Taiwan launches first sports lottery (Roundup)

May 2, 2008, 14:39 GMT

Taipei - Taiwan launched its first sports lottery on Friday with proceeds to be used on promoting sports and improving the lives of the handicapped.

'Initially, betters can bet on international baseball, basketball and soccer games, and we plan to introduce the local professional baseball and basketball games for betting later this year,' said Yang Jui-tung, vice president of the Taipei Fubon Bank, which won the rights last September to operate the lottery until 2013.

He said betting on US baseball, basketball and European soccer games should be the focus in the initial period, and the lottery will start with betting on 2,000 games a year, but needs to cover 6,000 games a year to make profits.

Under the plan, the lottery is expected to yield an estimated 350 million US dollars in revenue in 2008, with annual proceeds forecast at 1 billion US dollars in 2009.

Some 100 of the bank's 200 designated lottery sellers - all handicapped people - began to sell the lottery tickets Friday, but because such a lottery is new to Taiwan and with its complicated process in betting, sales of the tickets were slow.

On the first day, 3.58 million lottery tickets were sold, with 86 per cent betting on US baseball, 11 per cent on US basketball and three per cent on British soccer.

Among the bets on US baseball, half were placed on the upcoming game between the New York Yankees and Seattle Mariners, as Taiwanese pitcher Ching-ming Wang will pitch against the Mariners.

Yang Jui-tung, from the Taipei Fubon Bank, said lottery ticket sales on Friday - 5 million Taiwan dollars (156,000 US dollars) - were better than expected as many Taiwanese are not familiar with the sports gambling yet.