INTERNET CASINOS GOOD FOR PHILWEB

22 February 2008

Net income rises on higher online casino earnings


The Philippines based PhilWeb Corp. reported that net income grew by more than 60 percent last year on the back of higher revenues from its Internet casino activities.

President Dennis O. Valdes said net income was up by 64 percent to P190 million last year from the P116 million in 2006.

Valdes said the key revenue driver was the strength of his company's Internet Casino Stations (ICS), which expanded from a network of 44 cafés in 2006 to a total of 76 in 2007.

“The expansion of the café network had a synergistic effect, as more players noticed the cafés and were attracted to play,” he said.

As a result, bet volume and player growth were even higher than café growth,” he added.

Valdes said the company’s revenues amounted to P266.9 million in 2007 from P132.9 million the previous year. “Revenue growth was fueled by strong results from core gaming operations,” he said.

The company’s operating income increased five-fold or by P100 million to P123.1 million last year from P23.1 million in 2006.

Valdes said that PhilWeb’s investment in Premyo sa Resibo solidifies its role as a key supporter of the Philippines government’s revenue-increasing efforts. The program, a cooperative effort between the Bureau of Internal Revenue, the Department of Finance, PAGCOR and PhilWeb, encourages consumers to ask for official receipts by offering a prize of P1 million prize per week for receipt data texted in.

The company also runs Internet Sports Betting Stations and has recently launched Txtingo, the country’s first mobile lottery game.

Valdes added “We are even more strongly positioned for 2008, as we have shown that we can keep our costs low while rapidly increasing our top line revenues, thus exponentially increasing income. As we increase our ICS business and launch new products in 2008, we are forecasting an even brighter year for PhilWeb.”

In addition to its strong business results, PhilWeb also reported strong gains from its investment in ISM Communications Corporation, which in turn now owns 67.49 percent of Eastern Telecommunications Philippines Inc. The company’s equity in the earnings of ISM was P38.2 million for 2007.

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