Hey Popiye and fellow BETT shareholders,
The following is an article from the Prom: Advanstar Mktg Svcs. I received a copy of it late this week. The article doesn't have any new information, but it shows that Tom Hughes and Harry Hargens are getting the companies' names out to the public.
SHOPPERS, GAMBLERS TRANSACT ON THE RUN USING FREE PUBLIC TERMINALS
By James E. Guyette, Contributing Editor.
Los Angeles - For those people through whose pockets money burns holes, who get itchy to spend while cooling their heels in airport lounges or hotel lobbies, a joint venture between Unicomp and Electronic Transactions and Tecnologies (ET&T) may be the ultimate gift certificate. The companies are expending their Shop-While-You-Wait (SWYW) system of select-while-you-sit terminals for both shopping and wagering.
SWYW plans to quickly cover the Los Angeles area by providing numerous free units for installation at high-traffic locations. "SWYW will begin placing electronic terminals in August in locations where people find themselves waiting with time on their hands, such as car washes, airport lounges, hair salons, employee lunch rooms and hotel lobbies." said ET&T 's Tom Hughes, who founded the venture.
"While waiting, consumers can use the SWYW terminals to purchase items from the SWYW catalog, using their credit cards," said Hughes, adding that in addition to handling magnetic stripe transactions, smart cards and automatic teller machine technology also are accepted. "It reads all three." A Panasonic thermographic printer provides the customer with a record of each purchase.
Betting Inc., also headed by Hughes, will be using the free deployment of SWYW terminals as the entry point for the self-service opening and replenishing of sports accounts or off-track betting accounts by ATM cards or value-added cards.
Plans call for the SWYW service to quickly expand across the entire United States, and discussions are already underway with other merchandisers.
"SWYW lets the consumer accomplish something productive in times that would otherwise be lost. For that reason, we think SWYW will be very well received. We look forward to saving time for consumers and helping merchandisers to significantly increase sales and reduce costs." predicted Harry Hargens, SWYW's president.
"Today's consumer is under more and more pressure and has less and less time to take care of basic needs such as shopping." Hargens noted, pointing out that this strategy is proving to be a hit with merchants, who have signed up to be included.
The Latest merchandising home run is being provided by the Los Angeles Dodgers, which sees green at the prospect of offering "Dodger-blue" souvenirs and other team-oriented goodies.
"Shop-While-You-Wait makes a wide variety of exciting Dodgers merchandise more readily available to our fans," said Mike Nygren, director of Dodgers Merchandise.
"We are thrilled to have a quality organization like the L.A. Dodgers as one of our first clients," Hargens reported, adding that he's betting on a most profitable future based on the inclusion of Betting Inc.
We expect a 20% daily usage of these Shop-While-You-Wait terminals to be used to open or replenish wagering accounts." said Hargens. "By the fall, we could well see 600 of these terminals in public locations being used four to five times daily to open or replenish wagering accounts." The player will be charges a flat fee of $6 for this service and will have a printed receipt for each transaction. SWYW estimates a universe of 50,000 terminal locations by the fall of 1999.
According to Hughes, Betting Inc. will use Shop-While-You-Wait in the same manner for establishing a presence in the United Kingdom, Australia and South Africa by the first quarter of 1999. Wagering in these countries will be on a pay-per-play basis.
Using a system known as PERFECT (Personal Encrypted Remote Financial Electronic Card Transactions), Betting Inc. will set itself up as the interface between ET&T and gaming operators. "These transactions are real-time and non-reversible cash wagers." Hughes reported.
The End.
Buy BETT!! Scoobey |
