TECHIE SPONSORSHIP BY BETFAIR

TECHIE SPONSORSHIP BY BETFAIR 2008 TopCoder Open showcases computing skills and talent  The online gambling and betting exchange group Betfair has recognised the importance of technical talent in the high-tech world of Internet gambling by signing up as a sponsor for the 2008 TopCoder Open scheduled for May 11th – May 15th at the Mirage Resort in Las Vegas. The company joins some illustrious fellow sponsors that include AOL, Lilly, NSA, VeriSign and BT.  The live finals for the TopCoder Open – competitive programming's premiere tournament – will match the top 120 finalists spanning four tournament tracks in competition for a share of $260 000 in prizes.
 
The Chief Technical Officer at Betfair, Rorie Devine, said: "Betfair is committed to attracting the world's best and brightest software technologists to its global team and challenging them to solve interesting and demanding problems. We are very excited to sponsor the Top Coder Open. It's a great opportunity to raise our profile among a global community of talented software developers and to encourage their participation in the Betfair Developers Program." The Betfair Developers Program is a program dedicated to assisting Betfair users to integrate their business or personal needs with the Betfair exchange platforms. A member of the Betfair Developers Program can use the Betfair API's to create custom applications for personal, commercial or third party use. The annual TopCoder Open (TCO) draws the world's top software developers to match skills in a variety of competitions, with more than 4 600 talented competitors registered across all competitions. This year's TCO features four highly contested tournament tracks – the Algorithm Competition; Component Design and Development Competitions; Marathon Match Competition and Studio Design Competition.  A spokesman for TopCoder said that the competitions offer sponsors a powerful branding platform within the global community of proven developers that provides a unique opportunity to build valuable relationships and to hire some of the best developers in the world. "Being a finalist in a TopCoder competition is a powerful resume builder," said Rob Hughes, president and COO of TopCoder, Inc. "Smart organizations, like Betfair and our other TCO sponsors and patrons, understand the critical value of being proactive as they search for great talent."