UK Newspaper Bets on Gambling

UNITED KINGDOM – As reported by Bloomberg: "The Sportsman, Britain's first new national daily newspaper in 20 years, is betting that a gambling boom fueled by the Internet and televised soccer matches will help it overcome the industry's lackluster advertising growth.

"`The market has undergone a massive shift in the past five years,' said Max Aitken, the newspaper's managing director and a great-grandson of Lord Beaverbrook, the legendary press baron. `The U.K. betting market in the past 10 years has grown from 5 billion pounds (US$8.78 billion) to 40 billion pounds.'

"The Sportsman, which publishes its first issue today, aims at a new generation of gamblers attracted to Internet poker and the bevy of weekly soccer games now available on pay TV services such as British Sky Broadcasting Plc…"