Chartwell Technology Inc. continues to take steps as a worldwide leader in the interactive gaming industry. Most recent is the decision to open a new office in Singapore, giving the company field offices in North America, Europe and Asia.
The office will be home for Chartwell's wholly owned subsidiary, Chartwell Games Corp. (formerly Gaming Tech Corp.).
Ranjeet Sundher has been named president of its subsidiary and will head the office in Singapore. Sundher has been involved in the Asia-Pacific business community for the past five years with an emphasis on the Internet technology sector. He is one of the founders and a director of Cybersia Inc. and was instrumental in introducing the company's Internet products to the Chinese online community.
Darold Parken, president and CEO of Chartwell, says the new office will help the company take advantage of a potentially huge market.
Parken points out that Asia is a relatively untapped region presenting numerous opportunities to deploy Chartwell's Internet casino games and bingo software. The company's rollout in Asia will be based on its strategy of forming alliances with strong brands.
"The strategy in general for Asia will be similar to our strategy for North America and Europe," he said. "We will try to focus on brand name entertainment industry players. The actual sales strategy is of course tailored to the Asian business culture."
By opening the office in Singapore, Chartwell is able to tap into the Asian market without the hindrance of the communist government in China.
"The important feature of our business strategy is that we are not involved in the actual gaming business, directly or indirectly," Parken said. "We provide the very best tools to what we hope are the best gaming operators. Those operators are located in legal Internet gaming jurisdictions."
Parken says Chartwell will put a great deal of emphasis on the wireless and interactive TV market since the Asian market has adopted it more than other areas.
"Wireless and interactive TV are indeed more quickly developed and adopted technologies in Asia," he said. "In order to capitalize on these opportunities, we have set up both wireless and interactive TV project development groups which will include alliances with the relevant platform providers."
Parken predicts that other companies may follow suit by opening up shop in the Asian arena.
"We have seen them follow our lead in several other areas and this will probably be no different," he said. "We expect the Asia-Pacific region to quickly account for a significant portion of this multi-billion dollar industry and with our new corporate presence in the region we are ensuring our position as a leading global supplier of Internet gaming software."