GVC sees overall growth but casino declines
GVC Holdings' six month results reveal a fall in casino turnover but an overall rise in net revenue...
Online sports betting and gambling group GVC Holdings has shrugged off the closure of its loss-making Spanish bingo brand Winzingo in April to record an 8% rise in net revenues for the first half of 2010, but saw casino revenues fall due to the weak economic climate and heavy investment in marketing.
CasinoClub, the company’s German-facing, roulette dominated casino business, saw its net revenues drop to EUR 13.7m in the first half of this year from EUR 15.1m in the same period in 2009. “The Group has invested in both retention and acquisition marketing to defend its highly profitable CasinoClub business,” the group announced in a statement this morning. “Around EUR 2.8m was incurred in the H1-10 compared to around EUR 1.5m in H1-09. The inevitable consequence of this is that contribution margin from CasinoClub is expected to be closer to 60% rather than 70% in H1-2009.”
Betboo, the South American operator that GVC acquired last July, saw a minimal increase in revenues from EUR2.2m in the second half of 2009 to EUR 2.3m in the same period this year. Despite the minor increase, the company said that the GVC board remains “confident” for its long-term prospects in South America. “The sportsbook has seen material growth, and a strengthening of the trading team is expected to result in improved margins,” it added.
GVC’s Malta-based and Italian facing casino site Betaland witnessed the most significant increase, going from EUR 10.9m in the first six months of 2009 to EUR 12.2m in the first half of this year.
During this morning’s announcement, GVC also said that court proceedings against Boss Media were scheduled for 4 October 2010 and that the board would continue to “vigorously defend” the group’s intellectual property and “pursue a number of claims against Boss Media”.
In April eGaming Review reported that GVC was involved in several disputes with Boss regarding alleged infringement of the group’s intellectual property and the ability of Boss to terminate its contract to provide poker and downloadable casino to Gaming VC’s Italian-facing Betaland.com site.