A succession of bets placed by a man who left his estate to Oxfam when he died could raise more than a third of a million pounds for the charity over the next ten years, including £100,000 if Roger Federer wins this year’s Wimbledon in June as is widely expected.

The first bet, £250 on Roger Federer to win at least 14 grand slam titles before 2020 at 66/1, won £16,750 for Oxfam and was claimed this month, as Federer heads into the 2010 tennis season as world number one.

The bets, placed with bookmakers William Hill between 2000 and 2005 by Nicholas Newlife from Kidlington, Oxfordshire, are pinned on the future successes of tennis stars Roger Federer and Andy Roddick, and cricketer Ramnaresh Sarwan.

Mr Newlife left his entire estate to Oxfam when he died in February 2009, aged 69, which included the outcomes of the series of outstanding bets he had placed.

Federer lost last year’s Australian Open to Nadal in the final, but went on to claim his 14th grand slam at the French Open and 15th at Wimbledon in 2009, winning almost £17,000 for Oxfam in the process.

Cathy Ferrier, Fundraising and Supporter Marketing Director at Oxfam, said:

“We’re enormously grateful to Mr Newlife for his generous gift, and will be keeping a close eye on Wimbledon this year as a result.

“Legacies amount to 10 per cent of our total income from individuals, so they’re essential to us, and as this case proves they can come in all shapes and sizes. It is very easy to make a will and including Oxfam could leave a lasting legacy for those most in need.

“Every time someone leaves us a gift in their will, whether that’s a few pounds or a few thousands pounds, it helps us make a huge difference to thousands of lives around the world. For example, £500 could provide twenty basics latrines, such as those sent by Oxfam after the Haiti earthquake, and £3,700 could equip an entire special needs school with teaching and learning aids.”

Graham Sharpe, Media Relations Director at William Hill, said:

“Mr Newlife was clearly a very shrewd sporting gambler whose early identification of potential superstars won tens of thousands of pounds for himself while he was still alive - but to ensure that a respected charity would benefit from any bets which came to fruition after his death makes him unprecedented in my thirty year experience of the betting industry. Roger Federer is already 6/4 hot favourite to win this summer’s Wimbledon and I fully expect to be handing over a six figure [£101, 840] cheque to Oxfam when he does so.”

The outstanding bets placed by Mr Newlife that could still come off are:

* £1520 on Federer to win Wimbledon men’s singles at least 7 times before 2020 at 66/1 - this would win £101,840 for Oxfam this summer if he comes out on top at this summer’s Wimbledon.
* £1,000 on Andy Roddick to win at least 7 grand slam singles titles before 2020 at 33/1 - this would win £34,000 for Oxfam.
* £750 on Andy Roddick to win at least 10 grand slam singles titles before 2020 at 100/1 - this would win £75,075 for Oxfam.
* £350 on Ramnaresh Sarwan to make over 7,000 test match runs by end of 2019 at 50/1 - this would win £17,850.
* £300 on Ramnaresh Sarwan to make more than 8,000 test match runs by end of 2019 at 100/1 - this would win £30,300.
* £250 on Ramnaresh Sarwan to make more than 9,000 test match runs by end of 2019 at 250/1 - this would win £62,750.

Should all the bets come to fruition, Oxfam would receive around £330,000, which would be enough to buy emergency rations for almost 46,000 people, safe water for more than 350,000 people, or buy 12,800 goats.

Oxfam benefits from the generosity of around 600 legacies every year - the charity receives on average around £10-11 million per year from legacy gifts.

Other unusual legacies that Oxfam has received include:

* A pair of gold teeth and a dentist’s chair from a former dentist;
* The royalties from a number of books and plays, including Doctor Finlay’s Casebook, which was on TV from 1962 to 1971;
* A letter written by Florence Nightingale, which was sold for several hundred pounds at auction;
* Some racing greyhounds;
* The most expensive shares left to us was a holding of shares in the original Woolwich Arsenal Football Club. The shares had been overlooked in 1920 and were traced through 4 subsequent estates. Each share was worth £6,965 when finally sold in 2009.

The charity has received the proceeds from sales of art collections and antique furniture, and gifts of jewellery, books and clothes and whenever possible Oxfam arrange for these to be sold in our shops. In the case of antique furniture, Oxfam relies on the expertise of auctioneers to value the items and get the best possible price for them in auction. Perhaps the most attractive item sold on behalf of Oxfam in an auction was a Regency Chaise Longue, which sold for £8,000.

March 6 (Bloomberg) -- Macau casino billionaire Stanley Ho has been discharged from hospital today, Radio Television Hong Kong reported on its Web site.

The billionaire, accompanied by his family, was seen waving to reporters at the front door of Hong Kong Sanatorium and Hospital, according to the RTHK report. Ho has regained weight lost before he was hospitalized and he has been walking, RTHK cited his daughter, Pansy Ho, as saying today.

“He’s in very good condition and his health has fully recovered,” Pansy Ho said in comments broadcast on Hong Kong’s Cable TV News.

