Michael Franzese talks about his experiences as a mafia boss and his direct knowledge of game fixing in the world of sports. A fascinating talk giving the listener an insider’s view of the seedier side of sports betting. From a conference in the UK sponsored by PlayTheGame.org.

Things are looking bad for Bodog. A U.S. based judge just affirmed a ruling that could end up costing them around $50 million dollars. Given that they are not an American company, it’s possible that they will try to not pay the amount. Bodog’s founder has claimed that the company was not served in the original suit and that the company has an insufficient presence in the United States to infringe any US patents.

From Gaming Intelligence Group

Online gaming operator Bodog has failed in its attempt to set aside a $46.6 million judgement against it in the patent infringement suit brought by 1st Technology LLC. With interest, Bodog must now pay 1st Technology over $50 million following yesterday’s ruling.

Bodog was sued by 1st Technology for patent infringement based on Bodog’s distribution of software used for online gaming. A default judgement was issued against the gaming operator on August 1st 2007 after it failed to answer the allegations made against it in the suit.

As part of the ruling, the registrar of Bodog’s domain name was ordered to remove all nameservers associated with Bodog and founder Calvin Ayre, rendering them useless. Bodog subsequently changed its name to NewBodog before finally settling on its current name of BodogLife.

Despite numerous challenges by Bodog against the original judgement by the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit yesterday affirmed the lower court’s ruling.

“We are extremely gratified for our client that the Court of Appeals saw the merits exactly the way we did,” said Mr. Greenspoon, the lawyer representing 1st Technology.

In August of this year, Parlay Entertainment settled a similar patent infringement lawsuit with 1st Technology. The terms of that settlement remain confidential and there was no admission of liability by either party.

This is the latest in a string of recent problems for Bodog. Most recently in July, Forbes magazine released news of an IRS affidavit from a forfeiture lawsuit in Baltimore, Maryland reporting an investigation into the matter of the seizure of over $24M in assets from bank accounts inside the United States that are said to involved in what appears to be money laundering activities in order to process payments to users of the Bodog online gambling casino. The filings are said to involve an elaborate international structure of bank accounts at numerous institutions such as Wachovia, Sun Trust Banks, Bank of America, Regions Bank, Nevada State Bank, a division of Zions Bancorporation in the name of Zaftig Instantly Processed Payments, doing business as ZipPayments.com and business’ said to be linked directly to Bodog founder Calvin Ayre.

If you have a lot of money in your Bodog account, you may want to consider diversifying your assets.

At some point between August 7 and August 9, Zhen Xing Yang and girlfriend Xi Zhou were brutally murdered in their apartment by someone who they appeared to know. There was no signs of forced entry, which is a clear sign the couple invited their killer inside. The couple’s cat didn’t even escape the massacre — it was drowned and its body hidden in the bathroom. Both 25, Zhen Xing Yang and Xi Zhou appeared like any other young couple. They met while in college and she worked as a server at a local restaurant. At first, there was no known motive for the horrific crime.

After going through the contents of the couple’s computer files, however, investigators found that the couple was engaged in an online scam involving sports betting and exploiting small delays in the broadcasts of live sporting events in different parts of the world.

The Guardian article describes the findings:

Finally, this Thursday a possible motive emerged. Internet forums for the Chinese community were aflutter with one particular theory: that Zhen Xing had been involved in shadowy businesses, and gained some dangerous enemies.

Under the user name lanyang0201 – the numbers correspond with his birthday – he posted adverts on Chinese language websites, based in Britain, to recruit people to report on football matches around the world. The aim would have been to take advantage of delays in almost live broadcasts to place bets.

On one website, Zhen Xing wrote: “It is a very simple job, any student who is interested please contact Zhenxing Yang.” An email address was then listed. An advertisement posted under the name of CICI-U – his girlfriend’s nickname – on the powerapple website last October said: “Work: watch football games and send live information to people. Requirement: Basic understanding of football rules, no professional background needed, advantage if you have a car. Location: Sheffield, London, Blackpool, Portsmouth, York, Hull and many other places.”

Many sportsbooks these days allow for players to bet on each individual play of a sporting event. For example, you may be able to place a bet as to whether the next pitch in a baseball game will be a ball or a strike. Apparently this couple hired students in various parts of the world to report to them what a play will be in time enough for them to place a live bet before the play makes it to broadcast in other parts of the world. In an exchange betting environment this could be an effective way to game the system – kind of like placing a bet on the replay.

While this couple may seem to be taking advantage of the system, it’s difficult to say if it should be illegal. In some ways, it seems to parallel the crime of insider trading in the stock market world. However, it does appear that the couple was using publicly available data that would be available to any truly motivated sports bettor. In the end, it shows that the sports betting and gambling world in general has a ways to go before it achieves the legitimacy of a mainstream fair and open market that could be considered a safe option for large investors seeking big financial returns.

Read the full article here.