Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Dragon's Den Awards Largest Investment Ever to Online Gambling Website

BBC’s reality investment program Dragons’ Den has made an investment in online gaming site GamingAlerts.com. On Monday night, Emmie Matthews and Ed Stevens, founders of the site, recieved a £200,000 investment for their gaming site; marking the single largest amount ever awarded on the immesely popular program. Watch the video clip on BBC.

The Dragons’ Den panellists are famous for striking fear into the hearts of the hopefuls who turn up asking for investment. But Dragon Theo Paphitis was so impressed with their project he agreed to invest all the money on his own.

According to Matthews, Paphitis was excited about his investment because: “Theo knows the current and future value of online gaming and sees it as a major growth industry. He invested because of our years of experience in gaming, and because of our track record of success. In fact, Mrs Paphitis plays online bingo all the time so Theo understood the value of the company and its large consumer appeal.”

The winning concept of Gaming Alerts is to deliver up-to-date offers, advice and bonuses direct to the desktop of online gamblers from major online casinos, online poker rooms, online bingo sites and online sportsbooks.

Users select their interests, and Gaming Alerts tailors the best odds, bonuses, free bets and freeroll poker tournaments that fit the player’s exact criteria. This tailored-content solution is a convienience for users and a hugely valuable media outlet for online gaming sites.

Dragon, Theo Paphitis said “I am delighted to be working with the Gaming Alerts team, I think the whole concept of proactively alerting users to the best bonuses and offers is truly revolutionary and Ed and Emmie have really brought the idea to life, I am looking forward to working with them and realising the potential of the company.”

The founders have an exclusive agreement with technology supplier Skinkers, the market leaders in desktop communication, who are also the suppliers to the BBC and Sky News alerts services.

Stevens said “Gaming Alerts makes money the same way moneysupermarket.com or confused.com does – by referring customers or users from our site to operators in exchange for commissions.”

Paphitis has built his fortune on turning businesses into successes. He has transformed Ryman, Contessa, La Senza and Partners the Stationers into successful and profitable retail companies. He now heads up a 350-store chain a group turnover approaching 250m. Theo’s style and knowledge is part of the reason why Dragons’ Den has been such a huge ratings hit since its launch in 2005.

Tila Tequila Celebrates Her Birthday With New Look for Her Casino and New Single

It's MySpace Queen Tila Tequila's birthday tomorrow. maybe that explains the total makeover she's given to her online casino! Tila is throwing a birthday party slash CD release party in Vegas tomorrow. I can't make it myself but I did check out those the updated TilaCasino.com and TilaPoker.com sites and I did buy the new single on iTunes!

The poker and casino site now offers enhanced navigation, faster loading time, sexier playing features and a direct link to Tila’s News and Blogs. TilaCasion.com will be the best place for poker and casino fans to have fun and play with the most popular games available. At Tila’s site, the games are live and so are the dealers – they’ll hand out your chips and cards live through video. The casino hosts great tournaments with huge jackpots and poker players can compete at whatever level they prefer.

“Tila has been totally hands on with the site’s new design and we all think it looks pretty damn good as well: It has Tila’s magic touch – she really is quite the business woman and certainly knows what she wants,” said Jeff Mann of ESL, the company managing Tila's online casino for her.

Tila’s more popular than ever right now as her brand-new TV show “A Shot At Love With Tila Tequila” premiered on MTV in the US and Canada this month. According to The Hollywood Reporter, "A Shot at Love…" scored big with 1.8 million viewers and ranking No. 1 in its time period across all of cable in the network's target demo of persons 18-34, averaging a 2.0 rating.”

With her worldwide following of millions and extraordinary rise to fame over the past couple of years, Tila’s TV show is set to become the latest reality TV ratings smash hit for MTV and send her fame soaring even higher. “A Shot At Love With Tila Tequila” has 16 guys and 16 girls compete to win Tila’s heart as our bisexual heroine gradually whittles down the field of contestants until she chooses the one for her. The show has already created a stir in the mainstream media, with news channels such as CNN debating whether the show is too risque, under headlines such as “Too Raunchy or Just Entertainment?”

If you're in Las Vegas tomorrow check Tila's MySpace blog for birthday party info.