I-Gaming's New Millennium

A new software company is making waves in the interactive gaming market thanks in large part to a very familiar face.

Millennium Software Inc. (MSI) may be the new kid on the block, but its president, Gyneth McAllister, is anything but a new player to the game. McAllister recently joined the company after more than a year as the director of offshore gaming for the government of Antigua and Barbuda.

The selling point for the company's product line is that it's more than the traditional gaming software available in the market today. They offer not only casino and sports book software, but also a lottery component with software that has built in regulatory, security and payment solutions.

McAllister said that, in mapping out a business plan, the company recognized a need for software that can facilitate Internet distribution for lotteries from all around the world and is quickly adaptable to regulatory standards from multiple jurisdictions.

"It started by being made aware of those two needs and to include protection from hackers, credit card fraud, player deposit insurance and money laundering built into the software," McAllister explained. "That is what makes us different from any other software that is out there."

McAllister said operators were growing impatient having to update their software to meet different standards from various worldwide jurisdictions.

"There was a demand for a software which addressed regulatory issues, so the software wouldn't have to be adopted down the road to address those issues," she said. "We knew that was something that was needed."

As the MSI team looked deeper into the issue, it quickly realized that no software company was tapping into the over $1 billion government-run lottery market. McAllister said she and her staff have already inked deals to distribute lottery tickets via the Internet for several governments.

While the groundwork was being laid at MSI, McAllister said, investors started coming to the table, something no one anticipated. The influx of investors enabled the company to expedite its roll out.

"Because of the response we have gotten on two levels, both on the investment level and the licensee level, we have been able to push up our target dates," she said. "We have pushed up our launch date a month and may push it up again. The lottery component, which was due to be launched on April 1 is now going to be launched in January."

The sports book and casino components of the software will be released at six-week increments after the lottery component is released, McAllister said. The full software suite is expected to be available to licensees by mid April.

McAllister said the software components can be packaged or sold individually, but operators pay the same set fee of US$100,000 for the entire package. For this price, she expects many established operators to drop their current suppliers for Millennium.

"We outsell the competition," she said. "You can only use what you want, but what we feel will happen is that once the system is running and the operators realize it won't cost them any more to run their casino they will want to have only one account and will go with us."

For those who want to stick with their old systems, however, McAllister said operators can continue using their original software while integrating new components by MSI.

"It is a modular system so people are able to take the components of what they require and get whatever component they are missing," she said. "If someone already has a sports book but wants lottery, they can do that without adding anything else that they don't want or getting rid of who they currently use for their sports book."

McAllister said that MSI, unlike most software suppliers, will also help operators get licensed, give hosting support and even payment and customer support options.

"All they have to do is market the site," she said. "And we can even help them do that."

McAllister said that the response from licensees so far has been incredible and that the most in-demand feature has been the ability to integrate worldwide lotteries with the Internet.

"That has really been the draw," she said. "Everyone has been excited about the products because of the lottery element."

By introducing a new distribution method for lottery tickets, McAllister predicts an entire new market of prospective players for gaming sites entering the mix.

"Everyone has one market--people who gamble," she said. "Now we have a whole new market--people who gamble but don't think they are gambling. The non-gambling market is the people who buy lottery tickets. That market will open up a new player base for online operators."

MSI is based in Gilbraltar and has subsidiaries in St. Kitts and Nevis, West Indies. The firm intends to go public within a year of launching its operations.

Long range plans include the introduction of bingo, horse racing, financial spread betting and multi-player games as part of the expanding suite of products.

McAllister said the company, which has already sold 16 casino licenses, hopes to ink 25 "quality" licensees by December 2002.