UK pool betting operator Sportech has inked a pair of deals to supply wagering technology for Asian horseracing operators.
On Monday, Sportech announced that its Sportech Racing & Digital division has signed a deal to provide betting technology to the Royal Sabah Turf Club of Malaysia. The Club, which hosted the Sabah region’s first thoroughbred race in 2010, provides one of the few legal wagering options in the deeply conservative country.
Sportech has agreed to provide the Club’s Tambalang Racecourse and its off-track betting outlets with a new central pari-mutuel betting system as well as 300 WAVE teller-terminals. Sportech Racing & Digital president Andrew Gaughan celebrated the company’s first foray into the Malaysian market and vowed to “elevate the overall player experience.”
Sportech simultaneously announced that it had struck a similar deal in Vietnam. Sports Network Ltd has asked Sportech Racing & Digital to provide a new central betting system and TIM 30 agent-operated betting terminals at racetracks in Vung Tau, Madagui and Xuan Thanh.
Sports Network biz-dev director Aston Gooi Khee Leng said Sportech’s products would offer players “an enhanced level of customer service and information at the point-of-sale,” while paving the way for expansion into new off-track betting locations.
Gaughan welcomed Sports Network into Sportech’s growing family, which Gaughan said was further proof that the company was making “meaningful and substantial advancement into the Asian marketplace for tote betting technologies.”
Until recently, Sportech’s expansion had been focused on US shores, but the Asian market moves will likely boost Sportech’s desirability as an acquisition target. Canada’s Contagious Gaming began actively courting Sportech this summer but the deal fell through last month after Sportech’s management said they hadn’t heard an offer they could take to their board. However, Sportech said it was entertaining “more than one preliminary proposal” from other suitors.
