ESPN reporter Erin Andrews was among the favorites to win this year’s Dancing With The Stars, having odds of +500 (with a payout potential of $50 for every $10 bet at BetUS.com).  A series of death threats against Andrews that have grown more disturbing over the past 6 months could potential harm her chances at DWTS.  Security has been beefed up.

Whether the so-called Dancing With The Stars CURSE comes into play remains to be seen.  One example:  Donnie Osmond won last season and his nephew committed suicide a few weeks ago.

The FBI has been investigating the threats since last September.

"As soon as we learned of them the FBI was notified. They are on the case," Andrews attorney Marshall Grossman said in a statement. "Erin and her family are protected," Grossman continued, "It is unfortunate that there are sick people who prey on the fears and threaten the well being of others."

According to celebrity news outlet TMZ.com, a person from Newport News, VA sent emails to sports-talk program,"The Dan Patrick Show."

The emails, which TMZ says began in September 2009, were initially sexual in nature, but became increasingly violent starting in March 2010.

Frightening messages such as "Someone should shoot her in the face" and "I am one in a million, nobody will ever see me coming" reportedly appeared in the emails.

Gambling911.com’s Payton O’Brien suggests:  "Any type of outside distractions whether it be in sports or competitions such as Dancing With The Stars are sure to have some degree of negative impact on performance.  I personally would not have my money on Andrews right now."

Last month, Michael David Barrett, 48, of Illinois was sentenced to 30 months in prison for stalking Andrews and secretly filming nude footage of her from a peephole in her hotel room.

Jordan Bach, Gambling911.com         

Thursday saw the introduction in the Massachusetts State House of the House Speaker’s plan to bring two land casinos to Massachusetts. And interestingly there appears to be no exclusion of intra-state Internet gambling.

The Boston television station WBZ reports the introduction of the land casinos could give state budgeters a partial fix to the Massachsetts state financial woes. And at the State House there’s mounting pressure from organised labour and its allies to get expanded gambling through the Legislature.

WBZ points out that there could be a potential problem with the new bill sponsored by House Speaker Robert DeLeo: it contains no ban on Internet gambling.

That’s a restriction sought by Governor Deval Patrick in his ill-fated 2007 casino proposal. States with which Massachusetts will be competing like Nevada and New Jersey, ban Internet betting, although moves are afoot in the latter to change the situation.

WBZ reports that Internet gambling revenue from U.S. players in 2008 was just shy of $6 billion, nearly 18% of what commercial land casinos took in the previous year. It asks whether legalised web gambling could undercut land casino revenues in tech-savvy Massachusetts.

Champions League:  Arsenal – Barcelona odds had Barcelona as the favorite at NordicBet.com.

Wednesday’s Champions League quarter-final promises to be an exciting one.

Both teams do have injuries.  Cesc Fabregas is nursing a bruised knee. Barcelona will have to do without Andres Iniesta for the first leg after he suffered a hamstring injury at the weekend, although he is expected to return for the second leg.

The quarter-final first legs will be played on 30 and 31 March with the return fixtures on 6 and 7 April.

Barcelona striker Thierry Henry will play against his former club for the first time since he made a £16m switch to the Catalan side in June 2007.

Arsenal – Barcelona   3.00    3.20    2.40

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Alistair Prescott, Gambling911.com 

The weekend saw the publication in the Sunday Zaman publication of an interesting article on Internet gambling, and the fight which European betting groups are waging against a government ban on the pastime imposed in 2006.

The ban included playing online gambling games and made it illegal for firms to provide these services to Turkish citizens under domestic law. Turkish banks and credit card companies were also enjoined not to facilitate transactions with Internet gambling sites.

One company resisting the ban is the publicly listed Swedish online gambling operation Betsson. Speaking to the Sunday Zaman, Turkish legal expert Gökhan Ahi said that despite the law clearly stating that it is illegal to play or provide online gambling, firms like Betsson continue to evade Web filters to provide Turkish citizens with access to games.

For Betsson, circumventing filters and continuing to provide services to Turkish residents are risks worth taking, the article points out – over 26% of its considerable revenues come from Turkey, according to a report by Goldman Sachs.

Swedish analyst Martin Arnell said that shutting down Turkish operations could make a serious dent in Betsson’s earnings and share prices, due to the significant amount of online business that it continues to attract from the country.

The large UK online gambling company Sportingbet is another player in the Turkish online market, despite clashes in 2008 which saw two of its employees detained by police. Although the company has scaled down its Turkish operation, it is still active in the market, claims Arnell

“They could be saying and reporting that they are leaving, but they are still there,” the analyst told Sunday Zaman, which noted that the company’s SuperBahis website was still online and accepting bets for football matches.

Betsson argues that its Turkish activities are completely legal according to European Union principles of free movement of goods and services, even though sources both in the government and the gambling sector have expressed a contrary opinion.

In its year-end financial results, however, Betsson, in reference to Turkey’s anti-online gambling regulation, states, “According to legal experts, the (Turkish) law is in breach of EU law and less conformable with the association agreement between EU and Turkey.”

