Essel firm to launch online lottery

Mumbai: Playwin Infravest, a company promoted by the Rs 4,500-crore Essel group, is planning to launch online lottery for the first time in India. This will be operational from the first quarter of 2002.

Playwin is the holding company of Tashi Delek and Ultra Entertainment Solutions. Tashi Delek has bagged the license for the Sikkim state lottery, whereas Ultra Entertainment has been awarded the license for the Karnataka state lottery. In the first phase, the investment in setting up the necessary infrastructure and marketing support systems would come to around Rs 300 crore.

The paper lottery market in India currently stands at Rs 50,000 crore and about 0.2 crore people buy lottery tickets every day with a 100 draws being held daily. But, lack of total transparency, limited marketing, low level of sophistication of the product, and lower prize monies have hindered the flourishing of the market. Therefore, the paper lotteries that operate currently cater largely to the lower income groups of the population.

The entire system, including distribution, communication and disbursal of prizes, are conducted in a fashion that does not appeal to the middle and the upper middle class segments of the population, resulting in their not participating in the market. Online lottery is a much more player-friendly product and because of its exciting promotion and brand positioning, it will create a new segment in the market by appealing all income groups to participate in the lottery process.

Online lotteries are a huge business globally where people have been upgrading their playing habits to the online system. The global market size of online lottery is $125 billion (Rs 6,00,000 crore) every year. Just take the example of the National Lottery, UK, which has been operative for the last seven years. In that period it has created more than a thousand millionaires. More than 60 per cent of Britain's population regularly buys lotteries (at least once a week). The highest-ever amount won on the National Lottery was £22,590,829 (Rs 158 crore).

The online lottery process is very different compared to that of the paper lotteries. In paper lotteries, you have pre-printed tickets, which are hawked on roadsides or near railway stations and the draws are declared in the second- or third-line vernacular papers. The online lottery process is a much more transparent, credible, sophisticated, entertaining and tech-savvy process, say Playwin Infravest officials.

The online lottery is a computerised process, where terminals are placed at dealer outlets, which the players can access easily, as s/he would be frequenting those locations. The outlets would be of diverse genres: department stores, grocers, cyber cafes, ice-cream parlours, apparel shops, restaurants, electronic good stores, chemists, STD booths….

On reaching the terminal, the player generates his own ticket by selecting six numbers of his choice. He can then avail of the 'Lucky Dip' option, whereby the player will get pre-selected numbers on his ticket. The numbers will be registered with the central system, (to which the terminal will be connected via V-sat), which is highly secure and fail-safe. There will be a live draw, which will be telecast on the Zee TV network, in front of a nationwide audience, which the players will watch to find out if they have won. They will then visit the Playwin outlet to claim their prizes.

Winning numbers will be declared through live draws telecast on the Zee network, and will also be published in all leading dailies. The prizes will be of various denominations - ranging from Rs 60 to Rs 4 crore. The dealer will give prizes up to the value of Rs 5,000 immediately.

Fifty per cent of the revenue generated will be towards prizes, which will increase the excitement of the game, as the prizes will be more attractive. Twenty per cent of the revenues will go to the respective state governments, who in turn will use the same towards community improvement projects like child welfare and rural education among others.

Thus, the online lottery will contribute greatly to community improvement. Playwin's new venture is backed by the latest technology on all fronts: hardware, communications and software. Playwin's technology partners are International Lottery and Totalizator Systems, USA, and a leading

supplier of online computerised wagering systems with worldwide installations.

Playwin plans to install 5,000 terminals with the outlet profile ranging from a department store, grocer, ice-cream parlour, book store, restaurant, cyber café, chemist, among others. Playwin is currently in the process of setting up a dealer infrastructure, wherein it will be investing Rs 5 lakh per outlet to set up the online terminals. The trade fraternity will benefit greatly by availing this opportunity.

Apart from increased traffic in their shops, which will be generated by Playwin's massive advertising and promotion campaign, the retailers gain by way of lucrative volume increases, trade commission as well as an improved shop ambience, which will be created by the innovative Playwin signage. Besides, the retailer who issues the winning ticket will get a whopping 1 per cent of the jackpot amount (Rs 4 lakh).

Says Playwin CEO R K Singh: “We are embarking on this exciting new venture and are now in the process of enlisting partners as distributors and retailers all over the country. We intend to make the project a great success.“ Playwin has appointed Ernst & Young to audit and validate the online lottery process. Besides, state governments will also be conducting audits from time to time.