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 Technology News | February 2007 
Mexico Media Giant Ventures into Gambling
 Ioan Grillo - Associated Press
Mexican media conglomerate Televisa, better known for its Spanish-language soap operas and its stable of pop stars, said Thursday it plans a big expansion in a new, potentially lucrative business: gambling.
Executive Vice President Alfonso de Angoitia said in a conference call that the Mexico City-based company will invest $60 million this year in its gaming business, mostly into new electronic lottery machines.
Launched earlier this month, Grupo Televisa's gaming business now has 3,500 machines in pharmacies and convenience stores across Mexico and plans to have 10,000 by year's end, de Angoitia said.
Customers can buy tickets on one of four games or multijuegos for as little as 5 cents, or .55 pesos, and win cash bonanzas of up to $1 million. The results are posted on a Web site and on Televisa's TV channels.
"Our gaming business is under way," de Angoitia said. "We are very happy with its performance."
He did not say, however, how much income it had generated since its launch.
Televisa has also opened five bingo parlors and plans to open another 10 by year's end, he said.
Mexico's gaming industry has long been dominated by a government-run national lottery, but analysts believe it has huge private-sector potential.
Rogelio Urrutia, an analyst at ING Financial Markets in Mexico City, said he estimates the Mexican gaming market could be worth about $4.6 billion — equal to the country's media advertising market.
Some of that money will be made in off-track betting and other gambling, but Urrutia predicted the lion's share will be in lotteries and bingo.
"Televisa is getting into the most profitable side of gaming. That is where the big money is going to be," Urrutia said.
Investment banks have estimated Televisa could generate revenue of about $200 million from the games this year and more than double that in 2008.
The company had total revenue of about $3.45 billion in 2006.
De Angoitia said the gaming investment will be part of a total capital expenditure of about $300 million this year, similar to the $298.5 million it invested in 2006. |
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