Just as Las Vegas sports books set odds on football games, Ultrinsic will pay you top dollar for A’s, a little less for the more likely outcome of a B average or better, and so on. You can also wager you’ll fail a class by buying what Ultrinsic calls “grade insurance.”

CEO Steven Wolf insists this is not online gambling, which is technically illegal in the United States, because wagers with Ultrinsic involve skill.

Here’s how the website works: A student registers, uploads his or her schedule and gives Ultrinsic access to official school records. The site then calculates odds based on the student’s college history and any information it can dig up on the difficulty of each class, the topic and other factors. The student decides how much to wager up to a cap that starts at $25 and increases with use.
Ultrinsic is currents available at the following schools:

• University of California-Berkeley
• University of Southern California
• Stanford University
• University of California-Los Angeles
• University of Connecticut
• Howard University
• American University
• George Washington University
• Georgetown University
• Indiana University-Bloomington
• Brandeis University
• Boston College
• Harvard University
• Boston University
• Michigan State University
• University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
• North Carolina State University
• University of North Carolina
• Wake Forest University
• Duke University
• Rutgers University
• CUNY Queens College
• SUNY Binghamton
• Syracuse University
• St. Johns University
• New York University
• Columbia University
• Pennsylvania State University
• University of Pittsburgh
• University of Pennsylvania
• Princeton University
• University of Texas-Austin
• Texas Tech University
• Texas A&M University
• Brigham Young University
• University of Wisconsin-Madison

Virgin Gaming will provide the multiplayer tournament service for some of Ubisoft’s hottest game releases, including the upcoming Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier. Rob Segal, chief executive of Virgin Gaming, said that his company will offer social networking and competitive gaming for Ubisoft’s games on the PC and consoles.

Laurent Detoc, president of Ubisoft North America, said that the tournament gaming service that Virgin Gaming offers will be a perfect fit for a number of Ubisoft titles with multiplayer play coming this year. Virgin Gaming offers features such as verification of results; a secure payment service; and community reputation management system. It can also stage tournaments of any size and track the results.

More details will be released soon.

Xfire is a free tool that automatically keeps track of when and where gamers are playing PC games online and lets their friends join them easily. It works regardless of game type, server browser, or gaming service that a player is using. Xfire eliminates the hassles of running multiple programs like IRC, instant messengers, or in-game friends lists to keep track of when and where a gamer’s friends are playing.

Titan Gaming offers gaming companies the most effective and complete gaming platform enabling skill based matchmaking, tournaments, and points or cash competitions.  It would seem that Titan will look to integrate its tournament platform into Xfire and let participants play in points or cash competitions.

Where: University of Colorado in Denver – Tivoli Student Union
Address: 900 Auraria Parkway Denver, CO 80204
Date: Friday and Saturday, August 13 – 14 2010

The SuperCon 2010 features numerous panels such as:

• Breaking Into The Gaming Industry
  Want to be a professional gamer? Ever wanted to host your own tournament? Want to start a business in gaming? We’ve brought experts from the gaming industry to give you tips on all of the above! Stop by with your questions, and take your first steps into becoming an entity within the industry.
• Starting a Local Community Website – 10 Easy steps to Setup and improve your site!
  Are you running a community for local or online interest, but don’t really know what’s going on with SEO, forums, or blogs? Is it not popping up on Google? Have you heard the phrase “RSS feed” and had no clue what’s going on? Come join OKgamers.com founder, and professional web and graphic design consultant Saif Khan as we walk through the 10 easy steps he provides to take your basic community home page to the next level!

Get more info and register at Supercon2k.com

However, the last sentence on the release about the shutdown reads “Please visit us again soon to see the next generation of BringIt!” so it remains to be seen what BringIt.com will be reborn as.

QuakeCon, is free to the public and offers an unparalleled opportunity to see the greatest players in the world compete in highly-competitive tournaments. This year, attendees can now catch all of the intense gaming action up close in the newly created 250-seat tournament arena. Top matches will be broadcast live each day of the competitions on large screens with simultaneous play-by-play commentary from this year’s shoutcasters who will capture all of the energy, excitement and behind-the-scenes drama, with live match coverage, player interviews and expert analysis.

The QuakeCon 2010 Tournament Lineup:

Quake Live Masters Championship
The Intel QUAKE LIVE Masters Championship will feature known professionals and top QUAKE LIVE competitors in their own exclusive tournament. Sixty-four (64) of the world’s best QUAKE LIVE players will face-off in the 1vs.1 duel for more than $25,000 in a double elimination bracket, with each match played in a best-of-three-games format. With two competitors remaining, thousands will gather to watch as these two best-of-the-best survivors go head-to-head in a single elimination, best-of-five-games throw-down with a $14,000 check written to the champion. Matches will feature a pool of five arenas.

The QUAKE LIVE Capture the Flag Championship
The Capture the Flag Championship will feature 4 vs. 4 competitions for up to 32 teams battling it out in a single elimination bracket and best-of three-games format using five arenas. Players who come out on top will share prizes of $25,000, including $14,000 for the team of champions. Matches in the CTF tournament will feature five arenas.

The QUAKE LIVE Open Tournament
Available for up to 128 amateurs and up-and-coming competitors, the QUAKE LIVE Open will offer players a taste of the excitement and pressure of professional gaming. Battling for a share of $2,500, including $1,500 for the champion, players will compete in a single elimination bracket, with each match played in a best-of-three-games format. Matches for the Open Tournament will feature the same five arenas as the Masters Championship.

For official rules, requirements, prize money distribution, pool of arenas and additional information, please go to http://www.quakecon.org/tournament.

To start, Virgin Gaming will support  PS3 and XBOX 360 Titles.Whether you’re a FIFA fanatic, a Ghost Recon future soldier, or a Halo devotee, Virgin Gaming supports a growing collection of the industry’s best games for multiplayer tournaments, head-to-head matches and special events.

Membership at Virgin Gaming is free and Virgin brings you the Fair Play Guarantee.
Skill ratings help you find and challenge members with similar gaming abilities, while our reputation system helps keep the action clean. To top it off, our automatic results verification ensures that your hard earned victories will be justly rewarded.