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.
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US