Oct 2009 Financial News

SVL ready to roll with sports betting

Oct 23, 2009

Supreme Ventures Limited (SVL) will start rolling out its sports betting operation next month, with expectations that the new venture will attract between US$50 million and US$100 million per year from gamblers making wagers on winners.

SVL, however, is expecting to start slow.

"We expect to have limited roll-out in November 2009 with expanded roll out subject to the passage of amendment to the Betting, Gaming and Lotteries Act," said Brian George, president and chief executive officer of SVL, at the monthly Mayberry Investors Forum in Kingston.

"Legislation is still not yet passed to maximise opportunity," he added.

In September, Cabinet gave approval for an amendment to the Betting, Gaming and Lotteries Act regulations to allow for the introduction of sports betting.

At the same time, the Govern-ment also announced the payment of a 9.0 per cent gross profit tax on sports betting, reducing it from the regular 16.5 per cent as an incentive to the new line of business.

SVL has been positioning itself for more than a year to enter the arena of the sports betting market, through the acquisition of Big A Track 2003 Ltd, a Jamaican company with a bookmaker's licence, and the 10-year deal cobbled with Greek company Intralot for fixed odds sports betting.

Fixed odds betting makes use of various predictions on the results of sporting events and can also be extended to cover non-sporting events like beauty contests and elections.

At launch, SVL says it will confine wagers to well-known international competitions such as cricket, track and field, NBA basketball, and NFL football, among others.

Local games as well as other non sporting events will be added later when the relevant software upgrades are provided by Intralot, according to SVL head of communication Sonia Davidson.

According to George, with the roll-out of sports betting next month, Big A Track will be rebranded to trade as Supreme Ventures Sports Betting Company, and its bettings will be marketed under the brand 'Just Bet', in partnership with Intralot.

George said at the Mayberry forum Wednesday that the 'bet shops' being rolled out by SVL, which will be separate from the current network of lottery sale points, would be expanded into sports bars at a later date.

"Sports betting is a logical extension of our core business, lottery gaming, and this will bring a new demographic of players that are not currently captured by the lottery business," said George.

"When we analyse our operation we realise that we have a strong and loyal following among older players, and women generally, but loyalty of players, particularly men, ages 25 to 45, had not been strong. Now, sports betting brings for us an opportunity to capture this group."

The structure of SVL sports betting will follow a similar format to fixed-odds betting games played worldwide.

"Part of the structure of the game is that it will require you to bet on other games too," George said.

"Using a Usain Bolt in the 100 metres is as close as you can get to a predictable outcome, so it forces you to bet on another event. So, it may say something like 'if you bet on the 100 metres you will have to bet on the 400 metres' - this is how we manage our liability," he said.

Wagers can range from a low of $50 to a maximum of $50,000.


Source:
sabrina.gordon@gleanerjm.com
Jamaica Gleaner
Friday October 23, 2009

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