The Societe des loteries video du Quebec Extends Relationship with Optimal Services Group; Quebec Provincial Agency Signs 5 Year Service Contract

NEWS RELEASE TRANSMITTED BY CCNMatthews

FOR:  OPTIMAL GROUP INC.

NASDAQ SYMBOL:  OPMR

DECEMBER 2, 2004 - 07:00 ET

The Societe des loteries video du Quebec Extends 
Relationship with Optimal Services Group; Quebec 
Provincial Agency Signs 5 Year Service Contract

MONTREAL--(CCNMatthews - Dec 2, 2004) -

Optimal Services Group Inc. ("Optimal Services Group"), a wholly-owned 
subsidiary of Optimal Group Inc. (NASDAQ:OPMR), announced today that it 
has concluded a five-year agreement with The Societe des loteries video 
du Quebec Inc. ("SLVQ"). The SLVQ is a wholly-owned subsidiary of 
Loto-Quebec Inc., a provincial government organization responsible for 
developing games of chance and gambling in Quebec. Optimal Services 
Group will provide the SLVQ with inventory management, technical 
laboratory services, as well as, depot maintenance and repair services 
for their video lottery terminals. 

"We are proud that the SLVQ selected us as their service provider, 
extending our existing business relationship," stated Frank Alcaraz, 
Chief Operating Officer of Optimal Services Group. "We will continue to 
meet the SLVQ's high standards in terms of quality, integrity and 
security, while providing value-added technical laboratory services," 
concluded Mr. Alcaraz. 

Optimal Services Group has, through the acquisition of assets of a 
predecessor company in 2003, been providing inventory management, depot 
maintenance and repair services to the SLVQ since 1994. The new 
agreement, which runs until 2009, expands upon the former agreement by 
including more specialized technical services. 

"We are pleased to renew and expand our relationship with Optimal 
Services Group," commented Mr. Michel Meloche, Director of Marketing of 
the SLVQ. "Optimal Services Group has proven their ability to meet our 
stringent requirements", concluded Mr. Meloche.

About Optimal Group Inc.

Optimal Group Inc. is a leading payments and services company with 
operations throughout North America and the United Kingdom. Through 
Optimal Payments, we provide technology and services that businesses 
require to accept credit card, electronic check and direct debit 
payments. Optimal Payments processes credit card payments for internet 
businesses, mail-order/telephone-order and retail point-of-sale 
merchants, as well as processing checks and direct debits online and by 
phone. Through Optimal Services Group, we provide depot and field 
services to retail, financial services and other third-party accounts. 
For more information about Optimal, please visit the company's website 
at www.optimalgrp.com.

About The Societe des loteries video du Quebec Inc.

Created in 1993, the SLVQ was given the mandate of marketing and 
managing a vast network of video lottery terminals located in several 
establishments in Quebec and to hand over the profits to the government. 
The SLVQ calls on the services of private-sector businesses to oversee 
day-to-day operations. The SLVQ operates over 14,000 video lottery 
terminals in over 3,000 establishments across Quebec. For more 
information about SLVQ, please visit the company's website at 
www.slvq.com

Forward-Looking Statements:

Statements in this release that are "forward-looking statements" are 
based on current expectations and assumptions that are subject to risks 
and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially because of 
factors such as the following: our ability to retain key personnel is 
important to our growth and prospects; we may be unable to find suitable 
acquisition candidates and may not be able to successfully integrate 
businesses that may be acquired into our operations; our contracts for 
hardware maintenance and repair outsourcing services may not be renewed 
or may be reduced; we rely upon certain customers for a substantial 
portion of our services revenues; our hardware maintenance and repair 
outsourcing services business is affected by computer industry trends; 
our hardware maintenance and repair outsourcing services business 
operates in a market subject to rapid technological change; our per 
incident hardware maintenance and repair outsourcing services revenues 
are variable; the failure of our systems could negatively impact our 
business and our reputation we operate in a highly competitive market 
and there is no assurance that we will be able to compete successfully 
against current or future competitors; we rely on single suppliers for 
some of our inventory; we may not be able to accurately predict our 
inventory requirements; our hardware maintenance and repair outsourcing 
services business may be subject to unforeseen difficulties in managing 
customers' equipment; our hardware maintenance and repair outsourcing 
services business may fail to price fixed fee contracts accurately; our 
payments business is at risk of loss due to fraud and disputes; our 
payments business may not be able to safeguard against security and 
privacy breaches in our electronic transactions; our payment system 
might be used for illegal or improper purposes; we must comply with 
credit card and check clearing association rules and practices which 
could impose additional costs and burdens on our payments business; we 
may not be able to develop new products that are accepted by our 
customers; the failure of our systems, the systems of third parties or 
the internet could negatively impact our business systems or our 
reputation; the legal status of internet gaming is uncertain and future 
regulation may make it costly or impossible to continue processing for 
gaming merchants; we face uncertainties with regard to lawsuits, 
regulations and similar matters; increasing government regulation of 
internet commerce could make it more costly or difficult to continue our 
payments business; we rely on strategic relationships and suppliers; it 
may be costly and/or time-consuming to enforce our rights with respect 
to assets held in foreign jurisdictions; our ability to protect our 
intellectual property is key to the future growth of our payments 
business;  

we operate in a competitive market for our products and services; we 
rely upon independent sales agents to retain and acquire our customers 
our business systems are based on sophisticated technology which may be 
negatively affected by technological defects and product development 
delays; our payments business relies upon encryption technology to 
conduct secure electronic commerce transactions; the ability of our 
payments business to process electronic transactions depends on bank 
processing and credit card systems; we are subject to exchange rate 
fluctuations between the U.S. and Canadian dollars; we may be subject to 
liability or business interruption as a result of unauthorized 
disclosure of merchant and cardholder data that we store; our business 
is subject to fluctuations in general business conditions; we may be 
subject to additional litigation stemming from our operation of the 
U-Scan self-checkout business. 

For further information regarding risks and uncertainties associated 
with our business, please refer to the "Management's Discussion and 
Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations", "Legal 
Proceedings" and "Forward Looking Statements" sections of our annual 
report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, filed with the 
SEC. 

All information in this release is as of December 2, 2004. We undertake 
no duty to update any forward-looking statement to conform the statement 
to actual results or changes in our expectations.

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FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

Optimal Group Inc.

David Schwartz, 514-733-5403 ext. 1429

david@optimalgrp.com