Pacific Online, PCSO ink deal on ‘scratch cards’

Pacific Online Systems Corp. has signed an agreement with the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) to print, market and distribute 20 million scratch cards under four of its new instant ticket games.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, Pacific Online said the first two game variants “Lucky 8’s” and “Payday” will be launched in January 2008 while the next two games “Diamond Dash” and “Fast Cash” are scheduled to be introduced in May next year.

This new partnership followed the successful Triple Cash and Money Bag instant ticket games which were launched in July 2007.

PCSO general manager Rosario C. Uriarte said the state-run agency is happy to team up with Pacific Online in its efforts to find new ways to raise funds for charity.

Pacific Online, the exclusive online lottery system supplier in Visayas and Mindanao, reported a net income of P115 million in the first nine months of the year, almost three times the P41 million recorded in the same period last year due to new products and expansion of its terminals.

Pacific Online has exceeded its full-year net profit of P54.4 million in 2006.

Given its strong performance, Pacific Online expects to meet it its full-year projected net earnings of P170.7 million this year.

Revenues grew 14 percent to P343 million in the period January to September this year from only P301 million the previous level.

In the third quarter alone, Pacific Online registered record sales of P124 million out of P1.24 billion worth of lotto sales handled during the period under review.

As of end-September this year, Pacific Online, the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office’s exclusive online lottery system supplier in Visayas and Mindanao, had a total of 400 terminals, bringing to 1,354 PCSO’s total number of terminals.