Professional history

Arnold Kopff

Managing Director

Arnold's entire professional life has been dedicated to the design and development of on-line, real-time systems. Arnold commenced his career with Universal Totalisators in 1972 where he was responsible for the design and manufacture of specialised totalisator hardware. In 1975, Arnold was invited to join the team at Amalgamated Wireless Australasia Limited (AWA) which was being assembled to implement the world's first sell-pay totalisator system. This system was the first fully computerised, totally software-based wagering system and employed state-of-the-art on-line transaction processing techniques to automate all facets of totalisator operation.

Following that success, Arnold left AWA Limited in 1978 to become a founding member of RT Real Time Systems, a start-up formed by various members of the original software team from AWA Limited. From 1978 through to 1985 RT Real Time Systems completed some impressive projects including the development of the large-scale totalisator systems used by the Totalisator Agency Boards (TABs) in the Australian states of Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia. Each of these systems provided on-track, off-track and telephone betting services for the entire state. In addition, "MULTI-BET" tote systems designed by Arnold were installed at over 30 race tracks in Australia and at 2 tracks in the Philippines. All of the Australian "MULTI-BET" systems supported simultaneous wagering on as many as 8 separate race tracks, and the totalisator at each of the tracks communicated with the others via a message switching "hub" system to permit cross-betting and common pool wagering.

In 1986 Arnold left RT Real Time Systems to co-found Advanced Wagering Systems (AWS). Subsequently, Advanced Wagering Systems assumed contractual responsibility to support and enhance all of the tote systems previously designed by Arnold during his time at RT Real Time Systems. In 1988, an on-track totalisator system was sold to the British bookmaking conglomerate, William-Hill Mecca, for installation in Botswana in southern Africa.

In 1991, AWS and another Australian company, M&B Electronics, jointly designed and developed the ARION wagering terminal. Arnold project-managed the software development and hardware and software integration phases of this project. Arnold was also responsible for selecting and sourcing several key components including the terminal's core processor chip, the Motorola 68302. Several hundred of these terminals were subsequently sold to a variety of Australian racing clubs and casinos. The ARION terminal was the first to feature a built-in CCD scanner for reading barcoded betting tickets, player tracking cards and staff ids. In 1992, AWS designed and implemented a "pilot" on and off-track betting system, that also included telephone betting, for Greenwood Racing Inc., in Philadelphia.

In late 1992 and early 1993, Arnold was retained by two major US-based computer vendors, firstly Concurrent Computer Corporation, and then later Stratus Computer Inc., to assist with the design of each company's respective benchmark system needed to complete their submissions in response to the Victorian TAB's RFP for a new state-wide betting system.

In 1993, Arnold was invited by the NSW Minister for Sport, Recreatation & Racing to be a member of the six person working party which reviewed and significantly overhauled the NSW Totalisator Rules and Regulations for the first time since 1916.

Also in 1993, UNIX-based software developed by Arnold was licensed to Video Lottery Technologies, Inc. (VLT), the world's second largest supplier of on-line lottery systems. This software licensing agreement involved a comprehensive technology transfer phase. To facilitate the transfer of technology, Arnold and his family relocated to Atlanta, Georgia for 2 years. During this time Arnold managed the Totalisator Systems Group at VLT which had been formed specifically to exploit the software license granted to VLT by AWS.

After Arnold returned to Australia at the end of 1994, Advanced Wagering Systems entered into a software license agreement with Tattersalls Sweep Consultation. Tattersalls are the world's oldest private lottery operator and have government-granted licenses to operate on-line lotteries, scratch lotteries and keno in Victoria, Tasmania, the Northern Territory, the Australian Capital Territory and several overseas jurisdictions. During the technology transfer phase of this project, Arnold acted as senior consultant and system architect on new wagering and gaming system development being undertaken by the Tattersalls technology group in Melbourne.

