BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

03/09/2008

GTECH in $16M deal to launch Belarus lottery

By PBN Staff

PROVIDENCE - GTECH Global Services Corp. is teaming up with Sport Pari to create the first online lottery system in Belarus, the companies said today.

Sport Pari has received an exclusive government license to operate online lottery games in the former Soviet republic, which borders Russia, the Ukraine, Poland, Latvia and Lithuania. The closed joint-stock company selected GTECH via a competitive bidding process.

GTECH "was the right choice for this implementation," said Inna Anikevich, vice chairperson of Sport Pari, who described the Providence-based lottery-services company as "a highly-organized company with a professional and knowledgeable staff."

Their contract calls for Sport Pari to pay GTECH ?11 million - nearly $16 million at the current rate of exchange - over a term that is slated to run through July 2013.

"We are pleased to have this opportunity to supply a comprehensive range of lottery solutions and services to our newest customer, Sport Pari," GTECH President and CEO Jaymin B. Patel said in a statement today. "This agreement in Belarus is strategically important for GTECH as we look to expand our presence in this rapidly-developing region, and support governments and their licensed operators in regulating the gaming market."

GTECH agrees to provide its Enterprise Series software and about 1,000 lottery terminals in time for the launch of the first online lotto game in Belarus, which is expected to come next month.

The number of terminals is expected to gradually expand to almost 5,000 as additional online games are added over the term of the five-year contract. The system also will include player messaging and transaction displays, through GTECH's ES MultiMedia program network.

"Sport Pari continues to work diligently with GTECH on all facets of launching a successful online lottery enterprise," Patel said. "Along with a complete range of marketing consulting services, GTECH is also providing Sport Pari with best practices in game introduction and optimization and retailer network management."

Besides the initial system and software, the terminals and the new games, the company will provide retailer training, operations training and support, ongoing terminal-software support and marketing consultancy services.

"We are certain that the commercial launch of the online lottery in Belarus - scheduled for Oct. 1, 2008 - will be a success, in large part due to our close collaboration with GTECH," Sport Pari's Anikevich said.

Earlier this week, GTECH announced a 16-month contract extension with two lottery operators in Morocco, La Societe de Gestion de la Loterie Nationale and La Marocaine des Jeux et des Sports.

"GTECH has been the [Morrocan] Lotteries' primary service provider since 2000, when the company brought both lotteries from offline to online via one integrated online central system," the company said in an announcement this Monday.

"Since the launch of the Lotteries' online games in 2000, lottery sales have increased six-fold," Patel said in a statement. "This great performance was achieved working together with the Lotteries on retailer expansion and through a number of new games," including Daily Keno and Oddset. The GTECH-branded Pick n' Play, which debuted in 2006, "now accounts for more than 25 percent of Loterie Nationale's total sales," the GTECH CEO said. And "earlier this year, we launched a five-minute monitor game, Chrono : which accounts for 42 percent of sales for La Marocaine des Jeux."

GTECH said it expects to receive ?16 million - more than $23 million at the current rate of exchange - over the term of the extension, which will run from April 2009 to August 2010.

GTECH Corp. - a wholly owned subsidiary of Italy-based Lottomatica S.p.A. (Pink Sheets: LTTOY; Italian Stock Exchange: LTO) - is a gaming technology, services and lottery operations company with 5,900 employees in more than 50 countries. More information is available at www.gtech.com or www.GruppoLottomatica.it/eng.

Source:

http://www.pbn.com/stories/34861.html

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