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Monday news sweep

Veteran of the sportsbetting industry, WSEX, is allegedly going down according to Gambling911. Reports of their slow demise have been emerging for a while now, surely there comes a time when you just have to just pay up, and close down?

Australian telco Telstra is said to be discussing acquiring a 25% stake in racing TV network TVN according to sources. If so, that would certainly give them some teeth in resisting the anti-competitive we-wish-we-were-a-monopoly TABCorp-owned SkyChannel. And if the Anti-Competition Council get involved there, the Aus racing & broadcasting sector could be in for a major shake up. The chances of TVN's website getting a decent upgrade from the same replay technology they began with in about 2002? Crappy old Windows Media Player format that continually runs stop-start. Very slim...

Racing NSW still in the dark about technology, but it turns out the Japan Racing Association, supposedly the benchmark of integrity, isn't much further ahead.

And more from Bill Saunders about why Racing NSW have no idea what they are doing, and are too stubborn to back down. Peter V'Landys and Alan Brown need to learn how to play poker - being pot committed is the fast track to going bust...

Israel has announced it will ask ISPs to block foreign betting sites into the country. Quite ironic really, considering several big gambling firms including 888, have Israeli roots. Only local high-margin operators, licensed by the Israeli govt will be legally visible in the country.

William Hill may lose their sponsorship of Malaga in La Liga, after a change of owners. The Qatari consortium taking over are against gambling for religious reasons and wish to end the contract, which has 12 months remaining.

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