TALLINN - The Estonian Olympic Committee was set to gain a new source of income last week with the launch of Spordiennustus, a new online sports betting system.
Sven Kolga, boardmember of Spordiennustus Ltd., said he hoped Estonians would welcome the new system since, unlike other betting programs, it will transfer profits directly to the development of national sports.
In the beginning the company will disperse 5 percent of annual turnover to the state - just as any other gaming company. Direct donations to the development of sports are expected in line with profits.
The betting system, according to Spordiennustus, would be relatively simple. People aged 21 and over who have a personal code and a bank account in Estonia can register at the Web site spordiennustus.ee and place bets on any of 30 to 100 sport events per day.
The company said its target group was young or middle-aged men in Estonia interested in sports and with average or above-average income.
At the moment the system is still in its test phase, but it already lists English Premiere and First Soccer League games, UEFA Cup and Champions League games, NHL games, Estonian basketball championship matches and others. Other sports soon to be offered are Russian soccer, the European Soccer Championship 2004 and the Olympic Games in Athens.
The system will offer 16 various combinations of bets after the test period ends on April 20.
Apart from Spordiennustus, there is no other gambling system in Estonia that allows people to place bets on professional sports.
"Nobody was interested in that. Megapanus tried to take this market but failed," said Kolga referring to the company that tried to establish a foothold in the Estonian gaming industry three years ago.
In Kolga's words, the problem of Megapanus was that it offered only two or three games once or twice a week-not enough to develop and sustain gamblers' interest. It did, however, manage to organize bets on the municipal elections in Tallinn in 200and on the Eurovision Song Contest in 2002.
The Estonian Olympic Committee purchased the lackluster Megapanus and created Spordiennustus in its stead. The new company employs only four people and rents its software from the Aland Islands gambling company PAF, which also owns 20 percent of Spordiennustus.
Kolga said plans to expand into Latvia and Lithuania had been discussed. The most important step for a Pan-Baltic operation would be adding Latvian and Lithuanian language support to the gambling software.
"There are regular, paper-ticket based sport results gambling networks in Latvia and Lithuania, but they are not available online," said Kolga, who previously worked as the development director of the Olympic Casino Group.
Kolga said that according to Spordiennustus' business plan the system's turnover would come to about 10 euros per week per every active client.
By the end of this year the company hopes to have 5,000 active clients.
As part of the company's development strategy, Kolga is cooperating with sport bars and pubs that will provide Internet access so that clients can bet while mingling at the bars.
