DigiPlus [PLUS 6.90, up 1.6%] [link] teased its Q3 Quarterly Report by revealing that its Q3 net income was P1.0 billion (+132% y/y), and its 9M net income was P2.1 billion (+1066% y/y). PLUS recognized P16 billion in 9M revenues (+190% y/y), driven by higher user traffic for its BingoPlus and ArenaPlus platforms, and “aggressive advertising and promotion efforts”. PLUS was previously known as Leisure and Resorts World Corporation before it changed its name last quarter to reflect the shift in focus from in-person gaming to digital gaming and betting.
MB bottom-line: Is it a coincidence that online gaming has exploded in popularity here as inflation and the economic ripples of COVID have made it increasingly difficult for people to meet their basic needs, or is this just a component of the worldwide expansion of online betting as attitudes toward betting (and online betting in particular) become more open an accommodating? Regardless of why, PLUS has pushed its chips into the right projects at the right time to reap massive rewards for itself and its shareholders. I don’t have a great deal of experience in evaluating gaming stocks, but this result has caught my attention and I look forward to taking a deeper dive into what’s happening under PLUS’s hood once the actual Quarterly Report comes out. I want to see how much ArenaPlus is contributing to PLUS’s revenue, and how significant the growth of this segment is relative to its traditional bingo platform.
-
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.