TradingSports Exchange Systems, one of the interactive gaming industry's newest publicly traded companies, continued a successful summer last week by announcing the signing of Costa Rica International Sportsbook (CRIS).
TradingSports, which specializes in white-label betting exchange software, will provide its betting exchange to CRIS for the next five years. Officials with TradingSports said the deal should increase the liquidity of the exchange dramatically.
CRIS and its an annual turnover of more than $1 billion joins the likes of Sportingbet, TradIndex, SBG Global, Betfanatic and other leading Internet-based operators using the TradingSports system.
CRIS has carved out a niche through early line posting on sporting events, oftentimes posting odds before any other bookmaker. The operation was founded in 1984 as a telephone betting system before integrating Internet betting in the mid 1990s.
TradingSports launched its P2P betting service in summer 2002 to coincide with the World Cup soccer tournament. It's focus was, and still is, to pull the resources and customer databases of large operators together to create a large and viable person-to-person betting exchange.
The group floated on the London Stock Exchange's Alternative Investments Market in May 2003. CEO Joe Tighe said investors have responded positively since then.
"Things have been incredible for TradingSports since we launched on the London Stock Exchange," Thighe said. "The amount of time and effort required to list has been very worthwhile for us with regard to how the market perceives TradingSports."
In two months since going public, the company's stock has increased 22.6 percent. That, coupled with the strenuous screening process of companies before they are even allowed to go public, has created a good business atmosphere for TradingSports.
"As a service provider to the industry, partners can see the probity and transparency with which we conduct our business and can also see that we have the financial resources to deliver what we promise," Tighe said. "All good things in an industry which has had issues with suppliers in the past."
Tighe also said that BetOnSports.com, another leading Caribbean-based operator, will become part of the betting exchange in a couple of weeks and that the company will continue its strategy of partnering with the industry's biggest operators.
"The deals we are signing at the moment are with the largest players in the world," he said. "... The industry knows our service is solid and the value we offer is second to none."
He added, "We have already gotten a significant amount of interest from groups in the Far East and Australia who are looking to offer exchange betting but no major announcements there as yet."
Plus, he said, more deals could be on the horizon as operators gear up for the upcoming American football season, the most profitable time of the year for sites that target North American customers.
The TradingSports deal marks CRIS's first venture in the fast-growing P2P betting market.
Tighe said the majority of TradingSports' new licensees have signed five-year deals.