Online shines for Snai despite overall struggles
Fall of 7% in overall revenues offset by steady increases in online sports and horseracing wagers.
Italian operator Snai has seen online growth in the first half of 2012, despite group revenues for the period falling by 7% compared to the same period last year
Online sports betting accounted for 57m in revenues, an increase of 6.7% compared to the same period last year, while horse race betting online attracted sales of 12.5m, an increase of 3.1% compared to H1 2011.
However revenues for H1 2012 fell to 263.8m from 284.7m last year, while EBITDA fell 16% year-on-year to 34.3m, with the decline attributed to an increase in sports betting payouts which amounted to 82.4% versus 79.3% in the first half of 2011.
The skills game business, including casino games, saw revenues of 450m in H1, with Snai’s market share equating to around 6%.
Snai’s VLT business performed well despite problems earlier in the year, with revenues in the first six months of 2012 to 1.36bn, corresponding to a market share of 5.59%. In May the operator temporarily shut down the video lottery terminal (VLT) network provided by Barcrest games, after noticing an unusual spike in requests for payments for winning tickets.
The anomaly resulted in the network’s 1,450 terminals being shut down to allow Snai to carry out inspections on the machines and consult the database of records of transactions carried out on the operator’s VLT platform.
Snai’s results follow a disappointing year for the Italian market, with regulator AAMS revealing in June that gross gaming revenue (GGR) continues to dwindle.
Sports betting turnover fell 10%, causing revenues to fall 23% to 348m, while horse betting GGR came in at just 129m, down 35% on the same period in 2011.