Cricket West Indies signed a historic 10-year partnership with Caribbean CAGE, the Caribbean’s leading operator of video lottery and gaming terminals as well as licensed sports betting, on Monday.
Caribbean CAGE LLC is a gaming company, Robert L. Johnson and Robert B. Washington in 2004, focused primarily on the installation, operation and management of video lottery and video gaming terminals, linked gaming systems and game content including Sports Betting, Virtual Sports and iGaming throughout the Caribbean and Latin America.
This landmark agreement is projected to generate nearly US$100 million for cricket development across the region and represents a significant step forward in securing the future of West Indies Cricket and is the result of extensive planning and collaboration.
Caribbean CAGE recently expanded its operations with the launch of sports betting in Puerto Rico.
“For the last 20 years, there have been efforts to establish a regional lottery that could fund West Indies Cricket and we are quite happy and ecstatic to actually realize that idea and I want to say to Mr. Robert Washington and his team at CAGE how grateful we are,” CWI President Dr. Kishore Shallow said at a CWI quarterly press conference on Monday.
"The resources generated through this collaboration will not only empower the development of our men's and women's teams, but also strengthen the cricketing ecosystem across the region. The strategic alliance reflects our shared commitment to rebuilding West Indies Cricket as a global powerhouse and a unifying force for the Caribbean Community," he added.
Washington was also on hand on Monday and gave his remarks on the historic deal.
“It’s been a long process. These discussions started 20 years ago after we started providing support to the Barbados Cricket Association many years ago,” he said.
“What has been extremely gratifying to the CAGE side of the team has been the work experience, love and dedication that the CWI staff and the professional team here exhibited during these negotiations. I’m gratified to have executed this long-term contract. I think, on a conservative basis, it generates an estimated US$100 million for CWI and another US$156 million for the Governments that participate in the program,” he added.
Washington then went further into what exactly the program entails.
“What we are talking about is the use of gaming and lottery revenue to support cricket and cricket development which is what happens around the world. We started this journey, most recently, in Port-of-Spain at the symposium hosted by the Hon. Prime Minister of Trinidad & Tobago, Keith Rowley. At that symposium, we submitted a presentation that was warmly received by members of the audience and members of Government, many of whom came up to me after and thought there was wisdom in finding a source of predictable, recurring revenue for cricket and cricket development,” he said.
“Following that, we met in Guyana and made a further presentation to the Prime Ministerial sub-committee on cricket who unanimously supported this project and supported a road forward for cricket and cricket development. What we intend to bring to CWI are sports betting, virtual sports and I-gaming,” he added.