GGRAsia – Jade SportsBet pause in Philippines admin issue: CEO

Jade SportsBet pause in Philippines admin issue: CEO

May 24, 2024 Newsdesk Latest News, Philippines, Top of the deck

Philippines-based Jade Entertainment and Gaming Technologies Inc has seen temporary suspension of its online wagering operation Jade SportsBet in the Philippines, after missing a deadline to pay a mandatory fee to the country’s regulator, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp (Pagcor).

The suspension of Jade SportsBet operations in that country was viewed by the brand as an administrative matter, should be fixed in circa seven days and does not affect operations in other markets, Joe Pisano, chief executive of Jade Entertainment, said in comments to GGRAsia. He added that the brand’s “Jade Fantasy Cricket” product had just gone live in Sri Lanka.

Mr Pisano confirmed the Philippines suspension, regarding a missed deadline to pay a cash bond to Pagcor.

He stated: “We contracted a PHP15 million [US$257,500] cash bond and two years later Pagcor increased it to PHP25 million and we had to pay the extra PHP10 million by May 19.”

Jade SportsBet has a Pagcor licence to serve domestic customers in the Philippines. The brand had announced approval from Pagcor for its service in August 2021.

An advisory notice on Jade SportsBet website says the platform is “having a scheduled system maintenance”, and that the “player transaction” function “is currently unavailable”.

Mr Pisano told GGRAsia: “We are transferring the funds from overseas and the process takes about seven days. We will pay it and will be back online.”

The Jade CEO offered an explanation for the missed deadline. “I was in London working with our M&A [mergers and acquisitions] consultant as we are finalising funding into three business lines both for the Philippines and Sri Lanka.”

He added the brand had “several changes coming in the next few weeks”.

Mr Pisano said his firm had thought – regarding its obligation to Pagcor – “[as] it’s a cash bond” the matter could “probably wait a few more weeks while we complete our funding”.

“We are now live with our Fantasy Cricket product in Sri Lanka,” he noted. “Sri Lanka is a much better story, as the IPL [Indian Premier League cricket] gets 420 million viewers daily.”