One of the world's largest sports betting businesses has decided to venture into Internet bookmaking and is teaming up with a proven European software provider to bring its brand online.
IQ-Ludorum, a leading Internet casino and sportsbook software provider, just announced that Bowman International has agreed to use IQ-Ludorum's IQ-Netsports 4.0 as the backbone to Bowman's first-ever Internet sportsbook.
Bowman, a U.K. operation, will begin taking bets online at the start of the 2001 NFL season. The online section will not replace Bowman's existing call center; it will only enhance it, according to company officials.
The terms of the agreement have IQ-Ludorum providing Internet sportsbook software along with call center software. IQ-Sportstech 4.0 will be used to manage Bowman's call center and will create a seamless integration for current telephone account holders to move to the Web.
The founder and CEO of Bowman International, Gary Bowman, said that making the decision to go with IQ-Ludorum was a long process and that the quality of the company's newly released software was a clincher in the deal.
"We looked at a number of different options to better serve our growing customer base and concluded that the integrated call center and Internet-based software developed by IQ-Ludorum's latest 4.0 release, provided us with the best possible solution to meet increasing customer demand," he said.
Richard Brightling, IQ-Ludorum's managing director for the United Kingdom/Europe region, said that the agreement is another sign that IQ is the leader in bringing strong gaming brands to the Internet.
"The deployment of our integrated gaming solutions by Bowman International, a well respected leader in our industry, reinforces the intrinsic value of our recent software releases and our commitment to partner with gaming providers of the highest integrity," he said.
The deployment of IQ-Ludorum's software solutions will enable Bowman to offer a wide variety of bets to meet the demand of an increasingly sophisticated base of customers. Utilizing XML technology, IQ-Netsports 4.0 will enable Bowman to handle much larger demand with the capability to support 40,000 concurrent users and 2 million transactions per week.
The move to the Internet for Bowman continues an evolution for one of the leading bookmakers in the entire world.
The company was started in 1985 when Gary Bowman founded American Football Pools to accept parlay cards on American football from anywhere in the world.
Two years later Bowman formed Sports Action International. It became the first offshore book to target mainland North America, but also accepted bets from throughout the world.
The next six years were spent creating a foundation for the company to build on. Telecommunications, money transfer and human resources were the major components of this infrastructure.
In 1996 the company opened up a call center on the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. The center is complete with 200 lines.
Bowman's Internet sports betting service will be based in the Isle of Man, Mauritius and the United Kingdom--jurisdictions where the company is already operating.