An agreement between European Game & Entertainment Technology Ltd. (EGET) and Spordiennustus AS will bring Internet sports betting to consumers in Estonia.
EGET, a Finnish supplier of Internet gaming solutions, will roll out its WinOne Internet Gaming Platform in Estonia in the spring of 2004. The system is a personalized interactive solution offering a portfolio that includes lottery, casino, sports betting and totalizator games.
The Spordiennustus agreement calls for EGET to deliver the sports betting module, including the automated operation of a fully-fledged fixed-odds sports book.
The implementation of EGET's technology is made possible by the Game Application Programming Interface (Game API), which enables the integration of third-party games to the WinOne platform as well as the integration of third-party games to any proprietary Internet gaming system that has the Game API. The purpose of the Game API is to provide an easy, yet safe and efficient way to connect new games to WinOne or any other gaming system.
Spordiennustus AS, an Estonian licensed gaming operator, is a joint venture between the Estonian Olympic Committee and Pafer AS, a subsidiary of PAF, Ålands Penningautomatförening (Åland Islands Slot Machine Association). Pafer AS will cooperate in delivering the Internet Gaming System.
The Åland Islands is an autonomous region in Finland with its own Internet gaming operations, which are operated by PAF.
EGET also developed the online gaming system for PAF, which brought the first WinOne system into commercial operation Dec. 3, 1999.
The next launch for EGET came Sept. 20, 2003, when Fintoto, a subsidiary of Suomen Hippos ry, the Finnish Trotting and Breeding Association debuted its gaming site, www.fintoto.fi, also based on the WinOne gaming platform. The new site brought tote horse betting games, previously available only at Finnish horseracing tracks and through Totoline agents, to the Internet.
Last month EGET delivered an Internet gaming system and three instant games to Sperospel.se, a newly established Swedish gaming operator. Sperospel.se is the first company to be granted a gaming license by the Swedish National Gaming Board (Lotteriinspektionen) to offer games to the public over the Internet.
The gaming market leader in Estonia, AS Eesti Loto, is also involved in creating a new gaming platform that will replace the present radio link with up-to-date broadband, a major change that will result in enhanced speed and security.
AS Eesti Loto, established in 1991 as a state-owned limited company, is the major organizer of lotteries in Estonia. The tradition of state lotteries in Estonia dates back to 1971.