Brian George, CEO and president of Supreme Ventures Ltd.

Brian George, CEO and president of Supreme Ventures Ltd.,  rounds out  The List at No. 10 on the heels of another strong showing.  Supreme Ventures Ltd. registered $751,202 million in after tax profits, which represent a 16.3 percent increase over 2008.

George, a native of Trinidad and self-confessed Embassy brat who attended Tulane University, is becoming a main stay on The List, debuting at No. 2 in 2007 and sliding to No. 3 in 2008 before dropping seven places in 2009.

George stirred the mix in August 2009 with his company’s introduction of multi-jurisdictional Super Lotto game, which is the first game of its kind in the Caribbean and Latin America. Similar to the U.S. Powerball and Euromillion, Super Lotto is sold simultaneously in the Jamaica, Dominican Republic, Barbados, St. Kitts & Nevis, Anguilla, Antigua and St. Maarten. Minimum jackpot: J$180 million.

Prior to joining Supreme Ventures Ltd in 2003, George was senior director of GTECH Latin America and general manager of GTECH Jamaica and Barbados. His career with GTECH Corporation began in 1994, when he was appointed deputy general manager for Trinidad. He was then promoted to general manager – Trinidad, and soon afterward to vice president of GTECH’s subsidiary in Florida – Dreamport, a company that specialized in the provision of technical services to state sponsored video lottery operations in the USA, Canada, Europe and South Africa. After Dreamport folded, George was assigned to set up  operations in Jamaica in 2001. Two years later, SVL Chairman Paul Hoo lured George away to serve as president and CEO is the gaming company.

“Paul Hoo did an excellent job of stepping back and giving me the latitude. It happened in little and significant ways. I had an individual relationship with all three major shareholders operating at personal and group levels,” George told a Gleaner reporter in January 2006.

According to the company’s website, SVL began operations in 2001 with Cash Pot and Lucky5, two of the three lottery games it was licensed to offer. The company launched the third game, Dollaz!, two years later. The company’s impressive growth has been helped by key acquisitions, including 100 percent of the Jamaica Lottery Company (JLC) stakeholding in December 2003. Over the last seven years, George has led SVL as the company has widening its betting and lottery offerings and increased revenue. SVL had   lottery sales of more than $16.9 billion in fiscal year 2007.

Cash Pot represents “over 75 percent” of SVL’s business, George told the Business Observer in November 2010. Compared to 2008, Cash Pot revenues jumped 27 percent to $19.35 billion during the 2009 fiscal year. The game has a relative low margin and the company has sought to increase the frequency of the game to improve its bottom line.

“It will always be our flagship game,” George told the Observer. “It’s a game that all Jamaicans have embraced—there’s a lot of player satisfaction – whilst Lotto and all the other games have niches.”