The Slovenia Loterija Slovenija is the first lottery operator using a new technology called MEP--Mobile Entertainment Platform, a multi-channel gaming platform for mobile phones.
According to Willem Hartman, one of the two developers of this technology, his system has many advantages above all other telephone techniques.
"Our MEP technology carries besides WAP and GPRS a communication channel via GSM voice mode," he said. "This is the most usual and simplest mobile phone in Europe, with 310 million users. And as far as I know, we are the first who launched such a real-time application. From February 2002, our mobile system is operational (and) running for Loterija Slobenija."
Hartman continues: "When you search on www.google.com (for) 'mobile gaming,' you get around 72,000 hits--all links to beautiful Web sites of game developers who offer the most fantastic games and applications for mobile phones. However, they forget to mention that those client-server applications are communicating through the TCP/IP protocol and for that you need to have an expensive WAP and/or GPRS telephone and/or PDA. And above that, the costs of the data transfer via such a network is expensive. Moreover, during peak hours, Internet traffic may be delayed by congestion as well.
"When you keep on searching 'mobile GSM lotto lottery,' Google shows only 261 pages, using services for companies and lottery operators sending draw results, or a GPRS lottery server. None of them offer real-time gaming with instant results."
In June 2000, Hartman, together with Mitja Prosen, got the idea for this mobile gaming platform. They developed the idea and signed an agreement with Quicktime Ltd. (Slovenia) to realize platform's development.
They have worked on the first MEP demo version since January 2001. They had to delay their project because an essential part of the MEP communication channel, which was to be delivered by a third party, was still in development. However, they could build a prototype of this GSM interface in a way that the first real beta version was operational in September 2001.
Hartman: "At that time, IT officers of the local lottery hadn't yet developed games that could run the MEP system, so we programmed ourselves an electronic classic: a jackpot and a scratch card lottery. The MEP is not only developed for lotto or lotteries. By the use of a set-up, private individual pools may be created."
MEP's creators believe that their system has many advantages:
- MEP enables lotteries, wagering offices and casinos to offer their services through GSM voice mode, normal data, WAP, GPRS, and UMTS networks in real time with instant results;
- Because of the its open architecture, MEP can be configured to operate conforming to local gaming and tax regulations;
- Anybody with a gaming or casino license can operate MEP independently from mobile network operators.
MEP offers:
- programmability;
- open scalability;
- control of results from different agencies and gamers;
- compatibility with all terminals (depends on type of the game);
- simple front-end application;
- multiplayer gaming and wagering;
- interconnection between physical and virtual locations;
- ease of use--even handsfree playing is possible;
- high security and data protection.
MEP suppliers include DTI (U.K.), XIRCOM (Intel, U.S.) and Microsoft (U.S.). Games that are available via MEP include classic lotto, scratch lotto and luckyday. Blackjack may also be added.
MEP will be launched in February 2002, and it intends to capture 10 percent of the market share of all Slovene lottery resellers within six months.
Quicktime has been present on the Slovene IT market for more than 11 years. It develops its own software and specialized hardware and has built advanced information and personnel management systems for major Slovene companies. QuickTime is an authorized reseller for HID (access control cards), ACROPRINT (industrial terminals), NORMAN (data defense systems) and Wi-Lan (wireless communication).
The Slovenian Investment Bank, which controls the chip accounts of the MEP players, is also a partner in the MEP project. When electronic payment by mobile telephone becomes possible in Slovenia, it will be easy to connect that directly with MEP.
GSM accounts for 71 percent of the world's digital market and 65 percent of the world's wireless market. About 850 million people worldwide will play games on mobile devices by 2006, according to a new study released by ARC Group.