London & Macau
20th May, 2002

    After two months of online voting, the competition is really starting to heat up for the first annual Asian Online Gaming Awards, as operators and technology vendors see the results unfold before their eyes at  www.asianonlinegaming.com.
 

    These new industry awards, scheduled to be announced on the 19th June 2002 during the second Asian Online Gaming conference in Macau, have already caused considerable headaches for the organisers, Revolution Events.  Most of the controversy has been around the Awards’ use of a freely accessible voting system, used in preference to the formation of a pre-selected judging panel.
 

    Richard Tribe, Joint Managing Director of Revolution Events, explains: “ We chose to decide the Awards via an online voting system, primarily to avoid the accusations of bias that tend to accompany industry judging panels.  The categories are all unprompted so that users can make up their own minds about who to vote for – and we were not intending to publish any results until the day itself. “ 
 
 

    “ However, “  Tribe continues  “ After a considerable amount of pressure from interested parties, we agreed to show the interim results on our website – and there were a number of surprises! Now we’re having to vet the votes very, very carefully to ensure that the results are not biased by entries from spurious hotmail accounts or multiple entries from the same companies voting for themselves. Thankfully, there hasn’t been a dramatic swing in any one direction, so we’re confident that the final recipients of the Awards will still be fairly and democratically decided. “ 
 

    Asian Online Gaming 2002 is Revolution’s second major event for online gaming in the Asia-Pacific region, following their much talked-about launch event in Bangkok last November.  This year’s event takes place on 18th & 19th June at the Macau Cultural Centre and features a Special Panel Discussion about the current legal developments in Hong Kong. Fully inclusive delegate places (including a place at the Awards) can be booked online at www.asianonlinegaming.com
 
 

Current Results – as of Friday 17th May 2002

CATEGORY 1 – EXCELLENCE (OPERATOR)
Which operator has demonstrated excellence in the Asia-Pacific Region?
1) DrHo.com  (28% of total votes cast)
2) Ladbrokes  (18% of total votes cast)
3) Victor Chandler International  (16% of total votes cast)
 

CATEGORY 2 – INNOVATION (OPERATOR)
Which operator has shown International Innovation?
1) Sportingbet.com  (24% of total votes cast)
2) Victor Chandler International  (22% of total votes cast)
3)  888.com / Casino-on-Net  (12% of total votes cast)
 

CATEGORY 3 – TECHNOLOGY (VENDOR)
Who is the best technology provider in online gaming?
1) Microgaming  (35% of total votes cast)
2) Playtech  (23% of total votes cast)
3) Chartwell Technology  (17% of total votes cast)
 
 

For more details please contact
Hannah Miller: hannah@revolution-events.com
Richard Tribe at gaming@revolution-events.com 
(+) 44 1732 367007