Sports Betting Solutions

Online Betting Service Temporarily Suspends Wagering on Google IPO Price

Betting Restored in Restructured Form After Onslaught of 'Under' Action on Opening Price

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 16, 2004--SportsBook911.com, a leading online betting service, temporarily suspended "over-under" wagering on the Google IPO auction after an onslaught of bets from New York and California saying the search engine would have an opening price of less than $110 per share, the mark set as the over-under by the online wagering site as well as the price expected by most money managers. Google itself is predicting an opening price of $108-$135.
"The reality is that the general public does not usually buy stocks over $100, which we think will severely reduce the possible investor pool, therefore there will not be enough buyers to support that price," according to Mike Nickels, president of GC Sports Group, which operates SportsBook911.

The temporary suspension was lifted today with a revised wagering platform that includes five price points, with varying odds for each, for the stock's opening price and closing price. Initial wagering was for the opening price only.

"We received an extraordinarily high volume of wagers from people in New York and California saying that the IPO auction would result in the stock opening below $110, which prompted us to revise our closing price betting structure," Nickels said. "Given the financial connections of people in those two cities, we quickly recognized that we needed to change our wagering structure to level the playing field and make this more of a challenge for our customers who will have a way to make money on the Google IPO without having to actually buy a share."

Nickels said he does not anticipate any additional changes to the Google IPO wagering structure.

Contacts


GC Sports Group
Mike Nickels, 800-213-3370
mike@gcsports.com

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