LONDON, May 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Dragonfish, the independent B2B division of 888 Holdings Plc, today announces the signing of a strategic agreement with South African based Phumelela Gold Enterprises(PGE), one of the world's largest pari-mutuel horseracing and tote betting organisations, to provide a comprehensive sportsbook offering. The offering will be followed by the introduction of casino, poker, bingo and quickplay games once a more developed regulatory regime is in place in South Africa.

Dragonfish will also distribute globally the Horseracing Pools and Live Racing Streaming from tens of tracks globally for which PGE owns exclusive distribution rights, through Dragonfish licensees and via 888.com.

Dragonfish will provide PGE with its market-leading e-payments service and back-end software, which allows swift integration into 888's shared wallet, cashier and customer support systems.

The agreement is another example of Dragonfish's ability to work with companies who work under governmental licensing, following the ground breaking agreement for the New Football Pools in the UK with Sportech Plc. The deal harnesses Dragonfish's e-payments expertise in emerging territories, which has been built up through several years of successful work in Latin America, together with PGE's substantial gaming shop infrastructure.

PGE will provide significant distribution and marketing outlets for this strategic partnership. The partners in PGE, Phumelela Gaming and Leisure Ltd and Gold Circle (Pty) Ltd, conduct horseracing and/or tote betting in all of South Africa's nine provinces, running eleven racecourses, nine training centres, over 400 tote outlets, three telephone-betting centres and two online tote betting sites.

Gabi Campos, Managing Director of Dragonfish, commented:

"Horseracing is the largest sector in worldwide sports betting, and we are delighted to work with a global leader in this area. Phumelela has a huge user-base in South Africa, and this deal will ensure that they have the best tools available with which to provide their customers with a cutting edge online gaming offering."

Rian du Plessis, Group CEO, Phumelela Gaming and Leisure Limited:

"As a recognised world leader in harnessing the latest technology to globalise horseracing, we are very happy to sign with a partner that can provide us with market-leading technology to expand our offering worldwide. Working with Dragonfish going forward will help us to diversify our online offering and build on our current success."

    
    About Dragonfish

    - Dragonfish is the brand name for 888 Holdings Plc's B2B business and is 
      a separate division within 888

    - Dragonfish is a leading provider of Total Gaming Services - Games & 
      Technology; Operations; Marketing and ePayments - with an unique
      heritage within one of the world's leading B2C brands, 888

    - Games covered by Dragonfish include Casino, Poker, Bingo,
      Sports and Quickplay

    - Dragonfish has unsurpassed operations and marketing
      knowledge in the gaming industry

    - Please see http://www.dragonfishtech.com for further details, or 
      contact through sales@dragonfishtech.com

    About Phumelela

    - Phumelela Gold Enterprises (PGE) is a joint venture between South 
      African horseracing and tote betting operators Phumelela and Gold
      Circle.

    - PGE is managed by Phumelela and owns the domestic and international 
      broadcast and information rights to South African horseracing. PGE also 
      sets fixtures for all South African racecourses and owns and manages
      Tellytrack, South Africa's domestic horseracing TV channel.

    - PGE has acquired the worldwide betting-related broadcast rights to 30 
      of the UK's 60 racecourses (the Racing UK rights), including nine of 
      the 12 "Super" tracks from Racing UK (RUK).

    - PGE, in partnership with Racing UK and the UK tote (Totesport), offers 
      a daily racing-betting package to the global market on South 
      African-based TV channel Racing International, which is beamed via
      satellite across six continents.

    
    Contacts:

    Dragonfish
    Gabi Campos, Managing Director                +350-200-49-800
 
    Bell Pottinger Corporate & Financial
    Ann-marie Wilkinson / Nick Lambert / Andrew   +44-20-7861-3232
    Benbow