bet, up to £25. The state that they will do this within 24hrs. There is, of course, no credit should you win with your first bet.

Betfair runs online betting for everything from poker and casinos, to sports betting and financial markets betting.

One of the Biggest Betting Websites

Betfair was establishing in 1999, in the UK. and has since grown to be one of the largest betting websites on the internet, with 2007 seeing a revenue of around $365 million (which is, of course, roughly $1million per day, on average).

The website now provides more than just an online betting service, it hosts frequent news updates on practically all aspects of online gambling, sports news, and also has an online arcade section of its website.

Other Gambling and Casino Websites

There are, of course, many other gambling websites that offer ‘free bets’, the vast majority of which can be found with a simple Google Search.

Betfair has partnered with ComRes, a leading polling company to come up with the most up-to-date predictions on the UK General Election race.

In addition to individual constituency results, the site will give you the latest polling data and market information over a range of political topics including the likelihood of a hung parliament.

Tools will be available on the website for new portals, websites and bloggers and the tools are customizable for users. More functions will be added closer to the election.

ComRes CEO Andrew Hawkins said: “The partnership with Betfair will add a new and unique source of information for anyone interested in the latest election predictions.

“We want to ensure that the hints of any upset – be it nationally or at a constituency level – are immediately obvious, and that is what this new prediction hub will offer.”

Betfair spokesman Mike Robb added: “We are delighted to have formed this partnership with one of the country’s most respected polling companies, something that will allow us to provide an unrivalled source of prediction for the General Election.”

FBI agents have arrested Michael Olaf Schuett, 29 and a German national living in South Florida on a tourist visa. He is believed to be responsible for helping American online poker players transfer over $70 million in winnings.

Schuett was apprehended after customers of his company, MCM Capital Management, tried cashing large cheques at their banks, claiming they were from online poker winnings. Allegedly he ran an illegal payment processing company from his home, managing funds for up to 23,000 online gamblers. Schuett handled tens of thousands of dollars every day using a network of banks, Escrow services and online payment services, moving the winnings around for his customers in the U.S.

He received wire transfers from European bank accounts and dispersed the winnings to U.S. and Canadian online gamblers.

FedEx employees also became very suspicious due to the number of parcels being delivered and picked up at the Schuett’s home. Sometimes FedEx would pick up or deliver as many as 150 parcels a week. FedEx opened several of the parcels and all had checks in them, so they alerted authorities.
The German national will be held while Federal authorities search his property, computers and any other material used for illegal online gambling activities.

It is plausible that there is a good chance of the X Factor winner being Irish this year, but Boylesports disagree. They offer a massive looking 7/1 that the winner is Irish. That look is far too big a price and the first bet you should have on X Factor 2010 is the winner to be Irish at 7/1 with Boylesports, bearing in mind Irish acts such as Eoghan Quigg and Jedward have come close in the past to winning X Factor you would expect there to be plenty of Irish talent on show at the Irish X Factor auditions.

Boylesports is also taking bets on whether Louis Walsh will be the winning judge on X Factor 2010. Louis Walsh always seems to get the weakest category in X Factor, usually the groups, and it has now almost become a running joke on the show. You can get 5/1 with Boylesports that Louis Walsh is the winning judge on X Factor 2010. Ireland has been responsible for many great groups, Boyzone, Westlife, The Script and Bewitched (ok maybe not them) so you would expect the groups category to be strong on the Irish X Factor auditions. Despite this Boylesports are offering 8/1 on an Irish group winning X Factor 2010.

Since the Prime Minister appeared on the Piers Morgan show, the Conservatives lead, according to the most recent poll, is now down to 6 points, from the 11 point lead earlier this new year. The Conservatives were 28 points ahead at the beginning of the year.

Conservatives Support Is Shaky

The Conservatives are still heavily odds on at 1.11 with Paddy Power, but this price is expected to get bigger as the election gets closer.A Betfair lay to back trade of the Conservatives looks a good opportunity. Michael Heseltine and Norman Tebbitt, senior Tory figures, have questioned ‘Call Me Dave’s’ ability to run the country and these interventions have put some doubt into the minds of voters.

