Lottery’s China Vanguard now controls China app firm

Jun 29, 2015 Newsdesk Industry Talk, Latest News, Rest of Asia  

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Hong Kong-listed China Vanguard Group Ltd, a company providing services to the state lottery system in mainland China, said it has increased its interest in a China-based data marketing, data analytics, software and application development firm.

Via capital injection – for an aggregate cash consideration of RMB13 million (US$2.1 million) – China Vanguard now has 51 percent of the enlarged share capital of Caimi (Beijing) Science and Technology Co Ltd.

“The board is of the view that Caimi will, through its proven expertise in mobile applications development and application based data marketing for lottery operations, actualise the group’s offline-to-online (O2O) strategies for sports and welfare lottery operations in the future, should it become accessible within the regulatory and legal framework in the People’s Republic of China.”

On April 3, eight Chinese central government agencies issued a joint public announcement ordering the suspension of online sales of lottery tickets. They also demanded provincial governmental authorities “to investigate and sanction unauthorised online lottery sales in their respective jurisdictions”.

There is no official word on when the suspension of online lottery sales will be lifted.

A report from China’s National Audit Office made public last week found that a quarter of lottery funds received in 18 provinces of mainland China between 2012 and 2014 had been “misappropriated”, reported Reuters news agency.

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