Arnell disputes this, claiming that Turkey is not yet an EU member, and that Betsson therefore has no legal backing for providing services to Turkish citizens. “They know that the authorities think that what they are doing is wrong,” Arnell stressed.

Fredrik Rüdén, the CFO of Betsson’s administrative office in Stockholm, argued that Betsson could provide gambling products to Turkish citizens because its gambling operations are run from Malta. He stressed several times that Betsson has no physical presence in Turkey and that what they were doing was legal.

When asked if Betsson, much like SportingBet, would gradually close up their virtual shop, Rüdén continued to affirm that what they are doing is legal. “If we had operations in Turkey, then we would consider (closing).” When reminded about the two SportingBet employees who were arrested after coming to Turkey for vacation and then asked about whether he would come to Turkey, he hesitantly replied with, “I am not sure if I would do that.”

Sunday Zaman reports that the Turkish Information Technologies and Communications Board (BTK) went after Betsson’s site and banned access, but Betsson evaded the filter by continuously changing IP addresses, making it nearly impossible for the authorities to stop access.

“At the time of writing, Betsson had added the digits 509 to the end of its URL,” Zaman reports. “Ahi stated that this number would change constantly: ‘When the BTK would block 310, they would default to 309, and if that was blocked, they would quickly change to another number.’

“Ahi reiterated the difficulty for the Turkish authorities to block such sites due to the complexity of the Internet and stated that companies like Betsson would do whatever is necessary to make sure that their illegal and enormous revenues are not hindered by technological barriers. Even with the banking restrictions, Ahi noted that gamblers increasingly use one-time-use debit cards that can easily be used on these Web sites without much difficulty.”

Although Turkey is currently in the accession period, it is not yet a full-fledged EU member.

Police in Turkey have arrested 46 individuals alleged to have been involved in an elaborate football match-fixing plot.  Those arrested include players and coaches.  Some 30 matches are believed to be at the center of the scandal. 

Istanbul Buyuksehir Belediyespor assistant coach and former Turkish international Arif Erdem and Konyaspor goalkeeper Recep Ozturk were among those detained.

The probe began in Bochum, Germany several months ago and extended into several Turkish towns. 

All those arrested were brought to Istanbul for further questioning. 

Some 200 matches have been investigated in 11 different countries since the allegations started coming in last November.

Alistair Prescott, Gambling911.com

UK mobile network Orange has joined the many companies lining up for French partnerships in anticipation of a liberated French gambling market. The network has signed a three-year deal with the state gambling monopoly Francaise Des Jeux which will enable it to incorporate online sports betting into its Internet, mobile and television portals.

Users of Orange.fr will be offered direct access to FDJ’s sports betting website at ParionsWeb.FDJeux.net within the domain’s sports and gambling section while lottery games are also to be made available.

Orange mobile subscribers will also be given access to FDJ’s sports betting and lottery services while viewers of the Orange Sport and Orange Sport Info channels will be empowered to bet with the operator before the end of 2010, legal and regulatory provisions permitting.

FdesJ and Orange will also develop innovative interactive content and services for viewers of its channels, the companies announced this week.

The announcement continued: “The integration of online sports betting will enable Orange to further enhance its sports and gaming worlds and offer an entertaining and responsible service relying on the know-how of FDJ.

“This three-year partnership is in line with the group’s network publisher strategy, which is designed to enable content editors who have a partnership with Orange to benefit from the interactive capabilities of group’s networks.”

The million-strong Poker Players Alliance has issued a statement in the wake of Thursday’s shock announcement that the Kentucky Supreme Court had overturned the block imposed by the state Court of Appeals on international domain seizures.

“The PPA understands the technical nature of the decision issued today by the Kentucky Supreme Court and remains confident that, once that issue is cured, the Supreme Court will address the compelling merits of the arguments in support of the Court of Appeals decision prohibiting the Commonwealth’s seizure of 141 internet gaming sites,” said executive director John Pappas.

“There are fundamental freedoms at stake in this case, not only the freedom of poker players in Kentucky and globally, but Internet freedom across the globe. The Commonwealth’s effort at such a bold, broad and, we believe, unlawful seizure sets a dangerous precedent for anyone who uses the Internet.

“The PPA and its members continue to encourage Kentucky officials to work with us to implement common-sense licensing and regulation of online poker that will protect consumers and create a much needed revenue stream for the Commonwealth.”

The appeal over an appeal by the state of Kentucky to the state Supreme Court has had an unexpected result – on the legal technicality of whether iMEGA and the IGC had standing to pursue the state after it tried to seize and confiscate 141 international Internet gambling domain names, the bench ruled that they did not.

Most observers felt that the case would be a slam-dunk for the industry due to the powerful arguments put forward by iMEGA and IGC regarding the definition of “gambling device” and the question of the limits of Kentucky jurisdiction, but these factors appeared to take second place to the whole question of legal standing.

