15 Jan 2010 07:00
Sportech PLC ("Sportech")
Creation of Joint Venture with India's largest gaming and media group
Sportech & Playwin to launch wide range of sports-based gaming products
into the Indian market
Sportech PLC, the UK's leading football gaming business and owner of The New Football Pools, is pleased to announce its entry into a Joint Venture (the "Joint Venture") with Playwin, the leading Indian lottery and gaming brand owned by one of the sub-continent's largest conglomerates, Essel Group, to launch a multi-platform sports gaming business in the Indian market.
Sportech and Playwin are each investing an initial £2 million for their 50% stake in the Joint Venture to fund the start up costs of the business. This investment, which was already anticipated in the Company's budget, will be phased over the next three years.
The Joint Venture will target India's substantial base of sports fans within its vast population of nearly 1.2 billion. The new gaming platform has been specifically developed for the Indian audience and is expected to be launched in Spring 2010 with a suite of prediction and fantasy games initially centred around the India's most popular sports, namely cricket, football and Formula One.
The Playwin brand is owned by Pan India Network Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Essel Group. As India's largest gaming and lottery business, with licenses to operate throughout India, Playwin games are played across the entire country, both through its network of gaming terminals located in over 12,000 retail establishments and through its rapidly growing online network. Based on international lotto game formats, Playwin offers substantial prizes, its biggest single jackpot win being £2.4 million (Rs. 172.9 million) on the Super Lotto. In the 7 years since its formation, Playwin has paid out more than £1.2 billion in prize money.
As a division of India's largest media group, the Joint Venture will be promoted across Essel's key media assets, including India's highest rated TV channels network, Zee TV, and India's leading cable and DTH operators, WWIL and DishTV.
Sportech believes that its deep knowledge and experience of running pool or pari-mutuel gaming - the most popular and established form of gaming throughout the world - places it in an ideal position to capitalise on the growing number of regulated gaming markets being created around the world.
As previously announced, Sportech continues to seek additional international growth and business development opportunities and continues to be in discussions regarding one such opportunity.
Ian Penrose, CEO of Sportech, said: "We are delighted to have signed this joint venture agreement with Playwin. India has a huge population with a long history of being committed sports fans and Playwin is ideal as a partner as it is already India's premier gaming operator and enjoys significant brand strength. This gives Sportech a great partner and platform from which to launch sports-based gaming products into a growing and lucrative marketplace. We look forward to operating a successful business in India as we continue to pursue further international distribution opportunities."
Amit Goenka, Chief Executive of Playwin said: "India is a sports-loving nation and there is a huge market for gaming. We are glad to have this association with Sportech considering a very wide base of sports fans in the country. With exciting sports games on offer, we are sure both Playwin and Sportech will see great success in the Indian market. Innovation has always been the backbone of Playwin's strategy since its inception in 2002 and the basis of all our accomplishments. Moving ahead, we aim to attract and target a significant number of sport lovers through this joint venture".
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For further information, please contact:
Sportech PLC
Ian R Penrose, Chief Executive Tel: 020 7268 2400
Bell Pottinger Corporate & Financial Tel: 020 7861 3232
David Rydell / Emma Kent / Rosanne Perry
Notes to Editors:
Essel Group
The Essel Group is one of India's largest business conglomerates with a diverse portfolio of assets in media, packaging, entertainment, technology-enabled services, infrastructure development and education. The Group started business in 1976 with a commodity trading and export firm, Rama Associates Limited, and now has worldwide operations. The Group's widespread entertainment and gaming activities are delivered via print, online and broadcast media and include Zee Entertainment, Zee News, Ten Sports and Dish TV.