STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Sept. 23, 2002 (PRIMEZONE) -- HiQ, the Nordic IT and management consultancy, has been commissioned to work on an adaptation and integration as Veikkaus, the Finnish national lottery, licenses its Internet gaming platform to De Lotto, the Dutch national lottery. The gaming platform enables gaming directly over the Internet. De Lotto launched the system last week with their sports betting games.
Under a partnership agreement with Veikkaus, HiQ Softplan has developed a gaming platform called OnNet. Veikkaus offers to license the OnNet system to other national lotteries through partnership agreements. HiQ Softplan integrates and adapts the system for the lottery. Second development phase of De Lotto's system consists of adding lucky games (e.g. Lotto) and some additional functionality. The agreement covers not only the implementation project but continuous development, maintenance and on call support as well.
"Placing an online bet on whether Jari Litmanen's Ajax will beat Manchester United instead of looking for an open betting shop is an easier and more enjoyable way for people to place a casual bet. Communication should be used to make things a little more fun and a little more simple," said Hannu Lehessaari, MD of HiQ Softplan.
"We establish long-term relationships with our customers and are happy to follow them to other countries when they sell their solutions to new customers. OnNet is a good example of a successful approach for which there exists a substantial worldwide market for the gaming platform," concluded Lehessaari.
OnNet is Finland's largest e-commerce site for consumers and gives customers the opportunity to play various games of chance, such as "Lotto," "Langen" or "Dagens Dubbel." OnNet has over 220,000 registered users and weekly sales of just over EUR 1.3 million.
"If a national lottery does not take care of its Internet players in its territory -- someone else will. OnNet turns threats into opportunities by enabling not only internet gaming but also gaming by mobile phones, interactive digital TV, etc. There exist great possibilities in Internet gaming, and I look forward to a prosperous cooperation for both Veikkaus and HiQ Softplan in the future," said Risto Rautee, Development Director of Veikkaus.
De Lotto is the national lottery of the Netherlands and offers products such as "Lotto" and "Keno." De Lotto's profits are used to benefit various national activities in sports, culture, welfare and health. In 2001 De Lotto transferred EUR 53 million to its beneficiaries.
For more information, please contact: MD HiQ Softplan Hannu Lehessaari tel. +358 9 4355 8631 email: hannu.lehessaari@softplan.fi HiQ Anna Svensson, CIO tel.: +46 8 58890015, +46 704 200103 email: anna.svensson@hiq.se Veikkaus Risto Rautee, Development Director tel: +358 9 852 6214 email: risto.rautee@veikkaus.fi Veikkaus Saskia Geradts tel. +31 70 321 63 21 email: geradts@lotto.nl
HiQ is an IT and management consultancy that focuses on high-tech solutions in the fields of communication and simulation technology. The Company is a leader in these fields and the Nordic region is its domestic market. HiQ employs 475 people at offices in Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Norway. HiQ is listed on Stockholmsborsen. For more information, please visit www.hiq.se
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