Ho, 88, had been hospitalized in Hong Kong since August. His last public appearance was in December, when Macau Chief Executive Fernando Chui took the oath of office. Ho controls SJM Holdings Ltd., the casino operator with the biggest market share in Macau, in turn the world’s largest gambling hub. Ho, who also owns ferry operator and property developer Shun Tak Holdings Ltd., has never named a successor.

The gaming magnate’s companies have made no public statement on his condition. Janet Wong, a spokeswoman for Shun Tak, couldn’t be reached immediately for comment today.

Ho has undergone two “pretty big” surgeries, Lawrence Ho, his eldest surviving son, said in a Bloomberg Television interview broadcast Dec. 9, without elaborating.

One person has been injured in an armed robbery on the European Poker Tournament in Berlin, Germany.

Carsten Mueller, a police spokesman said four robbers in disguises forced employees to hand over money, and then managed to escape.

The jackpot for the tournament stood at €1 million ($1.36 million), according to a European Poker Tour Web site. The EPT confirmed the heist on the event's blog in an official statement, saying there had been "an armed robbery executed by six men." It was unclear why the number differed from the police count.

Olaf Wagner, a photographer for Germany's Bild am Sonntag newspaper, was in the hotel when the raid occurred.

He said: "I was at the entrance to the poker hall when they stormed in.I saw three masked men struggling with security personnel in the room where cash is exchanged for chips.

"I saw one of the men stuffing 500 euro notes into a backpack. A second pinned down a security guard with a machete to his chest.

"As they ran one of the security men pulled a robber to the ground. I couldn't decide if this was all a PR stunt or not; it seemed incredible to believe that it could be a real robbery in the heart of Berlin in daylight.

"I got my camera ready. As the security guard was on the floor a hotel page boy came along and took the bag he had been carrying.I saw next to the robber was his gun, a revolver.

"As they struggle the robber calls for help and the others return. One of them has an empty glass bottle he waves in the face of the security man. They force him to release their accomplice.

"Then I see them, unmasked, running into the tourist filled shopping centre. They left the hotel through the emergency exit."

The tournament organiser, the European Poker Tour (EPT), said the raiders had probably been attracted by the one-million-euro prize on offer to the winner of the event. They did not say how much was stolen.

A statement on their website called on anyone with photo or video footage of the robbery to hand it over to the police.

The tournament, which German tennis legend Boris Becker took part in earlier, resumed around four hours after the attack.

Live Cams during the
Robbery





The fight between the securities and
robberies





Aftermath






News reporting the incident

[pressandjournal]

BOOKMAKER Paddy Power said a “cracking year for punters” had left it with a 15% slide in profits after a run of exceptionally customer-friendly sporting results.

The firm said it “took a proper pounding” in the racing at Cheltenham in 2009, while Six Nations rugby did not go its way and football saw a dearth of draws.

Consequently Paddy’s gross win – the amount left by losing punters – was lower than expected, down by an estimated £26.3million on sporting results after a strong 2008.

Pre-tax profits for the year to December 31 were about £60.8million compared with £71.5million in 2008.

Last year’s profit fall came despite a 31% rise in the amount staked by customers to £2.49billion.

The Dublin-based firm said while the results had shaved profits, this was a fact of life for bookmakers and said trading in 2010 so far had been satisfactory as more favourable sports outcomes offset racing cancellations during snow-hit January.

Chief executive Patrick Kennedy said: “Despite the economic problems, 2009 was a cracking year for Paddy Power punters on two fronts.

“The year saw a slew of punter-friendly sporting results which was the exact opposite to the experience of the prior year.”

He said the firm had invested in offers and concessions to attract extra custom, while also expanding the business with acquisitions in Australia and a further 25 shops in the UK.

It now has 93 outlets in the UK and teams in Glasgow and Manchester aimed at boosting the firm’s high-street presence further outside London.

Power said it intends to have at least 150 shops in the UK by 2011.

In Australia, the firm snapped up Sportsbet and IAS in the year to move into the online market.

It is hoping to capitalise on a substantial regulated betting market and high gambling spending per capita.

The Australian division made up 7% of operating profit in the year – at £4.2million – while the UK accounted for 44% with £26.6million.

Power’s online division – excluding the Australian arm – increased its proportion of group profits, from 57% in 2008 to 69% last year.

The firm said the potential growth of online betting still had a long way to go with the rollout of “super-fast” broadband in the UK and elsewhere over the next few years.

It said once home internet was fast enough to watch live TV streaming it would drive further online participation, while despite economic worries added that research had shown broadband was among the very last items consumers were prepared to do without.

Power said sporting results had started to turn in its favour towards the end of 2009, but not before a run of punter-biased results.

PokerStars.com has announced the latest PokerStars Pro new member - Julian Thew. Julian is from Nottingham, England. Currenly he is rank number 1 in the European Poker Tour Tournament when his most notable victory was at Baden's European Poker Tour in season 4 where he walked away with 670,800 EURO. His poker career's total earning has accumulated to almost $2.5 million.

He became the 5th Brits as a member of PokerStars Pro after John Duthie, Vicky Coren, Jude Ainsworth and JP Kelly.