Asian plans for Philweb

The Philippines internet group Philweb says it has plans to expand the success of its Pagcor e-Games Café online gambling product into Vietnam, Laos, Saipan, Palau, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Nepal.
President Dennis Valdes expects the product’s performance to boost the group revenues to new heights this year, according to reports on ABS-CBN, encouraging further geographic expansion.
“We are confident that 2010 will eclipse all records we have set last year for all our businesses,” Valdes boasted this week, revealing that his company is in the process of applying for a license to operate in a number of Asian countries, with the immediate target Cambodia.
The Pagcor e-Games Café model apparently works well in countries with a low rate of computer ownership and credit card penetration, as the cafes only accept cash. The Pagcor e-Games Café is an internet café owned and operated by the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. and offering online versions of games of chance, such as poker, blackjack, baccarat, other card games, slot machines, roulette and craps.
In the first quarter of 2010, the product was the key driver of PhilWeb’s growth with bet volumes setting new records month after month. Gross bets for the January-March 2010 period rose to P21 billion, a 32 percent improvement from the same quarter in 2009. Revenues reached P200.1 million, or a 40 percent growth, and at the end of March, there were a total of 177 cafes, half of them outside Metro Manila.
PhilWeb also provides management services to a network of Pagcor-owned and operated Internet sports betting stations, which operate off PhilWeb-developed gaming software. At present this offers only Basketball Jackpot, a numbers game, but Basketball38 is imminent.
With over 180 ISBS kiosks, PhilWeb intends to increase the number of games and the outlets.
PhilWeb recently partnered with Megasportsworld to offer sports betting via the e-Games Cafe. The company also launched ‘Homeplay’ , its first pure online casino, in January 2010 which targets higher-value players who would rather play on their own computers.

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