The rumors were true. Fresh off winning the Tote auction, Betfred has appointed Tote boss Trevor Beaumont (pictured right) as CEO of the enlarged group. Beaumont has been Tote CEO since 2004 and before that was managing director at Coral Eurobet and racing director at the British Horseracing Board. Betfred also appointed Tote managing director Joe Scanlon as group director of racing. Scanlon has been a Tote man since signing on as a shop manager in 1978. In other Betfred news, the company was recently named #1 on the North-West Top 200 companies, a list compiled by the University of Liverpool Management School. Tickled to death by his winning ways, founder Fred Done called his company’s successful Tote bid “a victor for flat caps over top hats.” Then, in true Andy Capp fashion, he went home, crawled onto the sofa and had a nap.
Software developer Cayetano Gaming has inked a deal to provide PaddyPowerGames.com with new slot and table games. Cayetano, which recently earned a core service provider certificate from the Alderney Gambling Control Commission, offers such games as Fun Fair, Foxy Robbers and Roulette.
Amaya Gaming Group lost $1.8m in the most recent quarter, compared to a $449k profit in the same quarter the previous year. Revenues were $1.1m, down from $1.5m last year. Amaya, which was rumored to be looking to acquire fellow Canucks Chartwell Technology, blamed the downturn on increased administrative expenses due to the number of deals it signed in the past year, including SMS lotteries in Kenya and Montenegro, plus an online gaming business in the Dominican Republic.
Things are getting downright ugly in the Czech Republic. Josef Cupka, the trustee brought in to control the vultures picking over the bones of insolvent lottery operator Sazka, was the apparent victim of an attempt on his life on June 22. Witnesses claimed Cupka was deliberately targeted by a speeding Skoda with a Russian license plate, which ran Cupka down while he was attempting to cross a Prague street. Cupka ended up on the hood of the car and was dragged along some distance before tumbling off. A Cupka spokesperson said “there are signs it was not a coincidence.”
Following the alleged attack, former Sazka director Alex Hušák, whom Cupka had to fire over allegations that Hušák was dipping into Sazka’s cookie jar, released an extraordinarily unnecessary statement that deserves reprinting in full: “It is rather strange that a man who claims he was allegedly hit by a car and dragged a couple of meters does not immediately call the police and instead, he immediately supplies the media with conspiracy theories. I would also like to inform you that I got diarrhea yesterday, so I can also claim that the occurrence did not have to be necessarily a matter of coincidence, because the way it occurred does not resemble standard diarrhea, according to witnesses.” Not surprisingly, the names of Hušák’s excremental witnesses have not been made public. Yet.
