Godolphin Seven Stars Competition

This annual free competition opens for entries on 1 March 2006. Here's more info from the Godolphin website:

The world's greatest free-to-enter on-line racing competition, the Godolphin Seven Stars, opens for entries at 9am (Dubai time) on Wednesday, March 1st, 2006.

Entries, limited to one per person, must be made through the Godolphin Internet site, www.godolphin.com, by 11.59pm (Dubai time) on Friday, March 24th.

Competitors pick seven Godolphin racehorses who are awarded points for finishing first, second or third, with extra points for high quality races, between Saturday, March 25th which is Dubai World Cup day and Sunday, December 10th when the Hong Kong International races take place. All contestants must be aged 18 or over.

Information about the progress of the competition can be found on the award-winning Godolphin Internet site. This is the seventh year of the Godolphin Seven Stars.

The tremendous prizes are the same as in 2005, with the winner gaining US$100,000, two free first class flights to Dubai with Emirates Airline and seven nights at the fantastic Burj Al Arab Hotel in a duplex suite for the 2007 Dubai World Cup meeting.

The second collects US$50,000, while the third gains US$30,000, the fourth wins US$15,000 and the fifth receives US$5,000.

It's a bit of lottery, obviously, but you've nothing to lose by entering!

Inside Edge offers

Have you seen Inside Edge magazine? It's a glossy mag, available from newsagents, covering most areas of gambling. It's generally a good read, and I've picked up one or two useful ideas from its pages. As with all such publications, some articles are better than others, of course.

Inside Edge costs £1.99 per issue at the newsagents, but there are some great special offers available currently. On their own website they are offering three free issues if you subscribe for a year, and another email newsletter I subscribe to has today offered me an annual subscription for £7.99. However, I've found an even better deal than that on the Internet. How about a year's subscription for just a fiver? It's available now from the website below:

Inside Edge £5 Special Offer

I assume they do this in order to boost their circulation, so that they can charge more to advertisers (which is where they make most of their money). Anyway, it's a great offer, so if you fancy getting Inside Edge delivered to your door free for 12 months, I recommend going to the web page above and getting your order in today. Obviously, I can't guarantee how long this offer will be available.

Goodbye, Winning Report

If you subscribe to The Winning Report, the monthly gambling newsletter from Streetwise Publications, I'm afraid I have some disappointing news for you. On Friday I received an e-mail from the editor telling me that, due to a falling circulation, The Winning Report would no longer be using freelance contributions.

As Vic Knight, David Keeldar and myself - who between us write 90 per cent of the newsletter - are all freelances, that means the newsletter will shortly cease to exist in its current form. I have heard from another source that all existing TWR subscriptions will be transferred to another gambling newsletter. If that's true, at least you won't be left high and dry.

In some ways I'm not too surprised by this development, as new magazine launches such as Inside Edge have taken away some of TWR's potential readership. I do still think that TWR could have had a successful future, though, perhaps by concentrating more on betting exchange trading strategies, risk-free betting, and similar niches. However, my guess is that Streetwise are clearing space in their publishing schedule for new projects, and TWR was a project that they felt had run its course.

As for me, it's disappointing but not a disaster, as I have plenty of other irons in the fire. But if any other publisher is interested in taking over some of the popular features I used to produce for TWR, such as Betting Surgery and Tipsters Update, I am open to offers! Please contact me at mail-at-nickdaws.co.uk.