Agreement with Betfair
January 15 2004 - 4:00AM
UK Regulatory
RNS Number:2647U
CryptoLogic Inc.
15 January 2004
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ALL DOLLAR AMOUNTS IN US$
Symbol: TSX: CRY; NASDAQ: CRYP; LSE: CRP
CRYPTOLOGIC ANNOUNCES EXCLUSIVE ONLINE POKER AGREEMENT WITH BETFAIR, THE WORLD'S
LARGEST BETTING EXCHANGE
Betfair chooses CryptoLogic-developed software to expand into one of the
Internet's biggest growth markets
January 15, 2004 (London, UK) - CryptoLogic Inc., a leading software developer
to the Internet gaming and e-commerce industries, is pleased to announce that
the company is advancing its international growth with new customer, Betfair,
the largest online betting exchange.
Through a license agreement with CryptoLogic subsidiary WagerLogic Limited,
Betfair will introduce one of the world's most popular card games using
WagerLogic's leading player-to-player poker technology.
"Betfair is an outstanding opportunity to increase CryptoLogic's leadership in
the fast-growing online poker market," said Lewis Rose, CryptoLogic's President
and CEO. "Betfair is in perfect step with CryptoLogic's strategy of doing
business with the best in gaming. Together, we have a winning formula:
Betfair's world-leading brand in betting exchanges, strong player base, and
global marketing might - matched with our sophisticated poker solution. Betfair
offers exciting promise as its online poker site is launched this year, and
starts to build momentum."
Betfair has revolutionized the global and UK online sports wagering industries
with its online betting exchange service. The founders of the betting exchange
concept, Betfair retains a 90% share of the growing multi-billion dollar market.
The company matches well in excess of #50 million in bets per week on a wide
range of sports, entertainment and financial markets. Poker offers Betfair the
opportunity to consolidate its leadership in the exchange market by offering a
new wagering product to its global customer base.
"Online poker is a natural complement to Betfair's sports betting business. We
are delighted to be working with a company of CryptoLogic's caliber and
experience. In CryptoLogic, we identified a partner with top-class technology
and one who shares our aspirations to create the best integrated poker platform
on the Internet," said Steve Ives, Betfair's Business Development Director.
"With our proven poker software, Betfair is ideally positioned to capitalize on
the large, high growth online poker market to our mutual benefit," added Jon
Moss, WagerLogic's Director of Business Development.
Poker has quickly become a favorite with Internet users, attracting an
increasing number of both casual players and seasoned professionals. The
Internet poker market has grown six-fold in the past year to an estimated 10% of
a $5 billion in revenue global online gaming market. Since the launch of its
poker offering in October 2002, CryptoLogic has already earned a market-leading
position and powers one of the top 10 poker rooms on the Web. Industry analysts
estimate that these top 10 sites account for approximately 90% of the online
poker market.
About CryptoLogic (www.cryptologic.com)
Focused on integrity and innovation, CryptoLogic Inc. is a leading software
development company serving the global Internet gaming market. The company's
proprietary technologies enable secure, high-speed financial transactions over
the Internet. CryptoLogic continues to develop state-of-the-art Internet
software applications for both the electronic commerce and Internet gaming
industries. WagerLogic Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of CryptoLogic, is
responsible for the licensing of its gaming software and services to customers
worldwide. For more information on WagerLogic, visit www.wagerlogic.com.
CryptoLogic's common shares trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange (symbol: CRY),
the Nasdaq National Market (symbol: CRYP) and the London Stock Exchange (symbol:
CRP). There are currently 12.3 million common shares outstanding.
About Betfair (www.betfair.com)
Founded in 2000 and located and licensed in the United Kingdom, Betfair is the
world's largest online betting exchange. A betting exchange is a bookmaker,
which allows customers to bet at prices set by themselves, rather than having to
accept prices dictated to them by the wagering operator. Using sophisticated
technology modeled on the New York stock exchange, Betfair accepts bets placed
by individuals on a wide range of sports, horse racing, entertainment and
financial events, and immediately offsets them against counter-orders from other
customers. All bets on Betfair are placed by individuals who want to bet for or
against the outcome of a given event.
With turnover exceeding #50 million per week, Betfair has a user base from more
than 80 countries worldwide. Its services are offered in multiple languages -
English, Chinese, Danish, Finnish, German, Greek, Italian, Norwegian, and
Swedish - and the company targets users from all over the world. At peak times,
the exchange matches up to 12,000 bets a minute. The company's co-founders were
jointly voted Ernst & Young Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year 2002. Betfair was
awarded the Queen's Award for Enterprise, in the Innovation Category for 2003.
For more information, please contact:
CryptoLogic, (416) 545-1455 Argyle Rowland, (416) 968-7311 (North American media)
Nancy Chan-Palmateer, Director of Communications Daniel Tisch, ext. 223/ dtisch@argylerowland.com
Jim Ryan, Chief Financial Officer Melissa Chang, ext. 239/ melissa@argylerowland.com
Betfair.com +44 20 8834 8000 Financial Dynamics, + 44 20 7831 3113(UK media)
Caspar Hill, Communications Executive Juliet Clarke, juliet.clarke@fd.com
poker@betfair.com Edward Bridges, edward.bridges@fd.com
CRYPTOLOGIC FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENT DISCLAIMER:
Statements in this press release which are not historical are forward-looking
statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Investors are cautioned that all forward-looking
statements involve risks and uncertainties including, without limitation, risks
associated with the Company's financial condition and prospects, legal risks
associated with Internet gaming and risks of governmental legislation and
regulation, risks associated with market acceptance and technological changes,
risks associated with dependence on licensees and key licensees, risks relating
to international operations, risks associated with competition and other risks
detailed in the Company's filings with securities regulatory authorities. These
risks may cause results to differ materially from those projected in the
forward-looking statements.
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
END
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