Tanzanian Mobile Lottery
Selcom Gaming, the lottery provider of Tanzania, has partnered with lotteries provider Openlot Systems to launch a mobile lottery that offers both numbers games and sports betting via SMS. Players can receive game results in either English or Swahili via the Internet or telephone, and winners will automatically be notified by an SMS text message.
A Big Step in North Carolina
A new law in North Carolina enabling the establishment of a state lottery creates a framework for Internet distribution of lottery tickets, scratch games and other licensed offerings. The law went into effect Aug. 31, although most observers agree that the implementation of Internet sales is a long way off. Rep. Bill Owens, D-Pasquotank County, estimated that it will be around six months before retailers begin selling scratch-off tickets and perhaps up to a year before other games are introduced. Internet sales are not in the foreseeable future.
Mobile Scratchcards
Telescratch, a leading developer of online and mobile marketing solutions, has unveiled the SSR (Splash, Scratch and Reveal) technology for mobile phones. The Java-based technology enables brand and content owners to take a traditional scratchcard format into the mobile arena. Costs are distributed between the player and the brand owner, depending on the nature of the promotion. Telescratch says it has already established relationships with leading content owners, brand management agencies and mobile telephone operators.
Lottomatica Gets Back on Track
Italy-based Lottomatica says it is confident that it will meet its profitability targets for 2005 despite an expected drop in its national lottery revenues in the third quarter--this after a disappointing first half of 2005 in which it recorded a 1.7 percent drop in consolidated turnover to 317.8 million euros. The company's net profit for the third quarter is up 18.9 percent to 86.1 million euros.
A Very High Lottery
A partnership between All Stars Entertainment and Playwin Infravest on Oct. 1 launched an online lottery in the Himalayan nation of Bhutan. All Stars Managing Director Sangay Dorji said the lottery is being offered in Thimphu and will be gradually phased in to other towns. The lottery has a range of games that could be played hourly, daily and weekly. Prizes range from Nu. 20 (US$0.45) to a jackpot of upwards of Nu. 10 million (US$227,000). Lottery draws will be telecast live on the Indian Zee TV network.
Irish Government Reaches out to Charitable Lotteries
The Irish government has launched a scheme to assist private charitable lotteries whose products are in direct competition with similar products (such as scratch cards or lines or draws where the draw takes place with a weekly or higher frequency) being sold by the national lottery. Applications for assistance under the scheme will be evaluated on the basis of criteria recommended by an independent committee set up by the Minister for Finance. Under the scheme, eligible charities will be assisted in proportion to the volume of their average annual gross lottery turnover in the three most recent years of account, provided the government has sufficient funds availability. The lottery promoter must be independently established for charitable purposes.
German Float
German online lottery company Tipp24 AG kicked off its investor road show last Friday in Frankfurt and indicated that it could go public on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange as early as Oct. 12. The company said its book building for the IPO could begin as early as today and will last for three days. Tipp 24 has an annual turnover of 154 million euros, and its listing is backed by Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley.
Danish Games
Iceland-based gambling software provider Betware has supplied Danish Lottery operator Tipsjeneste with new instant scratch games that are playable over the Internet. Betware's gaming platform makes it possible for Dansk Tipstjeneste to offer the same games it sells at retail outlets over the Internet. Betware has also installed a new instant bet generation and audit system that will be used to generate the bet outcomes for instant games offered by Dansk Tipstjeneste. The system is called "Trusted Play" and was developed by U.S.-based Szrek2Solutions.
Bidding for the National Lottery
The U.K. National Lottery Commission has opened the bidding process for the next seven-year lottery license. Early candidates included Hilton Group, Intralot, Gala, William Hill, Richard Branson and others. The license will be granted in 2007, and the term will begin in 2009. For a brief look at the line-up of potential bidders, see "UK Lottery Commission: 'Let the Bidding Begin.'"