Youbet.com Goes After Chinese Market

Woodland Hills-based online wagering firm, Youbet.com has announced plans to launch a horse racing entertainment Web site in March of this year, exclusively for access by customers in mainland China. The new site will mirror certain aspects of Youbet’s U.S. site, but it will be written in simplified Chinese. The site will feature live feeds from U.S. tracks selected primarily because their races run at times that align with daylight time zones in China. Initially, Youbet will broadcast signals and program information in Chinese from the Meadowlands Track and Monmouth Park in New Jersey; from Sam Houston Race Park in Texas; and from Delta Downs and Evangeline Downs Race Tracks in Louisiana. Construction on the new URL also will produce the architecture needed to launch fully functional Spanish and Chinese language sites in the United States, programs that Youbet is currently pursuing. The Spanish site will also go live before the end of the second quarter of 2005.