SVL expects to score profits from World Cup

Supreme Ventures Limited (SVL) expects World Cup football betting to drive quarterly profit this summer.

The group expects its second and third quarters to benefit from the football windfall, having already recorded a one-third rise in its March first-quarter profit to $700 million, compared to year-earlier levels. The rise came despite the lingering effects of Hurricane Melissa last October.

“The World Cup is the largest sports betting event in the world, and we made abnormal profits last time,” Executive Chairman Gary Peart said at the Mayberry Investor Forum held virtually on Wednesday.

SVL operates three segments – lottery; PIN codes, which enable phone top-up; and sports betting. During the previous World Cup, SVL’s sports betting segment generated three-quarter higher profit at $1.2 billion for its 2022 financial year from $681 million a year earlier.

Ahead of this year’s tournament, Peart said SVL will embark on marketing, promotions and new digital content, including JustBet TV, to drive sales. The bulk of the windfall would fall in the June second quarter, he said, with carry-over into the third quarter when the finals are held in July.

The World Cup, held every four years, will be co-hosted by USA, Canada and Mexico. It is among the most watched sporting events globally and generates a surge in sports wagering. Additionally, the tournament’s expanded 104-match format – up from 64 in previous editions – means a longer betting window spread across June and July.

Total revenues from lottery, sports betting, and PIN codes grew by 2.45 per cent, 4.35 per cent, and 8.31 per cent, respectively. Within the sports betting segment horse racing weighed down results, and focusing on sports betting shows a 44 per cent rise in revenue.

Peart indicated that Hurricane Melissa shaved an estimated $100 million off net profit for the group. “Embedded in these numbers is the fact that we absorbed a lot from Melissa, but what the first quarter shows is that the investments we’ve been making are starting to come through,” Peart said.

Total revenue rose to $14.5 billion from $13.8 billion a year earlier. Recovery of betting terminals in the lottery segment reached some 98 per cent, though Peart said economic disruption in five heavily affected parishes continued to suppress spending. “The affected parishes are about $700 million below where they should be,” he said, adding that 22 per cent of gaming machines in Supreme Routes Limited remained offline at quarter end.

The bottom line also benefited from improving contributions from subsidiaries that had long weighed on earnings. Supreme Ventures Racing and Entertainment Limited, which operates Caymanas Park, posted its first profitable first quarter, driven mainly by gains from the purchase and sale of horses. “Local horse racing still loses money, but we’ve found innovative ways to eke out a small profit,” Peart said at the forum.

International operations are also turning the corner. The Ghana business, operated through IBET Ghana as a technical service provider, remained profitable in the quarter, extending a turnaround that began in 2025. “For the first time, profitability in Ghana has sustained. It’s 100 per cent digital, very clean, and once it reaches steady state, it could be two times the profits we make in Jamaica,” Peart said.

Operating cash flows reached $631.9 million, lifting cash and cash equivalents to $1.77 billion from $1.43 billion at December 2025. The stronger cash position allowed SVL to begin prepaying debt, a strategy Peart said that would gradually convert finance costs into profit.

The group also disclosed that due diligence has been completed on the proposed sale of the Evolve Loan Co loan portfolio to Dolla Financial Services, announced in December 2025. The transaction is awaiting regulatory clearance.

A new fintech and digital payments product now in testing is expected to roll out by the end of the second quarter. “When that gem is exposed, SVL will be seen as a different business,” Peart said. “The plane is about to take off.”

neville.graham@gleanerjm.com