In Austria and the Netherlands, UPC Digital TV subscribers can now receive an interactive gaming platform from Israeli Zone4Play Interactive Gaming Technology. The platform consists of four games: slots, video poker, blackjack and baccarat.
This platform is a business model in which players acquire points through a premium telephony system. The games can be played 24-7 while the point balance is positive. The players compete to beat the dynamic top 10 leader board scores.
The UPC casino games flow is very simple:
- New players register and receive 30 free points to try any of the games.
- The players have unlimited participation as long as they have points. Winners are awarded with points.
- When the player runs out of points, he or she may use a premium telephone system to acquire more points. Each call costs one euro.
- For every call, the player's balance is credited with 50 points.
- The service includes a top 10 players leader board, which is refreshed dynamically with the top players' names and scores.
- Every player who watches the leader board can get data on his or her position, rank and number of points.
Zone4Play is now working to deploy an international competition in which players from Austria and Holland could compete against each other.
The privately owned Zone4Play Ltd. also sells and supports platforms on the Web, mobile and television for real money. According to Zone4Play's Business Development Manager, Erez Lahav, he does not have to worry: "We do not deal with regulatory matters as we are just a content provider and supply the technology," he said.
"Zone4Play's casino formats will serve to complement the existing suite of games products we offer to UPC Digital customers," said Sandy Macleod, senior director, commercial development, UPC Media Interactive Services. "In a short time, this new content has already demonstrated its popularity with our subscribers in both Austria and the Netherlands."
UPC Telekabel had as of Sept. 30, 2002, a total of 923,000 household connections. The number of UPC's basic TV subscriptions in Austria is 497,300. The company has 144,800 telephone subscribers and another 163,000 households with broadband connections. It has 14,200 Digital UPC subscribers.
The controlling interest of UPC Telekabel, United Pan-Europe Communications N.V. (UPC), is heavily involved in broadband services in Europe. The company's European headquarters is in Amsterdam. UPC services has 11 million households in 17 European countries and Israel.
Since February 1999, UPC has been quoted on the Euronext Amsterdam under the trading symbol "UPC" and on the Nasdaq as "UPCOY.OB." UPC is a subsidiary of UnitedGlobalCom Inc. (Nasdaq: UCOMA).
UPC Digital tries to be more than just a TV cable company. Its aim is to establish an Entertainment Center with 80 digital TV programs and more than 40 audio channels, video on command, etc.
Zone4Play on June 11, 2002, won first place at the Neddies, an International competition for iTV application developers using the NDS-CORE platform. The goal of the competition, which was held in London, was to bring together companies that develop iTV applications on the NDS-CORE platform and also to attract new developers to the platform.
Besides United Pan-Europe Communications N.V., UPC, Zone4Play's customers are:
- mmO2 plc, a provider of mobile communications services in Europe with a strong position in mobile data and internet services.
- Orange IL, for which Zone4Play has deployed a casino games service on a multi-platform system that includes IVR, SMS, WAP and GVM.
- Winner Online, the first online Israeli sports book ever made as a cross-platform system.
- YES (DBS satellite services) is the first company in Israel to offer satellite television services for which Zone4Play has deployed the first interactive casino games channel via satellite.
- GoNext is a subsidiary of Pelephone, one of Israel's leading cellular providers, for which Zone4Play enhanced the GoNext content portal with its WAP games.
- Ynet, the online version of Israel's most popular daily, for which Zone4Play has delivered a play-for-fun version of its Web games.
- Winner, an Internet portal and gateway for the gaming industry that provides punters with a one-stop site for which Zone4Play has deployed its play-for-fun Web games in Winner's gaming section of the portal.