No more monopoly
Two years after losing its operating license in a dust-up with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, gaming software company PhilWeb Corp. has launched what Asia Gaming Brief terms “a charm offensive” to regain its foothold in the industry.
“I hope you will support us,” PhilWeb President Dennis Valdes recently told Pastor Albano Jr., who operates internet cafes about 500 kilometers (300 miles) north of the capital city of Manila.
“If the price is right,” Albano was quoted as saying.
PhilWeb says it is offering improved content and services in its bid to win back its position as a leader in Philippine gaming services. The company’s problems began in 2016, when Duterte took office. Later that year, the president staged an all-out war on e-Gaming in general and PhilWeb in particular; he reserved much of his ire for company chairman Roberto Ongpin, former ministry of trade and industry under Ferdinand Marcos.
Duterte called the 79-year-old billionaire “an oligarch” who deserved to be destroyed. Ongpin resigned from the PhilWeb board and took extraordinary steps to try to save the company, which was denied renewal of its license by the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. First Ongpin announced he would sell his stake in the company if PAGCOR would reconsider. Then he offered to donate the shares to the regulatory body if it would allow the company to continue. By mid-2017, he sold the company outright to Gregorio Anareta Inc., and the internet cafes were forced to shift to DFNN’s electronic gaming system, “Instawin.”
Now Valdes wants to win back Albano and other customers who were adversely affected when PhilWeb ran aground. He claims that terminals running games from PhilWeb reap 18 percent to 20 percent more in revenues than DFNN. “It’s time you can expect more from us,” he said, quoting the company’s new slogan.
PhilWeb now offers a new slate of online games including non-casino games to attract younger players. It also plans to reactivate account-based play through its single wallet offering. “Over the next years, we have plans to keep introducing new casino games into that mix, but always with the single wallet so the new players that are coming in can take advantage of that ecosystem,” said Valdes. “We’re going to put sports-betting games, virtual games, and a variety of other games into that same platform so that our players will grow.”
The company’s first quarter results show a 236.7 percent increase in revenues and losses down from P45.4 million to P4.4 million.
Now that it no longer dominates the market, PhilWeb is being “more aggressive,” Valdes said. “We have more incentive to bring new products to the electronic casinos. We have to fight for business, bring new products, and make it far more exciting to the players.”
In January Duterte suspended all new land-based casino projects due to concerns of oversupply. Asia Gaming Brief has called the Philippines one of Asia’s fastest growing markets, with gross gaming revenues up almost 12 percent to P176.5 billion ($3.3 billion) in 2017, a surge that’s made investors sit up and take notice.
Five licenses approved before the moratorium will move forward, including a plan for a casino in Clark from Udenna Corp.; a property in Masbate, southern Luzon from Century Golden, backed by Chinese investors; a resort planned by Prime Asset Ventures in Cavite, also on Luzon; a resort in Davao from EDC Ventures; and a license issued to Galaxy Entertainment and its local partner Leisure and Resorts World Corp. The latter partners also planned an integrated resort on the island of Boracay, but that plan was shelved when the president declared the island closed to tourism pending an environmental cleanup. Last February Duterte described Boracay as a “cesspool. ”
In the online space, PAGCOR is looking for strong growth from the issuance of new Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator license, known as POGOs.
Last year PAGCOR collected about $74 million in revenue from POGOs. PAGCOR President Alfredo Lim said gaming is “contributing government revenue tremendously. ”
