BTopenworld bets on gambling

BTopenworld is to add online betting to its content offering through a partnership with portal ukbetting.com.

BTopenworld will offer sports betting, lotteries, bingo and casino games on a new portal site.

The company has already announced deals with a number of UK gaming companies including UKbetting, Oddschecker, Rank Group, Station Casinos and Sun Online. BTopenworld will not be make any money on the bets themselves but it will generate revenue by charging tenancy fees to the various partners.

All the security, age checking and financial transactions with punters will be undertaken by BTopenworld's partners.

The move follows a government announcement that it will deregulate the gambling industry.

BTopenworld has been investing substantially in building up its content businesses since last summer. It already runs gamesdomain.co.uk and dotmusic.com, which it claims are the busiest games site in Europe and the busiest music site in the UK respectively.

The new source of revenue will provide a boost to BTopenworld after a recent BT Wholesale move which will put its revenues from broadband at risk.

BT Retail announced it will offer broadband internet access supplied by BT Wholesale which bypasses ISPs. This will greatly reduce revenues from selling access and increase the need to make money through content provision.