Re Agreement

Sportech PLC
16 July 2001

16 July 2001

                Sportech Appoints Scipher to Manage Licensing

                             of Patent Portfolio




  * Sportech appoints Scipher to assist in 'mining' its Rodime Technologies
    patent portfolio

  * Agreement will help Sportech create value from its remaining disk drive
    and storage access technology patents



Sportech plc ('Sportech' or 'the Company') announces that it has signed an
agreement with technology development and licensing company, Scipher plc
('Scipher'). Scipher will manage the portfolio of 20 US and European patents
belonging to the Rodime Technologies division of Sportech.

Scipher's patent licensing arm, QED, will progress the commercial licensing
opportunities of Sportech's intellectual property, which principally covers
disk drive and storage access technologies.

The patents, which were built up when the Company's core business was as a
manufacturer of disc drives, all date from the period preceding Sportech's
acquisition of Littlewoods Leisure in September 2000 and its move into the
betting and gaming market.



Colin McGill, Managing Director, Sportech plc, said:

'We are determined to secure maximum value for our shareholders from the
existing patent portfolio. This partnership not only sees us reduce the
day-to-day costs of managing the portfolio, but extends our expertise in
seeking commercial opportunities for our intellectual properties.

'With Scipher's impressive record of IP management, built up over more than
two generations, I am confident that this partnership will enable us to
exploit the full potential of Sportech's patent portfolio.'



Dr Ken Gray, Chairman, Scipher plc, said:

'Leading companies are finding that substantial financial value can be
extracted from licensing their patents. Scipher has extensive experience and a
strong reputation in creating such licensing revenue for its clients, and we
are delighted to be assisting Sportech to help them deliver their IP
exploitation strategy.'



Enquiries

Sportech plc               0151 288 3167

Colin McGill, Managing Director

Bell Pottinger Financial   020 7353 9203

Rebecca Fox / Oliver Jones

Scipher plc                020 8848 6444

Michael Kendon



Notes to Editors

About Sportech


  * Sportech plc (formerly Rodime plc) is the holding company for
    Littlewoods Leisure, the UK betting and gaming company, acquired in a
    reverse take-over completed in September 2000.

  * Following the acquisition, the rights relating to disk drive technology
    belonging to Rodime were allocated to a new division called Rodime
    Technologies.

  * Sportech is now focused on its core business of developing the
    Littlewoods gaming and leisure business, utilising new channels of
    distribution to bring more games to more players and capitalising on the
    strength of the Littlewoods brand, namely its association with the values
    of trust and integrity. The Company has a regular playing customer base
    covering 1.6 million households.

  * For more information about Sportech, please visit our website at
    www.sportech-plc.co.uk



About Scipher plc


  * Scipher plc is the largest technology development and licensing company
    of its type in Europe. Scipher delivers value from intellectual property
    in two principal ways. It commercialises patent-protected products
    developed by its own R&D resources, through licensing or sale to
    high-growth markets around the world. Secondly, using its extensive
    expertise in intellectual property (IP) management it creates value from
    clients' IP assets by providing a complete licence revenue generating
    service.

  * Scipher's impressive portfolio of advanced technology products and
    know-how covers the 3D Sound, Displays, Communications, Sensors, Secure
    Identification and Broadcast Monitoring markets. Almost two-thirds of
    Scipher's revenues are earned outside the UK.

  * Scipher is backed by a tradition of more than 70 years in advanced R&D
    and the successful commercial exploitation of intellectual property,
    including developments of such historic importance as stereo recording,
    television broadcasting and the medical CT scanner, which won a Nobel
    Prize for its inventor.

  * Scipher (LSE: SIP) is a constituent of the techMark 100 index. For more
    information on Scipher please visit our website on www.scipher.com.

  * QED is the IP licensing arm of Scipher plc. Headquartered in the United
    Kingdom and with offices in both Japan and Sweden, QED is an intellectual
    property (IP) licensing company that provides proactive licensing services
    to a range of world class clients, helping them to generate income from
    their IP portfolios.

  * QED combines commercial, technical, legal and patent expertise to help
    its clients secure their IP rights, identify IP opportunities and exploit
    the value of their IP assets.

  * For further information on QED, please visit our web-site at
    www.qed-ip.com.