The appetite of Philippine-based gaming technology provider PhilWeb Corporation for eGames parlors is now insatiable.
In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, PhilWeb announced that it has again acquired a Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp e-Games site through its unit, BigGame Inc.
PhilWeb said that it now owns the PAGCOR eGames parlor in Novaliches, Quezon City after giving 340,000 PhilWeb shares to a certain Jerry D. Bolo.
Following the transaction, the total number of shares held by the subsidiary and/or affiliate is at 18.11 percent or 259,914,807. PhilWeb shares were down 1.76 percent to P7.80 in early trading on Tuesday.
This is not the first time that PhilWeb acquired PAGCOR eGames parlors as it awaits the nod of the state regulator for it to be able to operate again.
Two weeks ago, PhilWeb’s BigGame acquired a PAGCOR e-Games site in Tarlac City from Jonathan H. Ramos by giving the latter 137,500 PhilWeb common shares.
In early March, Philweb announced that it acquired 15 eGames parlors from independent operators using 7.5 million shares currently kept in treasury.
PhilWeb President and Corporate Information Officer Dennis Valdes told CalvinAyre.com at the sidelines of the Asean Gaming Summit last month that the acquisitions were made in order to support the operators that they have worked with over the past years.
He also said that the company remains bullish that it will be able to renew their license with PAGCOR in the near future, after it expired in August 2016.
For now, PhilWeb awaits the announcement of PAGCOR to bid out the service contract for its online gaming operations, particularly for the eGames network.
In the past, the state regulator automatically awarded the service contract of its online gaming operations to PhilWeb. But PAGCOR chair Andrea Domingo said that the state regulator has already approved the terms of reference for the bidding of its eGames network.
“The public bidding [of the eGames network] will be held by the end of the month or first week of April,” she said.