In 1996, a UNIX-based betting system designed by Arnold was adopted by Jupiters Limited as the foundation for their state-wide keno system in Queensland. This project also included a significant technology transfer phase. During the development by Jupiters of the Keno application software, Arnold acted as system architectural advisor. After this system went live in June 1997, Arnold was retained by Jupiters as the senior technical consultant, overseeing the on-going development and refinement of the system. The Jupiters keno system is unique, in that as well as selling keno through several large casinos, and several hundred licensed clubs and "pubs", the Queensland TAB's 200 off-track betting shops also sell keno. Keno-related transactions received via the TAB's wide-area communications network are passed across to the Jupiters on-line system for processing.

In 1998, Arnold was retained by Daewoo Information Systems Co., Ltd., to assist them and the Korea Racing Association with the detailed design study for a new on and off-track betting system for deployment throughout Korea. In addition to providing extensive on-track, off-track and telephone betting facilities, the new KRA system is designed to also allow parimutuel wagering via the World Wide Web and mobile wireless devices.

In late-1998, PowerSource worked with Data Channel Australia Pty. Ltd., a broadband disseminator of wagering and gaming information, to design and implement an Internet-based parimutuel totalisator system. In early 1999, PowerSource was retained by the Korean Electronics Technology Institute (KETI) to devise an architecture and implementation plan for a national sports lottery in Korea in anticipation of the 2002 Soccer World Cup.

Around the same time, PowerSource was asked to develop an Internet based lottery system for an International consortium. In mid-1999, Arnold oversaw Jupiters Network Gaming's Year 2000 compliance testing for their keno system. Following that, PowerSource developed new software for Jupiters as part of a data warehouse project.

In January 2000, PowerSource were retained by Samsung SDS, Korea's largest system integrator, and the Korea Racing Association to provide technical consulting services for the duration of the 4 year implementation timeframe of the KRA's totalisator project. Specifically, Arnold's role was to assist both groups with the architecture, detailed design and implementation of the new Korea-wide parimutuel totalisator system. PowerSource's key role in this prestigious large-scale project continued until its completion in late 2004.

During the second half of 2000, Arnold initiated the development by PowerSource of a number of technically demanding products outside of the wagering & gaming industry, but which still leveraged the company's considerable real-time software expertise. The first of these products was Cinematheque — an enterprise scale management and control system for IPTV and interactive Video on Demand.

2002 saw Arnold being retained by Freehills as an expert witness to assist the Australian Federal Court in the Home Gambling Network (HGN) patent opposition matter.

In late 2003, Arnold started designing Reactix: a versatile re-targetable transaction processing platform for community gaming (i.e. trade promotion lotteries) that facilitates interactivity in conjunction with all forms of mainstream media including television, radio and print. In particular, Reactix allows the introduction of TV programs which provide for a compelling level of interactivity far above any existing iTV solution. Reactix allows viewers, subscribers or players to interact using their SMS and micro-browser enabled mobile telephones.

In 2003 and continuing into 2004, Arnold was retained by Phillips Fox and Swaab Attorneys to assist the Australian Federal Court as an expert witness in the Neurizon vs Jupiters Limited patent infringement case. In early 2004, Arnold was named by the Norfolk Island Legislative Assembly as their official compliance tester for wagering systems being deployed on the island.

In 2006, Arnold commenced the design of Typhoon™, PowerSource's all-in-one totalisator, lottery and rapid lottery system. Typhoon™ is a revolutionary betting platform: it runs 24x7 day in and day out; it provides a comprehensive range of parimutuel and lottery products out of one unified piece of software; it caters for more than just horse racing — rather than forcing each contestant in an event to have arbitrary tote number, Typhoon™ can accept wagers based on the contestant's name; it allows any number of contestants in an event — even hundreds of them; it collates wagers for all pools, even exotics — this makes it possible to see progressive dividends on any pool; it supports fractional betting; and it can collate pools in any number of different currencies simultaneously.

Typhoon™ is the next revolution is wagering & gaming systems.

Arnold can be contacted at akopff@powersource.com.au

Greg Kopff

BE (Soft) (Hons) DipEngPrac

Chief Technologist

Greg is a co-founder of PowerSource. He is also PowerSource's Chief Technologist and co-principal designer of Typhoon™, the company's revolutionary wagering & gaming system. One of Greg's jobs is to keep PowerSource and its Software Engineering team technically agile; he keeps a lookout for emerging software engineering techniques and assesses their applicability to what the company does — it was Greg's early involvement with Java starting in 1996 that has set the course for the development of PowerSource's products for over a decade: Cinematheque™, Reactix & Typhoon™ are all written in Java.

