Polla Chilena de Beneficencia, the state lottery operator of Chile, is at the center of two major announcements concerning Internet gambling this week. Last week Polla Chilena's technology and infrastructure partner Intralot announced that software provider European Games & Entertainment Technology Ltd (EGET) had completed the development of four new games for use on the Polla Chilena website. Then today Polla Chilena announced that tomorrow it will launch a sports betting game called Xperto on its website.
Athens, Greece-based Intralot began working with Pola Chilena in 2001 when it signed a seven-year contract to supply, install, and support its integrated distributed information system, called LOTUS, for online gaming via retail agents. In September 2003 the companies signed another contract whereby Intralot, through its subsidiary Intralot de Chile, would introduce and maintain an online lottery system that would offer games through mobile phones, call centers, and the Internet.
Intralot enlisted the help of Finland-based EGET to create remote interactive games for Polla Chilena. EGET boasts that within just 8 weeks of signing its contract with Intralot it was able to deliver 4 casino and instant games for the venture. The company credits its quick deliver to the flexible design of its Games Application Interfaces (Game APIs), which also makes it possible to plug any EGET game into any gaming platform.
The four games created by EGET— Western Poker, instant Galactic Keno, a 3 reel 5 line slot called Travel Game, and a 5 reel 9 line slot called Lucky Day-- will eventually be customized and integrated into Polla Chilena's gaming platform.
EGET's CEO Lauri Gorski is proud of the venture, which is his company's first outside of Europe. He explained, "Not only is this our first deliver through an industry partner, it is also our first delivery outside Europe. Despite the intercontinental nature of this project, we also completed it in record time. We are especially proud that our games have been judged fit for the high standard expected by Chilean online players."
While the games supplied by EGET may not appear on Polla Chilena's network for several weeks, Polla Chilena will tomorrow launch Xperto for betting on football results.
The launch of Xperto will accompanied by a marketing campaign involving sports media channels and television ads. Though at first Xperto will only allow betting on the results of football matches, tennis and Formula One racing are expected to be added within three months.
Polla Chilena's general manager Santiago Gonzalez recently gave some growth estimations to Chilean newspaper Diario Financiero. He stated that Xperto "should make the Polla grow 30 percent in 2005 and in the next year become 25 percent of our total sales, which are estimated at $120 million for this fiscal year."
He continued, "Xperto is a forerunner since it's conceived to be played over the Internet, the phone (either regular phones or mobile phones) and terminals. This makes Chile the most advanced country in Latin America in these matters."