Philippines electronic gaming outlet service provider PhilWeb Corporation is set to ink a strategic partnership agreement with a Philippines Offshore Gaming Operator (POGO) as it continues its aggressive expansion.
Speaking to local reporters last week, PhilWeb’s Vice Chairman Crisanto Roy B. Alcid said the company is “working with a new group on a strategic partnership to hopefully grow both the eGames business and the eBingo business … eGames for the short-term, eBingo for the long-term.
“We’re officially in negotiations already. The term sheet is being prepared,” he said. Asked for further details on the partnership and who it was with, Alcid declined to provide details but added the company in question is “the biggest POGO operator in the world.”
According to previous media reports,New Oriental Club88 Corp (NOCC) is the nation’s largest POGO operator with up to 18,000 employees.
Alcid also reiterated the company’s expectation that PhilWeb will return to profit in 2020, having seen its revenue in 3Q19 grow 48% to Php149 million and losses narrow from Php25 million in 3Q18 to Php4.5 million.
“We’re poised this year, it’s going to be the turnaround year,” he confirmed last week.
PhilWeb is still on the road to recovery after being forced to shut down in 2016 when President Rodrigo Duterte took aim at the company’s former majority shareholder, Roberto Ongpin, and refused to renew its license to provide gambling services to PAGCOR approved electronic gaming cafés.
The license was returned in August 2017 after Ongpin sold his entire 53.75% stake, but two years on PhilWeb’s stable of 73 gaming outlets remains a long way off the 268 outlets it operated in early 2016.
According to Alcid, PhilWeb is looking to reach 100 eGaming sites by the end of 2020.
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