Greg anticipated that hyper-threaded and multicore CPUs could be exploited using Java's inherent ability to parallelise certain applications — using the language's built-in, fine-grained multi-threading — and that PowerSource could use this to create high performance transaction processing systems with throughput and turnaround times that could previously only be attained using older procedural languages, like C.

Greg is a professional Software Engineer: he graduated first in the Order of Merit with First Class Honours and a Diploma of Engineering Practice from the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) after completing a Software Engineering degree. As an alumni, he continues to be a member of the UTS Programming Society (ProgSoc) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

At PowerSource, Greg leads the small but intensely dedicated team of Software Engineers that develop the company's innovative real-time software solutions. Greg has been designing and developing software for wagering & gaming systems since 1996 when he started at Advanced Wagering Systems. As Chief Technologist of PowerSource, he has been a principal developer of high performance transaction processing software for a number of tote and lottery systems, the latest being Typhoon™. Typhoon™ delivers on the promise of having a single, easily re-targetable wagering & gaming platform.

Greg's reputation as a skilled engineer, with extensive expertise in wagering and gaming, is widely recognised and he has been retained as an expert witness to assist in legal proceedings centred around the gaming regulatory framework in one of the Australian jurisdictions.

In addition to being highly proficient in all facets of Java, Greg is an expert C programmer, and is also skilled in a variety of niche languages such as Lisp, Javascript and several flavours of assembler. Greg is a child of the Linux generation, and in this regard, he is at the forefront of the deployment of real-time Linux based systems. Greg also knows his way around many flavours of UNIX and Microsoft Windows variants.

Greg commenced his career by designing and developing all client-side software for Advanced Wagering Systems' groundbreaking InterBet web-based lottery system. The successful completion of InterBet was followed by similar, but more demanding work for the implementation of the WebTAB proof-of-concept parimutuel system.

Every year since 1998, Greg has designed and written substantial quantities of high quality Java code that forms the very core of PowerSource's real-time systems. In particular, Greg has played lead roles in the development of Javelin, the company's ultra-high performance transaction processing engine.

In 2000, Greg was busy working on a multitude of projects, many of them Java-based. This included a proof-of-concept Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) interface to PowerSource's PowerPlay Gaming System, and PowerBoard, an across-the-board sports wagering application.

During 2001, Greg lead the software development of the JetStream Dynamic Content Accelerator and spent the remainder of 2001 and 2002 as the principal developer of PowerSource's Cinematheque IPTV & VOD management system. In 2003, Greg was focussed on research that led to the design and development by him of PowerSource's MPEG2 content protection product. Securite is designed to defeat attempts to capture a perfect copy of streamed digital content thus preventing it from being illegally exploited. Concepts devised by Greg for Securite formed the basis of a patent application by PowerSource.

During 2004 and 2005, Greg was busy as co-architect and principal developer of Reactix. Reactix is PowerSource's community gaming system — it provides a versatile platform for conducting trade promotion lotteries. Reactix allows SMS and micro-browser equipped mobile phones to be used interactively in conjunction with all mainstream media, including TV, radio and print.

In 2006, Greg started devising the revolutionary concepts that underpin Typhoon™. These include: the highly parallelised transaction processing engine that helps to give Typhoon™ its blistering performance; sparse collations, which allow Typhoon™ to collate bets on-the-fly for all pools types, no matter how exotic; the "deployment factory" which lets PowerSource build, maintain and enhance the software for all deployed Typhoon™ systems out of a single unified code base; and Typhoon's mechanism for freely associating agendas, events and pools that eliminates fixed heirarchies and makes Typhoon™ the first wagering & gaming system that doesn't operate on a daily, batch-based cycle.

In 2007, PowerSource started aggressive development of Typhoon™, with Greg as the co-principal technical lead. During 2007 and into early 2008, Greg and his team wrote more than 400,000 lines of Java, spread over more than 3,300 class files — a considerable feat of 21st Century Software Engineering know-how.