Instead, the bench only briefly discussed these salient points before ruling: “Although all such arguments may have merit, none can even be considered unless presented by a party with standing. No such party has appeared at the original proceedings in Franklin Circuit Court, the writ petition at the Court of Appeals, or on the appeal here to this Court.”

The full ruling can be read here.

Commenting on the court’s finding, which overturned an earlier court of appeals ruling in favour of iMEGA and the IGC, Joe Brennan, chairman of iMEGA said: “In the written decision, the Court clearly indicates they agree with our arguments and are inviting us to re-file so that the technicality of the standing issue can be resolved.

“It’s unfortunate, but I can’t imagine that Kentucky’s lawyers will celebrate a ruling that says, ‘Bring us an owner so we can rule in your favour,’” Brennan said.

The Supreme Court noted that the IGC and iMEGA lacked standing, because neither trade organisation had disclosed its membership details.

“In fact, nothing is known about their members, other than their attorneys’ vague assertions they represented ‘some’ of the registrants,” the learned judges found. “Through their unwillingness to identify any of their members, iMEGA and IGC failed to meet this burden. As such, iMEGA and IGC lack standing and, therefore, their writ petition should have been denied.”

Five of the 141 domain names – PlayersOnly, Sportsbook, SportsInteraction, MySportsbook, and Linesmaker – were represented by legal counsel in Kentucky. However, the state Supreme Court pointed out: “Just as with real property, a domain name cannot own itself; it must be owned by a person or legally recognised entity.” That, apparently, places at risk the writ of prohibition and once again could open domain owners to the possibility of seizure and confiscation.

In this regard the Supreme Court returned the matter to the lower court of appeals where the prohibition issue may again be addressed.

iMEGA notes that it now has 20 days to re-file with the Kentucky Court of Appeals and the case may immediately make its way back to the state Supreme Court. iMEGA has already asserted that it will “quickly file a motion to satisfy the Court.” Brennan said that his organisation would probably only need to specify one of its members as a party at risk in order to meet the requirement for organisational standing.

“We can make a motion at the Court of Appeals to move the case back to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court indicated that they’d hear it.” No further oral arguments or briefings would be required if standing is met.

Chief Justice John Minton, Justice Lisabeth Hughes Abramson, Justice Wil Schroder, and Justice Daniel J. Venters all concurred with the ruling, while Chief Justice Will T. Scott concurred in “result only.”

The online sportsbooks have been slow to post NIT Tournament 2010 odds even though Gambling911.com readers have been hitting up the site in droves to find information related to the NIT.

SBG Global has published the games but was still in the process of posting actual odds on each.  They were expected to have NIT Tournament 2010 odds up by mid to late afternoon. 

This year’s NIT Tournament is especially riveting as both UConn and North Carolina are participating.   One tournament’s loss is another’s gain as these two teams add power to the NIT.

"I just didn’t do as good a job with this club this year as I needed to," coach Roy Williams said Thursday, after the Tar Heels lost to Georgia Tech in their ACC tournament opener.

North Carolina (16-16) hadn’t missed the NCAA tournament since 2003, before Williams arrived in Chapel Hill. And Williams hadn’t missed the big party since 1989, his first season at Kansas, when the school was ineligible due to NCAA violations.

"I couldn’t get the right buttons pushed," said Williams, whose Tar Heels were ranked No. 6 early in the season but lost 10 of 12 at one point. "I didn’t know what those buttons were."

The NIT begins Tuesday on campuses with the championship April 1 at Madison Square Garden.

The No. 1 seeds were Illinois, Arizona State, Virginia Tech and Mississippi State, all teams that spent Sunday hoping for NCAA tournament bids.

Mississippi State will open the tournament against in-state rival Jackson State.

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Don Shapiro, Gambling911.com 

“We believe it is logical to assume that the US market will eventually regulate – given the potential implications for US tax take, if nothing else,” the bank said in a note to investors today.

The parlous state of the US economy is forcing individual states to seek new sources of revenue and online gaming is a hugely profitable sector.

“Were the market to be legalized, we believe that the size of the revenue opportunity could increase materially,” said the report from Goldman Sachs. “Based on an assumption of 30% penetration of offline poker players and $300 gross gaming revenue (GGR) per player, we estimate that a legal poker market could be worth $3bn.”

The report continued: “Were GGR to increase to 45% and GGR per player rise to $400, the size of the poker market alone could be worth $6bn. We also estimate that the casino market could expand to a similar scale, based on various offline penetration assumptions.”

“The momentum at state level, where widening state budget deficits are ratcheting up financial pressures, is clearly building,” the report concluded. “Indeed, if California and Florida move forward with legislation to legalise online poker, this could prove the catalyst for other states to follow suit”.

Although the long term signs are good, Goldman Sachs is quick to caution that progress at a federal level is likely to be very slow. However, state legislation is much quicker and could provide the necessary momentum.

Congressman Barney Frank’s bill to repeal UIGEA has been delayed until September, while state-level initiatives such as those to legalise online poker in California or legal internet poker in Florida are moving more quickly.