SPORTS betting is emerging as the new growth engine at Supreme Ventures Limited (SVL), with income from fixed-odds wagers jumping 54 per cent in the first half of 2026 and profit from the wider sports segment rising by almost a quarter.

The performance comes as Jamaicans steadily direct a larger share of their gambling expenditure towards betting and away from lottery. SVL’s latest results now provide evidence that the shift in consumer behaviour is beginning to change where the gaming company generates its growth.

Income from fixed-odds wagering, after prizes were paid, rose to $1.41 billion during the six months to June, up from $913.6 million a year earlier. That amounted to an increase of almost $500 million.

Revenue across SVL’s wider sports betting segment increased at a more moderate pace, rising 6.7 per cent to $9.18 billion. Profit from the segment, however, jumped 24.7 per cent to $1.17 billion.

The disparity indicates that the sports operation is extracting considerably more profit from each additional dollar of business. Its segment margin improved from 10.9 per cent to 12.8 per cent.

SVL’s sports segment extends beyond wagers on international sporting events. It also includes local and simulcast horseracing, video lottery terminals, gaming lounge activity and related food-and-beverage operations.

Fixed-odds income, however, accounted for virtually all the increase in revenue reported by the segment. The other revenue streams grouped within the operation increased by just over one per cent.

The sports operation was also responsible for more than all the improvement in SVL’s overall segment results.

It generated an additional $232.9 million in profit compared with the first half of 2025. The group’s total segment result increased by only $177 million because declines elsewhere, principally in lottery, erased part of the sports gain.

In other words, without the improvement in sports, SVL’s underlying segment performance would have deteriorated.

Lottery remains the company’s largest profit generator in absolute terms, producing $2.8 billion during the period. But that was down 3.3 per cent from a year earlier despite lottery revenue increasing slightly to $12.14 billion.

The lottery segment’s margin consequently declined from 24.2 per cent to 23 per cent.

The diverging performances do not mean that sports betting has overtaken lottery as SVL’s biggest business. They do, however, show that sports has become the principal source of new profit while the traditionally dominant lottery operation is losing momentum.

The development is consistent with changes taking place across Jamaica’s wider gambling market.

An April analysis by the Jamaica Observer estimated that Jamaicans were wagering approximately $240 billion annually across gaming, lottery and betting activities.

Betting, Gaming & Lotteries Commission data reviewed for that analysis showed quarterly betting sales increasing from approximately $5.2 billion in early 2022 to $6.6 billion by early 2025. Betting’s share of gambling expenditure moved from below 10 per cent to just above that level, while lottery lost between five and seven percentage points of market share.

The movement was gradual but consistent, pointing to a longer-term shift in spending, particularly towards sports wagering.

The FIFA World Cup gave that underlying trend an additional lift during the June quarter.

Supreme Ventures Gaming Limited CEO Stefan Miller told the Sunday Observer in June that betting activity during the first eight days of the tournament was 40 per cent above the comparable period of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

The average amount spent by customers had also increased by approximately 20 per cent, while both retail and online channels were attracting casual punters alongside regular sports bettors.

Only the first 20 days of the June 11 to July 19 tournament are reflected in SVL’s half-year accounts. The knockout rounds, semi-finals and final took place in July and will form part of the company’s September-quarter results.

The 54 per cent increase in fixed-odds income also covers the full six-month period, meaning the entire improvement cannot automatically be attributed to the World Cup.

Miller had previously said that the number of people using SVL’s sports betting products had recorded double-digit annual growth since 2019, suggesting that the tournament amplified an expansion that was already under way.

The next set of results should provide a clearer indication of how much the World Cup ultimately added to SVL’s earnings and whether the higher betting levels were sustained after the tournament ended.

For now, sports betting remains smaller than lottery in absolute profit but it has moved from being a supporting operation to carrying the growth of SVL’s gaming business.