Casino growth helps boost Playtech revenue 17%
Software provider continues growth in casino and sports betting but fails to arrest bingo and poker slide
Playtech revenues grew 17% for the three months ended 31 March 2014 as a strong performance from casino and services helped offset a disappointing period for bingo and poker, with sports betting revenues now the firm’s third largest contributor.
Casino was again Playtech’s most successful vertical as revenue climbed 26% year-on-year to 55.4m during a period in which it developed a number of new products.
Playtech launched a new live casino product during the quarter and also made “significant advances” in its mobile gaming products, which CEO Mor Weizer said were “an inherent part” of the supplier’s strategy moving forward.
Services revenue, boosted by contributions made by the acquisition of PokerStrategy last July, grew 13% year-on-year to 29.7m.
And revenue from sports betting climbed 22% to 5.6m two months after Weizer outlined Playtech’s ambition to become the market leader in sports betting solutions.
Earlier this year Playtech revealed it was in advanced negotiations over a number of sports betting supplier contracts, however, the firm today did not provide any update on how these talks had progressed.
Bingo and poker fared notably worse than casino as Playtech revealed revenue to have fallen 17% and 14% to 4m and 3.8m respectively as Playtech was unable to buck industry trends.
“Playtech has made a strong start to 2014,” Weizer said. “The two most significant achievements of the quarter were the completion of the roll out of our multi-channel solution to Coral retail outlets and the migration of the entire Ladbrokes online gaming offer to the Playtech platform.”
“Looking ahead, the Board remains confident regarding the continuing growth prospects for the Company.”
Shares in the company rose just under 3% in morning trading to 657.5p.