Bwin tops Power 50 for second year running
Bwin has beaten competitors including PartyGaming and Betfair to emerge once again as the number one operator in the Power 50 ranking of egaming's 50 leading operators.
BWIN HAS BEATEN competitors including PartyGaming and Betfair to emerge once again as the number one operator in the Power 50 ranking of egaming’s 50 leading operators.
New entrant Mangas Gaming and a revitalised William Hill Online also broke into the top 10 this year, which Bwin topped on the back of a surge in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of 40% at the half-year point, major football sponsorships including those of Spanish football’s Primera and Segunda leagues and the Austrian bookmaker’s continued fight against monopolies in the EU courts.
These enabled Bwin to once again head off a revitalised PartyGaming, which came in second place despite Party’s settlement with the US authorities and £100m buyout of bingo heavyweight Cashcade.
A sports betting operator with a complementary market presence is necessary for Party to continue the progress it made this year; chief executive Jim Ryan recently confirming that this is a key objective.
Betfair followed Bwin and Party on the back of strong financial results including a surge in EBITDA of almost 30%, while Bet365, which is also privately owned, climbs two places to fourth place on the basis of its turnover nearly doubling in 2009 to £3.4bn, according to the Sunday Times. Bet365’s in-running platform is considered one of the leaders in the industry.
The uplift in William Hill Online’s fortunes sparked by last year’s deal with Playtech has seen it surge nine places from 14th place last year to fifth position in this year’s list – in contrast with British high street rival Ladbrokes, which has fallen three places to sixth position after weak financial results at mid-year.
However Ladbrokes is known to be actively seeking partners and acquisition targets in markets outside of its core UK and Scandinavian markets, most notably in continental Europe and Australia, where it has been linked with bids for the Tasmanian Tote and a Victorian wagering licence.
As reported on EGRmagazine.com, Mangas has entered the Power 50 for the first time, taking Sportingbet’s seventh place on the strength of it having acquired major scale and geographical reach over the past 18 months with its 75% stake in Betclick and acquisitions of Scandanavian brand Expekt and German and central Europe-focused Bet-At-Home. The company is now focused on strengthening its poker offering, and is rumoured to be in talks with Everest Poker.
Paddy Power and Unibet remained stable in eighth and ninth place respectively. Paddy Power kept its place by embarking on an expansion strategy that included the acquisition of a controlling stake in Australian sportsbook Sportsbet and subsequent acquisition of International All Sports via Sportsbet, while Unibet remained stably by continuing to dominate the Scandinavian bingo scene while diversifying its regional focus and signing sponsorship deals with Valencia and Paris St Germain football clubs.
To read the 2009 Power 50 top 10, click here, or to read the Power 50 positions 11-50, click here,
For more on the this year’s ranking, see the eGaming Review Power 50 main feature and the Power 50 letter from acting editor Jake Pollard.
The 2009 Power 50 first appeared in the September issue of eGaming Review.
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