MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIRMAN AND MANAGEMENT TEAM
2023 ANNUAL STOCKHOLDERS MEETING
JULY 28, 2023
Mr. Tanco: My colleagues on the Board, our management team, fellow shareholders, good afternoon to you all.
The year 2022 was a milestone for DigiPlus as we embarked on a critical transformation to adapt to the evolving landscape, redefine our strategy, and ensure our relevance for the future.
Amid the challenges of the pandemic, we saw an opportunity to make a strategic pivot to capture the tremendous potential around the rapid pace of the digital transformation taking place across industries.
At the start of 2022, we launched the digital platform of BingoPlus, which remains the first and only platform of its kind the country that is duly licensed by the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation. Through technology and innovation, BingoPlus has since then revolutionized Filipinos’ entertainment experience by providing greater access to the game in a real-time and digital format.
With a young and technology-savvy population, BingoPlus received remarkable success, rapidly becoming a community and entertainment hub, a source of revenue for government, and a sponsor for various non-profit social and educational initiatives.
I’ll have our President Mr. Andy Tsui elaborate on how BingoPlus has driven the outstanding performance of DigiPlus since the past year.
Andy: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The robust performance of BingoPlus and overall retail games segment drove the astounding turnaround of DigiPlus in 2022. We registered a net income of ₱686.9 from the previous year’s net loss of ₱894.6 million. Our consolidated gross revenues expanded more than twofold to ₱6.1 billion. The strong rebound of our electronic gaming operations and casino segment on the resumption of operating sites likewise boosted our performance during the year.
We are pleased to see the transformation initiative we embarked on starting to come to fruition. The massive success of BingoPlus validates our new strategic focus to digitalize our business to adapt to the evolving Filipino consumer. This positive momentum is an opportune time to execute on our growth initiatives as we look to expand our site operations and introduce new and innovative game offerings in the coming months.
I’ll ask our CFO Mr. Willy Pielago to add a bit more color on our financial performance in 2022.
Willy: Thank you, Mr. President.
To expand on what Andy has mentioned, the retail games business of DigiPlus, which is composed of both the digital platform and the offline operations, now accounts for 92 percent of our total revenues. This drove our strong turnaround in our EBITDA, which reached ₱1 billion in 2022 coming from the ₱80 million loss recorded in the previous year.
This positive momentum enabled us to ramp up our presence in the digital entertainment space, constantly enhancing our users’ experience and offering new products by leveraging expertise that we have established in technology, innovation, and research and development.
I’ll turn it over to our President to touch on the new products we have in the pipeline.
Andy: Following the success of BingoPlus, early this year, we launched ArenaPlus, a digital sportsbook, which streams local and international sports properties live. Duly licensed by the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation, ArenaPlus has become the official digital entertainment gateway for both local and international sporting events such as the Philippine Basketball Association, the Philippine Volleyball League, and the FIBA World Cup. We expect ArenaPlus to dominate sports entertainment with different kinds of sports and sports brands in its pipeline.
Moving forward, we plan to launch new and innovative digital products to provide more entertainment options to the Filipino consumer.
Mr. Tanco: Thank you, Andy and Willy.
We continue to be positive about the prospects for the entertainment space and have set out a long-term aspiration to assemble a portfolio of assets in digital entertainment.
In closing, I thank our Board of Directors for its guidance, our management and all our employees for all the work that they have put into making 2022 a banner year for DigiPlus. Finally, I thank our shareholders, business partners, and all our stakeholders for their continued trust and support.
Thank you.