| Rank Group and 888 Sign Sports-betting Deal |
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Gambling firm Rank Group said on Monday its Blue Square Web site would provide a sports betting for London-listed online poker and casino giant 888. Blue Square will manage fixed odds betting and sports content for 888, while 888 will provide payment processing to Blue Square as it takes its own sports betting to new international markets. 888 Chief executive Gigi Levy told Reuters it would blitz its key western European markets like Britain and Spain at the start of next year, slightly later than had originally been planned. "We've pushed it to Q1 2008... It's going to be around four or five countries including two major countries." Levy said the deal would run for a few years but would not give a breakdown on how revenues would be split. "If you said two or three years you would not be far off." The deal allows 888 to make inroads into sports betting without having to shoulder the burden of a small pool of punters, while it gives Rank a feel for gambling in other countries. The head of Blue Square Martin Belsham said that despite the tie-up with 888, Blue Square planned an aggressive push overseas and would launch in Spain in the new year. "We have already said we will launch bingo and casino games in Spain and now we have decided we will extend that to include a sports book." He said it planned to target the most profitable markets, cherry picking them based on its experiences with 888. "I would prefer to underpin it with what makes the most sense. Whether you go into one, three, five or 15 countries, you cut your cloth accordingly." |
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