Shanghai has become the country's first city to issue its own locally distributed basketball lottery.

　　The first issue of the Shanghai Basketball Lottery, which focuses on predicting the result of a US National Basketball Association match televised live in China, went on sale on Sunday.

　　Its results will be announced today after the New York Knicks-San Antonio Spurs game.

　　Three lottery tickets will be issued a week for three NBA matches shown live on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday.

　　"As the hometown of Chinese NBA player Yao Ming, Shanghai has a large group of basketball fans," said Chen Gongwei, spokesman for the Shanghai Sports Lottery Administration.

　　"The new ticket, since it's closely related to scores in each quarter, requires the buyer to be knowledgeable not only on basketball but also the strengths and weaknesses of the different teams."

　　Each ticket has six bidding points - the result of each of the four quarters, the sum of both teams' final scores and also, their difference. Buyers won't win anything unless they guess all correctly.

　　They can make multiple choices for the sum and difference, or add more stakes on a single bid. The price for one ticket is 2 yuan (24 US cents). More choices and stakes mean higher prices. And the new ticket offers only