Each Singaporean is familiar with 4D and TOTO games, but have you ever considered who stands behind them? Did you know it’s Singapore Pools which has been operating for half a century?
Established on 23 May 1968 by the government as an effective way to combat illegal gambling activities and provide people with a reliable channel to place bets, Tote Board has evolved into the sole operator of Toto, Big Sweep, association football betting and motor racing betting in Singapore.
Singapore Pools stands out as not only being an ethical and legitimate business but also as being dedicated to enriching their local community. As evidence of this dedication, they were awarded three hearts by the National Volunteer & Philanthropy Centre as “Companies for Good”. Their national commitment encompasses five impact areas including Society, People Governance Environment Economy.
Singapore Pools’ IT-enabled approach allows it to continuously evaluate and transform its customer touchpoints to best serve the public. For example, they’ve replaced traditional counter services with digital channels like online and mobile apps, making playing easier for their customers while increasing reach, improving service, and decreasing illegal gaming activity.
More recently, they’ve switched their IT infrastructure over to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) for improved applications and increased security. By taking advantage of OCI’s visibility and analytics to detect performance and availability issues faster, resolution time has drastically decreased – even during COVID-19 pandemic times when IT requirements spiked significantly! Observability and management features allowed them to unlock additional capacity when their needs spiked exponentially.
As part of their response, they provided their employees with flexibility to work from home during the pandemic, which enabled them to continue operating their business and serving their customers despite health risks. They have also educated their employees about cyber attacks and security threats in order to prevent breaches.
Singapore Pools’ team was recognized with the Human Resources Director Asia Employer of Choice award in 2024 and won silver in Employee Engagement, Digital Transformation and Learning & Development categories at the 15th Singapore HR Awards. These achievements recognized their agility and resilience during 2020 amidst COVID-19 pandemic as well as best practices regarding employee engagement, workforce diversity and talent acquisition.