Shanghai eWorldChina Information Technologies and Shanghai Welfare Lottery Center have signed a sales agent agreement for China's official online Welfare Lottery.

The agreement makes eWorld the online sales agent for the Shanghai Welfare Lottery Center, which administers the largest segment of the Chinese lottery system. eWorld's users will be able to select lottery numbers via 17dian.cn and complete the transaction through its online banking service.

"This is an exciting development for the Company as it will give us access to China's enormous and growing lottery market as well as provide another avenue for entertainment for our users," remarked eWorld CEO Guy Peckham.

China's lottery market surpassed US$10 billion in 2006 and is expected to continue growing according to the Chinese Ministry of Finance, which oversees all of China's lottery sales. Of the US$10 billion spent on lotteries in China, over US$6 billion was generated via the Welfare Lottery system, representing a 20% increase over 2005.

eWorldChina launched an Instant Lottery program as the first online Welfare Lottery product where a winning number will be drawn every 30 minutes. The company will then launch an additional six online Welfare Lottery games for the second quarter of 2007.