GTECH Corp, a US gaming solution provider, said yesterday it would team up with Taipei Fubon Bank (
GTECH partnered with Taipei Fubon Bank through Lottery Technology Service Co (
Acer will not join the partnership for the sports lottery, as the world's fourth-largest PC vendor said it wants to focus on its core business, said Simon Chuang (莊俊元), account general manager of GTECH Global Services Corp's Taiwan branch.
"It is a challenge [to operate a sports wagering system ... We are uniquely positioned to provide this service," Robert Vincent, vice president of GTECH corporate communications, told a press conference yesterday in Taipei.
Sports wagering requires much more sophisticated technology than common lotteries, including setting the odds at appropriate levels -- which vary depending on the sport -- individual team performances, players and even the weather, Vincent said. It also carries more management risks for the operator, he added.
Declining to provide an estimate on the market size of sports betting because of the sensitive timing, Vincent said the market "will be substantial and rival other similar markets."
A sports lottery committee under the Cabinet said last week it will announce the requirements for the bid in the middle of next month and invite tenders in the following two months.
The betting venues and rules will be determined once the selection of an operation has been completed. If the process goes smoothly, lottery fans should be able to bet as early as next year.
In addition to Taipei Fubon Bank, Chinatrust Commercial Bank (中國信託商銀), the issuer of Public Welfare Lottery tickets, Taishin International Bank (台新銀行) and Bank of Kaohsiung (高雄銀行) have expressed an interest in running the nation's first sports lottery.
As baseball and basketball are the nation's most popular sports, the two games are very likely to be chosen for betting, Chuang said.
The betting channels could be retail stores, the Internet or telephone, channels GTECH is well-positioned to service, Chuang said.
Discussing the Public Welfare Lottery ticketing system run by Taiwan Lottery Co (
Taiwan Lottery is a wholly owned subsidiary of Chinatrust Financial Holding Co (中信金控), which took over Taipei Fubon Bank as the nation's exclusive Public Welfare Lottery manager after offering the highest contribution payment to the government.
Taiwan Lottery's system provider is the Athens-based Intralot SA.
The system has crashed several times since Taiwan Lottery started selling lotto tickets this year, resulting in numerous complaints from vendors and customers.
A poll released on Monday showed that 65 percent of lottery buyers considered Taiwan Lottery's performance below average and 7 percent gave the company a zero score.
“We hope this market has learned a lesson about low-priced providers coming
in ... Any cost-saving will be lost if the system doesn't operate properly,”
Vincent said, referring to the dropping lottery sales.
“We hope the government will look at the quality of the system and the
ability to deliver when evaluating the operators,” he said.
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) is expected to share his views about the artificial intelligence (AI) industry’s prospects during his speech at the company’s 37th anniversary ceremony, as AI servers have become a new growth engine for the equipment manufacturing service provider. Lam’s speech is much anticipated, as Quanta has risen as one of the world’s major AI server suppliers. The company reported a 30 percent year-on-year growth in consolidated revenue to NT$1.41 trillion (US$43.35 billion) last year, thanks to fast-growing demand for servers, especially those with AI capabilities. The company told investors in November last year that
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said it plans to ship its new 1 megawatt charging systems for electric trucks and buses in the first half of next year at the earliest. The new charging piles, which deliver up to 1 megawatt of charging power, are designed for heavy-duty electric vehicles, and support a maximum current of 1,500 amperes and output of 1,250 volts, Delta said in a news release. “If everything goes smoothly, we could begin shipping those new charging systems as early as in the first half of next year,” a company official said. The new
RSS