VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Sept. 1, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- VoIPMDU.COM (Pink Sheets:VPMD) (www.voipmdu.com) today announced that it has acquired the rights to the inaugural 2005 Canadian Open Texas Hold 'Em Poker Championship.
VoIPMDU.COM and Canadian Championship Poker have entered into an agreement whereas LivePlayByPlay, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company (www.liveplaybyplay.com) has retained the exclusive rights for the co-production, video streaming and pay-per-view marketing of the 2005 Canadian Open Texas Hold 'Em Poker Championship, as well as the subsequent tournaments in 2006 across Canada and other worldwide participating casinos. LivePlayByPlay has committed to funding the event with US $500,000 for production and marketing.
After a series of qualifying tournaments in major Canadian cities during the first week of November, the finals will be held at the Stampede Casino in Calgary on November 12th and 13th, subject to final approval of the appropriate government agencies. The event, called the Canadian Open, is the first national competition of its kind in Canada to establish the best poker player in the nation. The winner from the expected several thousand entrants will receive a guaranteed cash pot. The event has been endorsed by the Canadian Poker Federation.
"No one has to be told about the current poker craze phenomenon," stated Richard Kipping, Chairman and CEO of VoIPMDU.COM. "To my knowledge, we will be the first company in North America to market this series of exciting events in 2005 and 2006 on a pay-per-view basis. And with the team at Canadian Championship Poker, we're poised to make the Canadian Open Event one of the world's largest poker tournaments in the next two years," he added. The agreement between LivePlayByPlay and Canadian Championship Poker comes at a juncture of unprecedented interest in poker competitions around the world, with tournaments at all major casinos with cash prizes in the millions of dollars. Further details of satellite semi-final tournaments to qualify players across Canada will be disclosed in subsequent news releases.
VoIPMDU.COM and its wholly owned subsidiary, LivePlayByPlay are communications companies offering a broad mix of services including local and long distance VoIP services, retail online marketing of PlatinumPhone (www.platinumphone.com) and PointsPhone (www.pointsphone.com), pay-per-view and video-on-demand to consumers, business owners and multiple dwelling unit buildings. The two companies offer turnkey solutions for all of their voice/video/data applications including a state-of-the-art billing platform. For more information, contact Richard Kipping at (604) 721-0100.
Safe Harbor:
This news release may include forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the United States Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, as amended with respect to achieving corporate objectives, developing additional project interests, the Company's analysis of opportunities in the acquisition and development of various project interests and certain other matters. These statements are made under the 'safe harbor' provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and involve risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements herein.