Media

September's Sydney Olympics should be a financial success after being praised worldwide as the greatest Games in history, Olympic leaders said on Tuesday.

Ladbrokes, the betting and gaming division of Hilton Group plc, has launched a betting and gaming internet service at ladbrokes.co.uk, and at its tax-free international site ladbrokes.com.

Local organisers of the Athens Olympics want Greeks to get more involved now that the IOC believe they are capable of staging the 2004 Summer Games.

Rob Avis, former sales director of TheStreet.co.uk, has been snapped up by Rivals.net - the UK-based network of independent sports sites - to be its first commercial director.

WIGE and RTL New Media are to team up to produce an online service package for the forthcoming four-hill ski-jumping tournament and ski-jumping World Cup.

The Australian government has warned football leagues and media outlets that it won't tolerate a reduction in the amount of football shown on free-to-air television.

UK pay-TV broadcaster, Sky digital has launched two new services as part of their interactive offering: on-screen betting through the TV channel and a new Sky Text service.

The German media giant Kirch group's newly merged ProSieben Sat1 Media AG is looking to win the broadcasting rights to Formula One motor racing post 2003.

Dallas-based investment firm Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst is to slow down its Latin American acquisitions programme, according to US press reports.

The BBC is planning to launch a new paid-for sports channel.

African Games officials want to harmonise international sporting calendars to ensure their top athletes do not have to choose between lucrative overseas meetings and the continent's top event.

The British Internet Publishers Alliance (BIPA) has named Rob Hersov, CEO and founder of Sportal, as the organisations? new Chairman.

Extreme Sports Channel, the adventure and adrenaline sports service, is to broadcast in Russia.

Paris will stage the best Olympics ever if it wins the right to hold them in 2008, the bid organisers said in an official statement.

Manoj Prabhakar, banned for five years by the Indian cricket board, said on Wednesday he had deserved better treatment for helping expose match-fixing.

Tennis Canada has appointed Anthony Alfred as regional director, media and public relations.

A former senior 2004 Athens Games official has accused the organising committee (ATHOC) of cultivating "virtual reality instead of substance and essence" and its president Gianna Angelopoulos of inertia.

Deutsche Bank AG has declined to comment on media reports that one of the investment funds it manages had taken a big paper loss on a stake in ailing German media company EM.TV AG .