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"Radical transformation" claimed for interactive TV and Internet company
Speaking to shareholders this morning (Thursday) at the company's AGM, NetPlayTV CEO Martin Higginson revealed that the company has streamlined its operations over the past six months and is well positioned to reap the benefits of involvement in live roulette, lottery and interactive bingo.
Higginson said that the company has disposed of Stream Live Services, Pan-American Mobile and the MCex business, as well as streamlining its mobile chat area.
“In addition, we have acquired the ‘Live Roulette’ brand through Vegas 247 Limited, plus the “PlayMonday” lottery from Chariot and Abstract Games Limited. We have also been working solidly for the past five months on the launch of “Big Box Bingo” – our fully interactive TV bingo game.” he reported.
"Over the last six months your company has undergone a radical transformation, and today we believe we are well poised to become market leaders in the provision of interactive gaming solutions across both Internet and TV media," Higginson said. "We now sit with what we believe is one of the best teams in the interactive gaming industry, and the mixture of knowledge and expertise within the Group makes us truly unique in this emerging marketplace. Experts from the bingo, interactive print media, TV production, and direct response marketing arenas have been brought together to form a first class and formidable team."
NetPlayTV currently offers three areas of interactive gaming, 'Live Roulette', a weekly Charity Draw and Bingo - all televised live on various SkyTV channels, as well as being simultaneously streamed to the Internet. Users play the games either using their telephone or via the Internet through company websites.
Higginson says that since acquiring the 'Live Roulette' business in December 2006 the company has initiated a major marketing push, as well as making improvements to both the show and the website. Gross bets have doubled since acquisition to circa GBP 7 million a month with June 2007 on target to exceed this.
The marketing drive is planned to continue for the remainder of 2007 with a view to increasing customers and gross monthly bets throughout the rest of the year. 'Live Roulette' has recently moved into profit on a monthly basis and PlayTV is now reaping the benefits of the marketing investment, leading to more growth in the second half of this year Higginson claimed.
He continued: "In January of this year we acquired the 'PlayMonday' charity lottery from Chariot (UK) plc. Over the past few months we have revamped the product, re-launching it as a fixed odds charity draw on June 11th. The new format includes a live televised broadcast of a weekly GBP 10 million Super Draw as well as two new games, Play Three and Play Four, offering prizes of GBP 10 000 and GBP 50 000 respectively." Early signs are encouraging; having exceeded 70 000 ticket sales in the second week following re-launch - much earlier than had been expected.
The acquisition of Abstract Games Limited in February brought more skills to the business in terms of bingo and direct response marketing, Higginson said. NetPlay gained a database of over 550 000 names and addresses - all of whom have played an interactive draw or quiz type game over the previous six months. This, added to the 280 000 names and addresses from 'PlayMonday' has taken the Group customer base to well over 800 000.
NetPlay launches its Big Box Bingo game in a Beta test format next week, offering a highly interactive game involving real bingo cards which the consumer will mark off against a live TV programme in a first for the industry that merges the thrill of the bingo hall, the flexibility of the Internet and the ease of participating from the comfort of home.
NetPlay has developed a bespoke computer back-end that allows customers to not only register and deposit funds online, but also allows them to print unique bingo cards and then play them from home against the live TV show.
Higginson concluded in confident mood: "We now have a coherent business model that merges the flexibility of the Internet with the trusted medium of live TV. This combined with our active database and diverse operational knowledge will allow us to further develop our interactive gaming formats and to look forward to the second half of the year with confidence," he said. |
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发表于 2007-6-30 00:26
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