Gala Coral boosted by Italy growth
Interactive gross profit up 11.7% year-on-year as operator relaunches websites for all its brands.
Gala Coral has seen significant growth from its dot.com and dot.it online offerings, the operator has announced in its financial results for the year ended 29 September.
Interactive gross profit was up 11.7% year-on-year to £76.1m, growing at a greater rate than that seen by the business’ larger land-based element, while gross profit from Italian activities rose 23.3% year-on-year to £23.3m.
The fourth quarter showed particularly strong growth, with the relaunched galacasino.com and galabingo.com websites helping contribute to gross profits rising 32% compared to the corresponding period in 2011.
The operator has relaunched the coral.co.uk website since the end of September, continuing its landmark 10-year relationship with service provider Playtech which also brought about the launch of a new poker room on the iPoker network.
Playtech chief operating officer Shay Segev said: “It is with great pleasure that we conclude our successful effort to support Gala Coral Group on all product verticals and in all channels.
“Their distinguished brands further strengthen our position as the leading software provider in the industry, and this partnership has been a strong indication of businesses’ growing desire to centralise their products, services, and operations under one platform to increase brand loyalty,” added Segev.
Gala Coral CEO Carl Leaver said of the launch: “We are very pleased to have completed our migration to Playtech’s platform and products. Having a single wallet will enable us to be more effective at growing our customers’ loyalty and increasing cross-sell.”
The first quarter of 2013 has also seen Gala Coral’s eurobet.it brand become one of the first to go live with online slots after receiving its authorisation last week. It had launched tumbling reel slots with GameAccount earlier in the year, at the point when only non-spinning slots were permitted.
Online sports stakes in Italy are up 42% year-on-year in current Q1 2013 trading, while gross profit from the jurisdiction is flat as a poker decline has cancelled out growth elsewhere.
Meanwhile, on the dot.com side, galacasino.com has seen gross profit more than double off an admittedly low base, while the Gala Interactive business in its entirety has shown year-on-year gross profit growth of 26%.
Leaver described 2012 as “An important transitional year for the group,” making reference to the arrival of a number of new senior staff before and during the financial year.
Former HBOS chief Andy Hornby took over as Coral MD while John O’Reilly and Per Widerström have assumed leadership of the Coral Interactive and Gala Interactive brands respectively.
The CEO said: “We have restructured into key operating divisions, bedded in a new operational management team and invested in our retail estate and online systems. This has resulted in the first growth in profitability for over five years against the backdrop of a difficult environment for retail and leisure businesses.
With the re-launch of the coral.co.uk in October our new interactive businesses are now fully up and running and we are targeting significant growth over the forthcoming year,” he added.