Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group has taken a controlling stake in Hong Kong-based lottery technology provider AGTech Holdings.

Over the weekend, Alibaba offshoot Ali Fortune Investment Holdings announced it would pay HKD 2.39b (US $308m) to acquire a 59.45% stake in AGTech. The purchase price will be split into HKD 1.68b of AGTech shares and HKD 712.6m worth of convertible bonds.

AGTech has a well-established presence in China’s lottery business, supplying technology to land-based sports and welfare lottery retailers in 80% of China’s provinces. AGTech also provides its e-Ball virtual football game in Jiangsu province and has a joint venture with UK bookies Ladbrokes that offers the Lucky Racing virtual racing product in Hunan province.

To date, AGTech has yet to offer online or mobile lottery products, but Alibaba says its involvement will offer opportunities for AGTech to expand into cloud computing. Once the deal is complete (by mid-September this year), AGTech will become the “exclusive business platform” for Alibaba’s lottery operations.