Sky Active, a sector of British Sky Broadcasting Group plc, has launched a new betting and gaming portal called Winzone.
Winzone is a one-stop area that allows users to place interactive bets on sports and TV events while also taking part in sports-related quizzes.
"Winzone was set up following the popularity of the World Cup Arena area we set up that enabled Sky digital viewers to play World Cup-related prediction games, quizzes and place bets on the outcome of the tournament," said Gabby Bennet, spokeswoman for Sky Active.
Winzone is Sky Active's latest addition to its betting business, which has really taken off in the last year of operations. Sky's interactive revenues for the last six months of 2001 were £91 million, the majority of which came from betting.
Winzone is accessible via the platform's stand-alone interactive TV electronic program guide. It also allows interactive TV viewers to place fixed-odds bets and play premium-rate competitions as well as chance-based games.
Although Open TV is the official software provider for the digital satellite platform, Bennet said many of the services are built using Sky's technology.