BETTING INC (OTC BB: BETT)
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News March 29, 10:18 Eastern Time
HOLTSVILLE, N.Y. (March 29) BUSINESS WIRE -March 29, 1999--Betting on soccer matches, one of the most popular forms of sports betting in the United Kingdom over the past 100 years, has moved dramatically into the high-tech age thanks to Symbol Technologies.
Littlewoods Promotions Limited, the best known soccer pools company in the U.K., has placed an order for more than $9 million with Symbol Technologies Ltd., for 20,000 Symbol PDT 3100 hand-held portable data computers to improve the efficiency and accuracy of its field-based collectors in tracking individual bets the company announced today.
Using the hand-held computers, Littlewoods will largely replace the manual collection of pools coupons with an automatic data collection system. The new system is based around the Littlewoods Pools Card, each one printed with a unique client-identifying bar code.
"This order is one of the largest single-project orders in Symbol UK's history," said Gordon Ambidge, vice president and managing director, Symbol Technologies, United Kingdom. "It is a significant step forward in data capture for Littlewoods."
Bets Are on With Symbol Computer
Traditionally, Littlewoods collects around two million pools coupons - individual bets on soccer match results - each week, through a network of self employed, commission-based door-to-door collectors. Now, Littlewoods will provide each collector with their own hand-held PDT 3100 computer to take on their rounds. When a client shows their Pools Card, the collector uses the computer to scan the bar code, which displays the client's name, address and stake on the computer's built-in screen.
The collector then presses the ENTER button on the computer's keypad to record the transaction. Each computer is capable of holding information on more than 300 Littlewoods clients. The transaction occurs quickly, because there are no coupons to fill in and only the stake money is collected. The client can see a visual acknowledgement of the transaction on the screen.
The driving force for the system was Littlewoods' desire to improve client service. The most laborious part of the pools process for their clients was completing the pools coupon. Research has showed that more than 70 percent of Littlewoods' clients were using the same number sequence every week.
"We asked ourselves two key questions - why were we printing paper coupons for our clients to repeat the same selection process each week and why were we using a system that made us process the same information repeatedly," said Tony Hodge, commercial services manager, Littlewoods Promotions Limited. "We looked at the options available and decided on an automatic data capture solution. Following the success of the trial, the decision to use Symbol's computers was an easy one to make."
Symbol Technologies, Inc. is a global leader in mobile data management systems and services with innovative customer solutions based on wireless local area networking for voice and data, application-specific mobile computing and bar code data capture. Symbol's wireless LAN solutions are installed at more than 40,000 customer locations, and more than seven million Symbol scanners and application-specific scanner-integrated mobile computer systems are in use worldwide. Symbol and its global network of business partners provide solutions for retailing, transportation and distribution logistics, parcel and postal delivery, healthcare, education manufacturing and other industries. Customer information is available from Symbol at 1-800-722-6234 and at symbol.com.
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