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Panama – Sportium announces expansion plans into Panama

Spanish sports betting operator Sportium has presented its expansion plans for Panama.

A number of key company personnel were present at the event held at the Majestic Casino de Megapolis Outlets Panamá City along with the guest of honour and brand ambassador: the former world boxing champion Roberto “hands of stone” Durán.

Before the end of this year the Majestic Casino, the Fantastic Casino del Dorado, Dorado Mall, La Doña (shopping mall), and in the cities of David, Chitré, Santiago and in the district of Aguadulce will each showcase a Sportium sports betting outlet. Sportium has already been in operation in five locations since 2016.

By 2020 the company plans to implement the Sportium brand in eleven more locations. “We are committed to a fully customised product designed to optimise the customer experience, and developed specifically for Sportium. In our business model this fact is key given that more than 90 per cent of transactions are executed in self-service betting terminals,” said Alberto Eljarra Sportium CEO.

“It should be noted that the country’s business context is a guarantee and has excellent conditions to develop our business. We plan to generate approximately 100 jobs in this first stage,” he added.

Sportium is expanding into the Latin American market. In August 2017 Sportium announced that it would start operations in Colombia as part of its expansion process.

While the gambling industry overall is suffering from falling revenues sports betting is on the rise. Of all the types of gambling which come under the regulation of the Gaming Control Board (JCJ), the only vertical that registered a positive balance was sports betting which increased by 13.2 per cent to US$33.6m for the first eight months of the year.
Sportium is a joint venture between Ladbrokes and CIRSA launched in 2013. Sportium was created in 2007 and has 3,000 points of sale, the largest distribution network in Spain.

In July GVC Holdings, the British company that owns Ladbrokes Coral, announced an agreement to sell its 50 per cent stake in Sportium Sports Betting to Cirsa, the Spanish gaming company controlled by private equity firm Blackstone. The price of the operation, pending regulatory authorisations, amounts to €70m. GVC, which acquired the stake through the purchase of Ladbrokes Coral last March, said it would become a B2B supplier to Sportium as part of the deal.