Spintec expands its strategic alliance with Merkur in Colombia and Peru

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AGBrief Editorial

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September 1, 2025

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Spintec expands its strategic alliance with Merkur in Colombia and Peru

Strategic partners Merkur Gaming and Spintec marked a new chapter in their Latin American collaboration at the Peru Gaming Show in June, signing a landmark distribution agreement for Colombia and Peru.

Spintec’s debut appearance this year was a highlight of Merkur Gaming stand at Jockey Plaza in Lima. The Slovenian specialist in Electronic Table Games (ETGs) featured an impressive range of products that combined innovation, reliability, and performance.

Their Karma and Charisma product lines were the big showstoppers with their unbeatable combination of innovation and reliability. These products are gaining traction and popularity all over the world for a very good reason: they are fully engaging and attractive to look at, while also being extremely dependable.

And the quality of Spintec’s portfolio is already delivering measurable results in the region. The renowned research company Eilers & Krejcik recognized Spintec as the top-performing ETG supplier in South America in their April 2025 Latin America Game Performance Report.

This achievement propels the partnership in Peru and Colombia even further. It not only underlines the seamless integration of Merkur’s powerful regional presence with Spintec’s technological leadership in ETGs but also serves as a testament to the importance of companies’ growing strategic alliance.

“ETGs are a valuable and strategic addition to Merkur’s already robust product portfolio,” said Dominik Raasch, Management Board Member, Merkur Games. “Our partnership with Spintec is built on a shared vision of delivering excellence, innovation, and value to our customers. The joint market presence we are creating in Latin America is only the beginning.”

Goran Sovilj, Global Sales Director at Spintec, echoed the sentiment: “Our collaboration with Merkur Gaming continues to deepen, and we’re proud of what we’ve achieved together. With their strong local teams, infrastructure, and sales support, we are perfectly positioned to take the leading role in the ETG market in Latin America, and beyond.”

As the companies continue to strengthen and widen their strategic alliances in the region, their commitment to joint innovation, market leadership and next-level gaming experiences grows even further. The optimism is based on past achievements, but also on a very positive outlook towards future growth.

Innovation of the Year celebrates the company that has pioneered innovative solutions tailored for the West African igaming industry over the past 12 months – and QTech Games again superseded and surpassed an array of proven performers in this category, notably Blask, ComplyGuard, PopOK Gaming and Sumsub, with the successful launch and rollout of QTech Hybrid.

The SBWA+ Eventus Awards always recognise excellence and advancements in the West African igaming and sports betting sector. And this year was no different, celebrating a plethora of pioneers from outstanding operators, through progressive technological innovators and regulatory leaders, and on to distributors with the requisite scope and localised expertise to reliably ensure the provision of the most engaging and varied content for the planet’s second-most populous continent.

These are some of the most consequential categories of igaming activity, denoting progressive domains that are shaping the industry’s future across Africa. And the SBWA+ judges found that QTech Games had outperformed its shortlisted rivals in this competitive arena for the judging period of 2025.

QTech Games’ CEO, Philip Doftvik, commented on the award win, saying: “We’re thrilled to have walked off with another notable award for the best innovation in West Africa. Being shortlisted in such good company was already a result, but victory provides the real validation, particularly after running a great campaign across recent summits in Africa.”

“This win is testimony to our diligent team at QTech Games, and to the constantly growing group of innovative suppliers that our platform represents. It’s a truly collaborative effort. We’ve made our name as the go-to distributor for emerging markets and we remain committed to rolling out high-quality content that drives revenue for our worldwide partners across Africa and beyond.”

“We know our QTech Hybrid solution works wherever our clients set their scene on the map. In Africa, for our pilot partners, it’s already delivered an agile retail solution that can be transferred to your phone, so that the customer can continue playing after leaving the premises or retail point. Encouragingly, it’s already attracting many early adopters and plaudits, especially in Africa and Spanish-speaking territories in Central and South America.”

