As a state-owned company with a deep commitment to societal causes, Singapore Pools takes a proactive role in supporting the arts, sports and charities. It also promotes responsible gaming through its nationwide digital signage network. “We are able to communicate with our customers and educate them about playing responsibly,” says Chief Executive Officer Lam Chee Weng.
In the last financial year that ended in March 2024, bets placed with Singapore Pools totalled $12.2 billion, a 7% increase from the previous year. This is a record high for the company, which is Singapore’s only legal lottery and sports betting operator. The growth is likely a result of increased interest in sports betting and the availability of a wider variety of games to bet on, according to an industry source.
Founded in 1968, Singapore Pools was established to provide safe and trusted gambling, while combating illegal betting. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Tote Board, which reports to the Ministry of Finance. Currently, the company contributes about $2 billion in taxes and betting duties to the government each year, channeling operating surpluses to fund a wide range of community initiatives.
A large part of Singapore Pools’ revenue comes from its sports betting activities, with bets placed on 4-D, Toto, Singapore Sweep and association football. Counsellors from Arise2Care Community Services believe that the growing popularity of these games could be attributed to a rise in social acceptance of casual gambling, as well as the opportunity for punters to win big by placing small bets.
To better manage its applications and ensure that bettors have a secure experience, Singapore Pools recently migrated its on-premises monitoring system to the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). This provides greater visibility and automation through a single dashboard, reducing troubleshooting time by half. Additionally, it allows for quick deployment of new applications without the need to build an entire new environment from scratch.
Another benefit of OCI is the ability to unlock additional capacity as needed, which was crucial during the COVID-19 crisis when demand for data spiked across the globe. To further enhance its operations, the company is integrating OCI with its business intelligence platform, PADS4, to display real-time game and bet data across all its stores, outlets and online platforms. This will enable its employees to stay informed of the latest betting results and bet statistics as they are happening, helping them make more informed decisions. By enabling the business to operate as usual during this critical time, OCI helped the company maintain its high levels of service for its customers.