The global wagering & gaming industry is tightly regulated by government, and in early 2008 Typhoon™ underwent Regulatory Compliance Testing so that it could be certified by a governmental body which would then allow it to be used in production. Typhoon™ passed these extensive tests at the first attempt. Indeed, it was the first time in the testing authority's 25 year history that a wagering system had ever achieved that. This is a testament to the professional skill of Greg and his team of engineers.

In mid-2008, Greg helped to devise the Typhoon Syndication Protocol (TSP) — an architecture that enables a multitude of betting systems like Typhoon™ to be arranged in a seamless cross-betting cluster. The radical feature that differentiates TSP from older approaches is that each of the cross-betting participants dynamically configure themselves into a self-repairing, peer-to-peer mesh in order to exchange both compendium (agenda, event, contestant and pool) information and collation details. The peer-to-peer arrangement eliminates update and information propagation delays, which results in punters everywhere always having up-to-date betting trend information at their disposal. A significant change in the pool caused by a bet placed at one system is instantly relayed to all other systems in the mesh.

Greg is most definitely a wagering & gaming revolutionary.

Greg can be reached at gkopff@powersource.com.au

Emil Koutanov

BE (Soft) (Hons) (Medal) DipEngPrac

Principal Software Engineer

Emil is a "new age" software developer and brings a vast software engineering talent to PowerSource. Although he is still a university undergraduate, Emil has already amassed considerable software engineering expertise and has a portfolio of work that would rival those of engineers of many years standing. His areas of significant work already range from embedded devices, to mission-critical back office middleware, to high performance, high reliability mobile information and media dissemination systems.

Prior to joining PowerSource, Emil developed Java-based middleware for a sales force automation solution that enabled real estate agents, couriers or other similar organisations that employ a large field force to centrally co-ordinate their representatives by communicating with their PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants) through the GSM / GPRS wireless network. This solution boosted users' productivity by eliminating duplication of effort, helped locate new business opportunities through more accurate competitive and customer intelligence, and provided management with the ability to closely monitor individual field representative performance.

Emil was also the chief architect and developer of an on-farm livestock tracking system. At the heart of the system is a handheld device that is capable of remotely scanning low frequency RFID tags in order to identify and track events in the life of a farm animal. The hand-held tag reader is microcomputer controlled and runs a high performance embedded micro database engine, which, together with the other major components, was devised and built by Emil.

Presently Emil is Lead Software Engineer for PowerSource, working primarily on the LiveInform project - a sports information dissemination system that alerts subscribers to events and news in real-time via SMS. For the LiveInform project, Emil was the principal designer of the news feed ingest system and the alert dispatch engine. Contemporaneously, Emil is also contributing to on-going developments to PowerSource's high performance transaction processing solutions which are used in a range of demanding wagering, gaming and multimedia applications.

Emil's colleagues at PowerSource have christened him with the nickname "Spooky" (after the X-Files character Mulder) for his ability to see things inside computer systems that no-one else can see.

Emil is currently studying for a Bachelor's degree in Software Engineering with a Diploma in Engineering Practice at UTS, is progressing with a High Distinction average (and has yet to achieve anything lower than a Distinction), and expects to graduate with first class honours. Emil is also the winner of multiple Australian Institute of Management (AIM) engineering excellence awards which go hand-in-glove with his exceptional academic record.

As an engineer with a passion for creativity, Emil's personal achievements include building his own signal processing applications, one of which is an audio mixing station. Emil has also devised (and written a paper on) 3D pattern recognition algorithms which he has tested in voice-print biometric security systems. He has also pondered over new algorithms for symmetric-key block cipher networks as an alternative to the popular Feistel network and its derivatives.

On a personal note, Emil's interests span a domain wider than just engineering. They include music, and in particular deejaying in the trance and club genres. Emil also takes an interest in aviation, holding numerous records in combat flight simulations. Any spare time he has is spent in the gym, working towards a Mr. Olympia title.

Emil can be contacted at ekoutanov@powersource.com.au, or at a gym near you.