MegaSportsPro distinguishes itself by offering a daily slate of 15 player-performance propositions. Contestants leverage their sports knowledge to predict the outcomes for each proposition. This skill-based competition forms the core of the user experience, while the innovative prize structure provides multiple paths to victory.

The platform’s unique reward system is its main attraction. The daily progressive jackpots offer lottery-style excitement, growing in value until a contestant correctly predicts all 15 propositions. For consistent top performers, MegaSportsPro also hosts weekly and monthly leaderboard contests with separate, significant cash prize pools, ensuring that skill is regularly rewarded.

Pete Korner, Founder and CEO of MegaSports Progressive — Pete Korner, Founder & CEO of MegaSports Progressive

“We created MegaSportsPro to be a one-of-a-kind player performance sports competition with a reward system that is unmatched in the market,” said Pete Korner, Founder and CEO of MegaSports Progressive LLC.

“Today’s fans want the thrill of a lottery-style win combined with the skill of a sports contest. Our platform delivers exactly that, with three ways to win through our daily progressives and our weekly and monthly prizes. We’re rewarding sports knowledge in a way that is more exciting and engaging than anything available today.”

The platform is now live and available to users in 24 states. To celebrate the launch, new contestants are invited to sign up and enter the first official contests starting today, Labor Day.

Speaking of the government’s initiative, HKJC CEO Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges noted that “With the necessary amendments to the Betting Duty Ordinance in progress as at the time of this report, we look forward to providing the service as directed. Certainly, given our proven experience launching football betting in 2003 and the efficiency of our single license operating model, we believe we are well placed to provide the service”.

Hopes are that the new legislation could be passed as early as October of this year.

In anticipation the CEO notes that “Should regulated basketball betting receive legislative assent we will need to make a substantial up-front investment in basketball betting systems and customer experience, which will take multiple years to fully recover”.

However, annual turnover of authorized basketball betting is anticipated to generate as much as HK$28 billion ($3.57 billion), with the betting duty set at 50 percent of the net stake receipts.

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According to a release, Melco Resorts Finance (MRF) maintains its Ba3 corporate family rating and senior unsecured ratings. Studio City Finance Limited’s B1 CFR and senior unsecured ratings were also confirmed, as well as the Ba3 backed rating on the USD senior secured bonds issued by Studio City Company (wholly owned by Studio City).

All of the ratings ‘are stable’.

Moody’s Ratings Vice President and Senior Credit Officer Stephanie Lau indicates that the affirmation and stable outlook for the Melco group companies “reflect our expectation that their financial leverage will gradually improve over the next 12-18 months, underpinned by continued growth in Macao’s overall gaming revenues and their strengthening market position”.

The companies are subsidiaries of Melco Resorts & Entertainment (MRE).

Moody’s indicates that it expects MRE’s revenue ‘to increase by about 14 percent in 2025 compared to 2024, driven by steady increases in Macau’s […] gross gaming revenues and maintenance of solid market share’.

The group highlights that MRE saw 13 percent revenue growth in 1H25, while overall Macau GGR increased by 4 percent in the same period.

Moody’s ‘project its revenue will continue to rise in 2026, though the pace of growth will be more moderate compared to the prior year’.

Aristocrat Gaming and Studio City Macau launch innovative Dragon Zone for Golden Week

Looking to Studio City, expectations are for 13 percent growth in revenue in FY25, with 5 percent growth in 2026.

Adjusted EBITDA for MRE is anticipated to ‘improve to around $1.3 billion in 2026 from $1.1 billion in 2024’. Studio City’s is expected to rise to $0.3 billion in 2026, from $0.2 billion in 2024.

‘This will be largely driven by higher gaming volumes and revenues across its mass and premium mass segments, as well as steady profitability and market shares’.

Moody’s further indicated that ‘The Ba3 ratings also consider MRE’s very good liquidity, underpinned by its combined cash and unused revolving credit facility of $2.2 billion (excluding restricted cash) as of the end of June 2025. These resources and operating cash flows will be sufficient to cover the company’s capital spending and debt repayments for the next 12-18 months’.

