Sega Derby Owners Club May Tournament

This article comes from Highwaygames.com

Sega Amusements Europe will launch The Sega May Derby, its first national Derby Owners Club tournament on 1 May 2004. The tournament is set to run for the whole month and has a total prize fund of £4,500. It will operate across nine of the current Derby Owners Club locations across the UK. The success of the multi player horse racing and breeding game has allowed Sega to dedicate a tournament to it. The month long tournament is being organised in reaction to player and operator requests. Players naturally form communities around the game at local site level and on the web, both of which have been a source of the request. Location managers feel the overall impressiveness of the machines and the buzz they create on site allows it to progress that bit further to a full on tournament.

The tournament is structured to create three national winners with the biggest purse, the best horse winning £1,000, but also every site will be able to award three local winners. It is anticipated that this will be the first of many events, which has been limited to a small number of sites for the first one. The potential once all other current sites across UK, Ireland and Europe are included could offer a £10,000 prize pot. Crucial to the event is the web site www.derbyownersclub.co.uk which will coordinate all the location's top horses, allowing players anywhere in the country to chart their progress. Players will also have to register their racehorse with Sega via mobile text message; this will allow Sega to target specific players back with text messages relating to their position in the national league. Sega commented, "It is something that the American DOC locations have done exceptionally well with whilst maintaining and boosting income levels. Who knows we could see in the future a Trans-Atlantic battle to be the best!"