Back Labour Today

Labour is the best price 8/1 with SkyBet and the momentum is now with them, if they can avoid any more damaging headlines we expect them to shorten in price. Right now would be the time to step in and back Gordon.

Liberals In The Marginals

The Liberals are being greatly aided by this uncertainty in the market and in the minds of the electorate. It will be worth supporting Nick Cleggs party, especially with betting available in marginal constituencies where they could win seats. For a full list of political betting markets go to BedFair, Paddy Power and SkyBet.

Ladbrokes is one of the largest gambling companies in the UK and was founded well over 100 years ago, adopting the name in 1902. Though it hasn’t always been a betting shop – they were only legalised in the sixties – it has been a large part of the British high street and the gambling scene for several generations.

However, the company is now facing rough times and reported a 28 per cent drop in profits. It has also reported that the recession and fears of greater unemployment have turned casual gamblers away and lead to an overall reduction in spending.

On top of this, Ladbrokes have also felt the pinch from a number of betting results that went in favour of punters after Manchester United and Chelsea both won matches and the Premier League saw less draws than usual overall.

There is good news on the horizon for the company though, as their cost cutting from last year has started to pay off. The world cup is suspected to be the biggest ‘leg up’ for Ladbrokes profits this year however, especially after heavy snow in January and February meant that over fifty horse races in the United Kingdom had been cancelled.

Chris Bell, the CEO of Ladbrokes for nine years, has recently stepped down the company is looking for a new candidate with both online and retail experience to take over the post. They are said to be looking outside of the gambling industry to find the right candidate.

Ladbrokes has also reduced staff hours, introduced pay freezes until 2011 and could well be closing one of its largest call centres in Liverpool. Despite this however the company plan to open around fifteen new shops in the UK this year as well as hiring new people to staff them.

Ladbrokes’2009 year-end results reveal pre-tax profit is down by more than a quarter.

Pre-tax profit fell 28% year-on-year (YoY), a reflection of the tough economic conditions and punter-friendly results hitting margins in the third quarter, landing at £191.3m ($301.5m) from 265.6m in 2008.

“In the third quarter, our customers had a good and long- running winning streak,” chief executive Christopher Bell said in a conference call this morning, also blaming the UK economy.

Ladbrokes’ third quarter results were hit by football bets after the first 66 Premier League matches saw just four draws, compared with a five-year season average of 25% of games drawn. This bad run continued in the winter, with a UK cold snap having causing a wave of racing abandonments in December and January, and group net revenue down by 4.6% in the first seven weeks of 2010.

The company has more than 2,700 betting shops in addition to its online business and said 2009 net income fell to £74.4m ($116.3m), or 9.9p per share, from £200.7m, or 28.3p; while revenue dipped 10% to £1.03bn.

Its egaming profit fell 16% YoY to £46.1m.

Ladbrokes also launched a deal with Worldspreads Group for the provision of financial spread betting, a deal that could contribute to earnings before interest and tax, Bell said.

However Ladbrokes failed to reveal any progress on finding a replacement for Chris Bell, who is stepping down as chief executive this year after nearly 20 years at Ladbrokes.

Pokercompany.com has purchased the domain name Poker.org from National A1 Advertising for $1 million to Pokercompany.com. The seven-figure deal is believed to be the highest price ever paid for a .org domain name.

Although the $1 million price tag is impressive in the current market, it is small compared to the sale of poker.com for an estimated $25 million in 2008.

Pokercompany.com, a developer of gambling domains, is understood to own several other popular keyword domains such as Craps.net, Blackjack.org and RakeBack.org.

According to the Washington Post the sale is by far the biggest amount paid for a .org. with Engineering.org the previous highest priced sale at $198k.

There are more than 7 million .org domain registrations on the Internet, with the TLD set up originally to denote an organisation. They are usually adopted by not-for-profit organisations, although it is unlikely that this recent sale will be in the same category.