Marrying bingo with the outcome of horseracing and paying out lottery-sized prizes is the premise of PlayandWin Inc.'s product, Racingo, and the company is aiming for an online presence sometime in February 2000, according to Stewart Garner, president of PlayandWin, Inc. "We developed Racingo as a tool for racetracks to fight back against the lottery," said Garner.
Although unable to name names and places, Garner said the company is currently building its web site, www.racingo.org, with servers to be located somewhere in Northern Australia. The company is also negotiating with bookmakers to handle wagers on races in Europe, Asia and Australia. It's looking into commingling pari-mutuel pools at tracks where it is legal.
While it hasn't licensed out its products, doing so will be a large part of its plans over the next 90 days. Garner indicated that the company fielded quite a few calls from interested parties already, but they've already decided to only go with sites that do not accept North American wagers.
The premise of Racingo is simple: Picture a bingo card with the letters B-I-G across the top. Players have to form a winning pattern out of numbers randomly place on the card. The winning numbers are selected by the outcome of one or more horse or greyhound races. Like bingo, there is a variety of winning combinations including diamonds, straight across and diagonal. Prizes up to $250,000 US will be paid out.
PlayandWin Inc. has signed licensing agreements with PacCanus Inc. and Winning Games to further develop, market and promote Racingo through a multi-channeled mass media marketing campaign. Under the terms of this agreement, the three companies have joined together to form Racingo Investments Ltd. which is incorporated in Delaware. PlayandWin Inc. offices are located in Toronto.
PlayandWin first worked with Autotote to develop the Racingo idea for use at U.S. racetracks. They will continue to hold the licence to operate or sub-license Racingo to on- and off-track betting establishments in Canada, Mexico and the United States. PlayandWin also holds the license for operation and sub-licensing of Racingo over the Internet.