SVREL cranks up digital strategy
GAMING AND entertainment company, Supreme Ventures Racing and Entertainment Limited (SVREL), is upping the ante with its digital strategy, while moving to top a record 2022.
The company has digital innovations such as a lottery online platform, SV Games, access to sports betting online through Just Bet Mobile, casino-type games with Acropolis Online, and horse racing through MBet and executive chairman, Gary Peart, says these growing mobile channels represent a good direction to pursue extension.
“In terms of expanding the business, that’s the next frontier,” Peart said, pointing to the fact that all of the company’s products can be accessed online.
In addition, he says the company has MBet for horse racing and Acropolis Online.
SVREL identifies lottery, sports betting and pin codes as streams of revenue. During the year, SVREL acquired an additional stake of 29 per cent in Supreme Route Limited to achieve 80 per cent ownership in the company that distributes pin codes.
This revenue stream was the third largest recognised stream, at $12.25 billion. This was about 24 per cent of the $50.77 billion total net revenue.
With that revenue, the SVL Group reported net profit of $3.08 billion, representing an increase of $752.32 million, or 32.35 per cent over 2021.
SVREL acquired an additional five per cent stake in McKayla Financial Services through its subsidiary, Supreme Ventures Fintech Limited. Peart says they are using the digital loan platform Evolve and the other product offered by McKayla, as they want to grow that segment.
He is making no secret that the fintech space will be another area of expansion for SVREL.
“It’s the natural next step because once we’re in the digital space with people playing products online, the next step is to allow them to do other things,” Peart said.
The company will be rolling out a bill payment facility that will be loaded on to their machines, starting with key vendors, according to Peart. He says bill payment only represents a small part of the company’s ambitions.
“We would want to be one of the entities that is able to distribute the Government’s digital currency, Jam Dex,” Peart said, while declining to say whether SVREL has applied to the central bank to be included on the digital currency platform.
At the same time, he’s not shy in presenting the business case.
“There’s an opportunity for that because a lot of our customers may be seen as part of the unbanked and (since) we have a great relationship with them, it’s an opportunity for us to bring them into the banking space,” Peart said.
The SVREL executive chairman noted that the company presently has about 2,000 points of sale, along with about 200 itinerant sellers, Supa Sellaz, with their platform that can easily accommodate add-ons such as bill payment and other transactions.
SVREL is reporting $109.64 billion in gross revenues, representing an increase of $16.06 billion or 17.17 per cent over 2021. Customer winnings amounted to $79.66 billion for 2022, representing an increase of 22.04 per cent over 2021. Commenting on the out-turn, Peart said it is no mean feat.
“With almost $110 billion in gross revenues from a company that has only been around for about 20 years, it is a good milestone,” Peart said, declaring that SVREL is no longer just a lottery company but one that runs the full gamut of betting and gaming, along with FinTech and pin codes.
The company says it paid $10.44 billion in contributions to Government agencies and related bodies for 2022, 15.40 per cent or $1.39 billion more than 2021. SVREL says it paid over about 90 per cent of the total money to the Government.
The revenue paid over by the betting and gaming sector to the Betting Gaming & Lotteries Commission (BGLC) for all of 2021 is not available, but for the nine-month January-September 2022 period, the BGLC collected 8.4 billion, 23 per cent more than the $6.85 billion it collected for 2021.
Turning to other developments, Peart says SVREL has developed and licensed its own proprietary lottery software, noting there are big possibilities that can flow from this for SVREL.
“It puts us in a position where we can now bid for lotteries in other jurisdictions. SVREL is now end-to-end a gaming and lottery company,” Peart said.