Interactive Gaming and Communications will receive $2.5 million in initial funding from Century Industries, Inc. for a joint effort called GambleNet. The funding will be used to complete software development of IGC's LiveAction Gaming Platform, with the addition of Totemaster, an Internet/Intranet live video and wagering system for horse racing.
Century and IGC will operate the new company from the headquarters of Intersphere Communications, Ltd., a subsidiary of IGC, in Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania. It will serve as the exclusive marketing and promotion arm of the two companies for both ToteMaster and StockSleuth, a stock market information search engine.
ToteMaster, when completed, will reside and operate on IGC's LiveAction Casino Gaming platform developed and offered by Intersphere. GambleNet will market and license ToteMaster to thoroughbred horse tracks and off-track betting facilities throughout the world. It is designed to replace the existing simulcasting systems currently in use at these tracks and to provide increased wager handles by accepting bets over the Internet. It will allow bettors to place multiple bets into participating tracks' wager pulls and then view the race(s) in real time video over their computers.
The first beta release for ToteMaster is scheduled for late 1999.