Leisure & Resorts World Corp receives PAGCOR accreditation for its sports-betting subsidiary

Leisure & Resorts World Corp [LR 1.65 4.07%] announced that its subsidiary, Total Gamezone Xtreme Incorporated (TGXI), received “Sports Betting Service Provider” accreditation from PAGCOR for its sports-betting system, GSPORTS. LR describes GSPORTS as a sportsbook that allows users to place bets on a variety of competitions, including “well-known sports like football, tennis, basketball, volleyball, to popular leagues and even to the niche markets”.

The accreditation allows GSPORTS to take in-person bets (retail) and online bets. TGXI already operates PAGCOR-licensed in-person and online gaming, with 30 branches and over 1,200 better terminals.

MB BOTTOM-LINE

Sports betting is quickly becoming a huge business in North America. It’s always been a huge business in Europe, but the proliferation of sports betting in major American leagues will help drive the online culture of betting, and my bet is that this is what LR is trying to capture with its GSPORTS offering.

The fact that it can operate online, with domestic and foreign sporting events, is a huge plus for revenue continuity in an environment that can be interrupted by granular lockdowns.

This is not a Bloomberry [BLOOM 6.00 2.92%] situation, where the casino needs foreign high-rollers to physically move through its casinos to cash huge profits: this is a domestic play on sports betting that is not (severely) impacted by international travel restrictions.

Chinese high-rollers are not hoping to fly here to play in LR’s barangay betting sites, but this is a pro, not a con. I mean, I’m sure LR would love it if foreign high-rollers came through and dropped huge bets on international sports, but that would just be gravy. Domestic (Filipino) gamblers are the ulam here.

--

Merkado Barkada is a free daily newsletter on the PSE, investing and business in the Philippines. You can subscribe to the newsletter or follow on Twitter to receive the full daily updates.

Merkado Barkada's opinions are provided for informational purposes only, and should not be considered a recommendation to buy or sell any particular stock. These daily articles are not updated with new information, so each investor must do his or her own due diligence before trading, as the facts and figures in each particular article may have changed.