The annualized gross gaming revenue (GGR) for online gaming in the Philippines reached approximately $2.4 billion in the third quarter of 2024, accounting for 70 percent of the country’s land-based gaming GGR, Morgan Stanley calculated based on PAGCOR figures.
This percentage went from about 40 percent in the first quarter of the year, to 60 percent in the second and now 70 percent.
While online gaming has become the largest contributor to gaming taxes in the Philippines since the first half of 2024, the brokerage warned that a notable discrepancy between actual and expected tax collections suggests that increased setup fees for newly licensed B2C operators may be influencing the figures.
In a report published recently, Morgan Stanley compared the online/land-based rate to that of the US, where online gaming represented only 30 percent of land-based gaming revenue, at $23 billion.
However, the same report noted that, while PAGCOR collected around PHP28 billion ($490 million) in taxes from online gaming, this figure falls short of the estimated $540 million US authorities would be expected to collect based on a 35 percent blended tax rate.
Leading the online gaming sector, DigiPlus has overtaken Bloomberry in both GGR and EBITDA since the second quarter, claiming a market share of 50 percent.
‘With over 30 million registered users, DigiPlus is well-positioned in a market with a total adult population of 70 million’, Morgan Stanley analysts indicated.
According to the brokerage, the competitive landscape in the Philippines is set to evolve further, with a planned reduction in the online gaming tax rate by 5 percentage points to 30 percent in 2025, and Bloomberry’s forthcoming launch of its online gaming app in the third quarter of 2025, which will target a different clientele under a distinct brand from Solaire.
