Ladbrokes partner makes inroads into Chinese market

UK land and online gambling group Ladbrokes could have a foot in the door of the immense Chinese lottery market through its partnership with sports lottery and leisure group AGTech Holdings Limited.
The company has recently announced the introduction of a lottery platform to strengthen its PRC positioning while boosting the pace of development in the lottery industry.
AGTech and its 51 percent owned joint venture with Ladbrokes, Asia Gaming Technologies (Beijing) Co., Ltd., has received approval from all relevant government authorities for the provision of a new high frequency sports lottery platform in the PRC and the initial fixed-odds rapid-draw lottery game, “Lucky Racing.”
John Sun, chairman of AGTech, said, “We are honoured that AGT has become the first international provider to supply a nationwide rapid-draw fixed-odds sports lottery central system in the PRC, representing a major milestone for the group and the entire lottery industry.
“Over the years, we have been working closely with the Ministry of Finance of the PRC, the General Administration of Sport of China, the National SLAC and Hunan SLAC on technical design work and market studies.”
The new platform and game launched by AGT are the first legitimate initiatives of their kind in the PRC, approved by the Ministry of Finance of the PRC as the regulator pursuant to the “Regulations on Administration of Lotteries,” which came into effect on 1 July 2009.
The platform has been custom-built by AGT to suit the PRC sports lottery market, and will initially be introduced in Hunan province and progressively rolled out nationwide according to government planning and relevant regulatory requirements after its successful debut.
The platform and game will be available via dedicated sports lottery shops and leisure venues and is highly suited as a potential lottery game for playing on Internet and phones.
The AGT chairman noted that fixed-odds sports betting is one of the fastest growing gaming segments in the world.
“Looking ahead, we will launch more games via this platform in order to enhance our share of the burgeoning lottery market in the PRC, and further strengthen our leading position,” he said.
The first game on the platform,  “Lucky Racing”, is a rapid draw virtual car racing lottery game, which is a new concept introduced by AGT, although it is similar in nature to successful virtual (computer animated) racing games in other parts of the world such as Europe, the U.S. and Australia.
There are 12 cars in each race competing over 2 laps on an oval circuit. These cars represent the numbers 1 to 12 in a standard number draw. A central computer manages the random draw of the winning numbers and allows players to use their skills to place a bet on the win, first two, first three or accumulator style bets.
Further game options may be progressively added to the game according to market conditions and may include variation to winning odds due to virtual weather, conditions of cars and drivers and current form. The game runs every 10 minutes and is visually displayed on monitors.

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