Bwin.party looks for positives while ducking takeover talk

Bwin.party CEO Norbert Teufelberger (pictured) yesterday pinpointed an increase in mobile revenues as the highlight of a quarter overshadowed by speculation concerning the operator’s long-term future.

Speaking to analysts after announcing a 6% year-on-year decline in Q1 revenues, Teufelberger refused to be drawn on recent takeover bids tabled by GVC/Amaya and 888.

Instead, Teufelberger, who looks likely to leave the firm should bwin.party accept either of the bids on offer, stuck firmly to script and said key performance indicators were “pretty much as expected” after it recorded net revenues of €155.3m during the three month period.

“First I want to deal with where we are in our discussions,” Teufelberger said. “There is little more we can say right now for reasons that I hope are obvious,” he added.

But while Teufelberger toed the company line, the operator used its Q1 update to report it was in the process of pouring over the two separate bids and expected to make an announcement in the coming weeks.

Silver lining

Amid a raft of declining KPIs, including reductions to active players and new player sign-ups, Teufelberger said the firm remained on track to meet its target of 50% of revenues coming through the mobile channel by year-end.

“We are very comfortable we will reach it on sports; we will overreach it on sports most likely [and] on casino we will make it close to it,” Teufelberger said.

“And what we will most likely not reach is poker, but blended I guess we are going to get pretty close by the end of this year,” he added.

Mobile revenues in Q1 amounted to 41% and 21% for sports betting and casino respectively while no figure was given for poker.

The firm’s focus on mobile saw massive uptick in the number of customers using the platform, increasing from 9% in Q1 2014 to 21% this year, with those customers driving 30% of gross gaming revenues compared with 17% last year.

Taxing matters

Teufelberger also use the call to comment on the new gambling regime in Portugal, which will see gaming taxed at between 15%-30% of revenues and sportsbook at 8% of turnover up to €30m a year, and ramped up to 16% thereafter.

“There is still room for improvement there,” Teufelberger said. “I remind you of Italy, which started with 12% turnover tax and it’s now moving to a very reasonable revenue tax – so this will be evolving in Portugal.”

Prior to it adopting a ‘volume to value’ strategy, Portugal was a core market for bwin.party and Teufelberger said the operator retained “great brand traction” in the country and would keep an eye on developments.

Although whether the current management team remains in place long enough to make a decision on Portugal or implement any of its long-term plans remains to be seen.