Analysts previously indicated that Melco was ‘doing all the right things’ as its second quarter revenue rose to $1.13 billion and adjusted EBITDA increased 25 percent to $124.7 million. However, this was based on Melco’s Macau operations – as Melco International Development aims to divest its interest in City of Dreams Manila even as it begins to ramp up City of Dreams Sri Lanka.

According to provisional figures released by the company’s integrated resort team on September 1st, the year-over-year performance was driven primarily by table games, which generated KRW41.17 billion ($30.8 million) in August. This segment represented a 38.5 percent increase from the same month in 2024 and a 0.9 percent increase month-on-month

However, the overall monthly performance showed a slight decline of 1 percent compared to July 2025, indicating some cooling from the previous month’s momentum.

Machine games contributed KRW1.82 billion ($1.4 million) to August’s total revenue, showing a contrasting performance with a 43.5 percent year-over-year decrease. This segment also declined 2.2 percent compared to July, highlighting the stark difference in performance between table games and electronic gaming machines.

The resort’s visitor numbers reached an all-time high of 57,042 in August, setting a new record and surpassing July’s 56,691 visitors. The August tally represented a 0.62 percent increase from July and a substantial 52.1 percent jump from August 2024.

Hotel operations continued positive momentum, generating KRW8.37 billion ($6.3 million) in August, up 6.1 percent from July. However, hotel revenue declined 15.7 percent compared to August 2024, suggesting different recovery patterns between gaming and accommodation.

For the eight-month period from January to August 2025, cumulative casino revenue totaled KRW280.99 billion ($210.7 million), representing a 46.1 percent increase over the same period in 2024. Table games drove this growth trajectory, with revenue climbing 49.2 percent to KRW267.39 billion ($200.5 million), while machine games rose more modestly at 3.2 percent year-on-year to KRW13.60 billion ($10.2 million).

Cumulative hotel revenue for the first eight months declined 11.5 percent year-on-year to KRW52.22 billion, contrasting with the strong gaming performance.

The integrated resort, developed by Lotte Tour Development and opened in 2020, operates under a foreign-only admission policy. Notably, despite other casinos’ August results not yet being released, based on July data, Jeju Dream Tower Casino has overtaken Paradise Co. to become South Korea’s highest-earning casino.

Suntrust handing over the reins of its Westside City project under new ‘strategic working arrangement’

Philippines

Kelsey Wilhelm

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September 1, 2025

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Suntrust handing over the reins of its Westside City project under new ‘strategic working arrangement’

Suntrust Resort Holdings is apparently handing over the reins of the development and operation of its billion-dollar Westside City integrated resort in Entertainment City in Manila.

In a filing published on Monday, the group – a subsidiary of the LET Group – indicated that it was pursuing a ‘strategic working agreement with Travellers International Hotel Group, Inc., Westside City Inc., Westside Bayshore Holding Corporation and Entertainment City Resorts Corporation (ECRC) to expedite the completion of the now-expanded Westside Integrated Resort Project’.

Under the agreement, Suntrust would effectively only hold a 20 percent indirect interest in ECRC.

As announced on Monday, ‘ECRC will assume all rights and obligations related to the project’.

Suntrust notes that the move is to ‘ensure the timely construction, development, completion and operation of the Westside Integrated Resort Project’.

Just in August, Suntrust had assured that it was able to sustain operations and complete the Westside City development, citing funding arrangements and the project’s proximity to revenue generation.

Similarly, parent company LET Group, which holds a 51 percent stake in Suntrust, in a recent Hong Kong Stock Exchange filing indicated that as the end of 1H25, Suntrust ‘would be the sole and exclusive operator and manager’ of Westside City ‘upon commencement of operation of the Main Hotel Casino in the third quarter of 2026’.

The new arrangement significantly dilutes LET Group’s stake in Westside City, with Travellers Group parent company Alliance Global taking an additional stake – as has long been expected.

The cost of Westside City has risen to over $1 billion and the project has yet to generate any revenue, while weighing down its developers with heavy capital expenditure.

