Gambling operator Philweb says it plans to expand its online business to at least six countries across the Asia-Pacific region this year.
The Philippines-based operator whose far-flung activities include scratch cards, sweepstakes and Web gambling, is eyeing Thailand, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Palau, Nepal and Mongolia in a bid to grow the international segment of its revenues, which currently comprises about 9% of the total.
“Asia in general is booming,” President Dennis Valdes said this week in announcing a 20% increase in net profit for 2012 on PHP1.5 billion in revenues (US$450 million), a 27% increase.
He added that he is bullish about the company’s domestic prospects despite the growth of land-based competition.
“We found that the gamers are very different. You see in our track record on revenue that there has been no effect on e-games. The reason for that is the Resorts World Manila and Solaire are in a very small section of the entire country, which is the city of Manila and Paranaque, while e-games is in every island.”
Philweb operates some 277 Internet gaming cafes across the Philippines—the “7-11 of gaming,” as Mr Valdes characterizes them.
“It’s your corner convenience store,” he said.
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