23rd Feb 2006 09:00
Hilton Group PLC23 February 2006 23 February 2006 LADBROKES PLAYS SIGNIFICANT ROLE IN LAUNCH OF CHINA'S FIRST SPORTS LOTTERY POOL BETTING SHOPS Ladbrokes, the world's biggest bookmaker, today announced the details of itsconsultancy role in the launch of China's first sports lottery pool bettingshops which have opened in Beijing Province. The shops are the first inmainland China to offer singles betting on football matches. Senior members of Ladbrokes management team have been stationed in Beijing overrecent months providing consultancy services to China Sport Lottery (Beijing)Sales and Marketing Co., Ltd (CSLSM), the organisation with responsibility forsales, marketing and operational aspects of the new sports pools betting shopswhich use the 'Happy Pool' brand. The new sports lottery shops offer pools betting on a selection of games fromtop-flight European football each week - these currently extend to win-draw-win,correct score, total number of goals, as well as high/low and odd/even pools.Bets are currently offered on 3 pools of eight matches (a total of 24 matches)both at the weekend and in midweek. The main China Sports Lottery product is a14-match accumulator that has been extremely successful. Ladbrokes is assistingCSLSM with further development of the range of pool betting markets. The market size of the China Sports Lottery, including the football lottery, isprojected to be around $4 billion this year. Beijing takes about 8% of thenational sports lottery market (source: China Sports Lottery Center and theMinistry of Finance). The new shops are launching first in Beijing MunicipalProvince, which includes the Chinese administrative capital and surroundingareas because the region is economically successful and has a fast-growingpopulation, now estimated at 15 million people (source: Beijing Municipal PublicSecurity Bureau). Chris Bell, Chief Executive of Ladbrokes Worldwide added: "Ladbrokes has talkedabout its international aspirations and while this is a very small step intoChina it is also an encouraging one. The UK Government's role has been key inhelping establish a stable environment for the UK betting industry that is nowenabling us to use our knowledge and expertise abroad and this consultancy roleis a good example. China has the potential to be one of the biggest bettingmarkets in the world and for the first time Happy Pools provides an attractiveand regulated opportunity to bet on single football results." The consultancy deal is the latest development in a long association betweenLadbrokes and the China Sports Lottery that has included training programmes inthe UK for lottery officials. For further info contact: Ciaran O'Brien Ladbrokes 020 8515 5104 07976 180173 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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