Macau summer visitors exceed 7.68M, up 7.4% from pre-pandemic levels

Macau

Viviana Chan

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September 1, 2025

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Macau summer visitors exceed 7.68M, up 7.4% from pre-pandemic levels

Macau recorded 7.68 million visitor arrivals during July and August, averaging 123,000 arrivals per day. This marked a 7.4 percent increase compared to the same period in 2019, before the pandemic.

The peak single-day visitor count reached 195,000 during the summer months.

The Public Security Police Force announced on Monday, September 1st, that Macau’s border checkpoints processed 41.01 million crossings in July and August, averaging 661,000 daily.

This represented an 8.5 percent increase from last year and a substantial 21.4 percent rise compared to the pre-pandemic period in 2019. The highest single-day crossing volume reached 832,000.

Border crossing distribution showed the Gongbei checkpoint, also known as the Border Gate, handling the largest share at 52.7 percent of total traffic. This was followed by the Qingmao checkpoint at 14.9 percent, the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge checkpoint at 12.7 percent, and the Hengqin checkpoint at 12.4 percent. The airport and three ferry terminals accounted for 3.2 percent and 3.9 percent, respectively.

Visitor demographics revealed that mainland Chinese tourists dominated arrivals, comprising 75.8 percent of all visitors. Hong Kong visitors represented 17 percent, while those from Taiwan and foreign countries accounted for 2.4 percent and 4.8 percent respectively. The 15.2 percent year-on-year increase underscores Macau’s continued recovery in the tourism sector.

As of August 24th, Macau’s cumulative border crossings for the year exceeded 150 million, reaching this milestone 23 days earlier than last year. This accelerated pace highlights sustained momentum in cross-border travel and tourism recovery.

It is also noteworthy that Macau’s gross gaming revenue (GGR) set new post-COVID records in July and August, with July marking the first new high since the pandemic and August surpassing it again.

Macau August gaming revenue tops $2.77B, best month of 2025

Macau

Viviana Chan

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September 1, 2025

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Macau August gaming revenue tops $2.77B, best month of 2025

Macau’s gross gaming revenue (GGR) recorded solid growth in August, supported by strong visitor arrivals during the summer. GGR reached MOP22.16 billion ($2.77 billion), marking a 12.2 percent increase compared to the same month last year.

It was the best-performing month of the year, not only surpassing July’s record but also reaching a new post-COVID high.

Macau August GGR reaches post-COVID high, totaling $2.77B

August also marked the fourth time this year that monthly GGR exceeded MOP20 billion ($2.5 billion).

According to data from the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ), August’s total was slightly higher than July’s, up 0.14 percent.

The stronger performance was largely driven by resilient player demand, despite disruptions caused by typhoon-related weather during the month.

For the first eight months of 2025, Macau’s casino GGR reached MOP163.05 billion ($19.11 billion), up 7.2 percent year-on-year. However, the figure remains 17.7 percent below pre-pandemic levels, compared to MOP198.22 billion ($24.75 billion) recorded in the same period of 2019.

Spintec expands its strategic alliance with Merkur in Colombia and Peru

Strategic partners Merkur Gaming and Spintec marked a new chapter in their Latin American collaboration at the Peru Gaming Show in June, signing a landmark distribution agreement for Colombia and Peru.

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QTech Games takes home Best Innovation at 2025 SBWA+ Awards

QTech Games, a leading game aggregator, has announced its win of the “Best Innovation” award at the 2025 Sports Betting West Africa (SBWA+) Summit in Ghana, triumphing over strong competition from other industry frontrunners.

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MegaSportsPro launches in 24 US states, blending skill-based sports prediction with lottery-style rewards

MegaSportsPro, a groundbreaking player-performance sports competition, has announced its official launch in 24 US states.

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Hong Kong Jockey Club sees record high sports betting in financial year, anticipates legal basketball wagering

The Hong Kong Jockey Club saw an impressive financial year ending June 30^th, as total wagering and lottery turnover increased by 5 percent yearly to HK$320.26 billion ($41.08 billion).

Basketball wagering anticipated

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