Bwin.party rescued by sportsbook as poker drops 25% in Q3
Operator posts 2% growth in group revenues as sportsbook increases 11% following strong end to World Cup
Bwin.party this morning reported a 2% year-on-year increase in Q3 2014 revenues after double-digit growth in sportsbook offset a 25% year-on-year decline in poker revenues.
Revenues for the three months ended 15 October 2014 were up from 145.7m to 148.7m, predominantly driven by an 11% increase in sportsbook net revenues to 58.8m during the period.
The positive sportsbook performance was largely down to a strong finish to the World Cup with sportsbook growth outside of the tournament restricted to just 2%.
Poker net revenues were down 25% across the period to 17.5m and represented just 12% of the total revenues while active poker players fell 26% year-on-year to 28,300.
However, the operator was keen to highlight the fact that the vertical had grown sequentially in August and September and was hopeful that a series of mobile improvements would see the vertical post improved numbers in Q4.
Casino net revenue was down 3% to 48.5m with the firm saying a higher cross-sell from sports was offset by a “soft poker performance and the loss of Greece”.
Bwin.party’s Dragonfish-powered bingo product remained broadly flat at 12.1m with business said to be strong in the UK but weak in Italy while other revenues, which includes payment companies Kalixa and the recently acquired PXP Solutions, increased 64% year-on-year to 11.8m.
The operator’s long-term ‘volume-to-value’ strategy also made some progress across the quarter as revenues derived from regulated or taxed jurisdictions increased from 53% to 56%.
Norbert Teulfelberger, bwin.party CEO, said the results were in line with expectations and the operator took confidence from an improved mobile performance and added it remained on-track to meet its cost reduction target of 15m next year.
“We continue to make good progress on expanding our mobile footprint and our presence in nationally regulated and/or taxed markets and we remain confident about the full year outlook,” Teufelberger said.
A number of mobile upgrades were implemented during the period across the group and these helped the percentage of revenue in the period rise from 13% to 23% with further improvements planned for Q4.
“As we enter the seasonally strong fourth quarter we are continuing to launch a number of new products including the latest version of our mobile sports product that will also include embedded casino games,” Teufelberger added.
Bwin.party’s share price remained flat at 83p after early morning trading.