This story is sponsored by Gala BingoGala Coral’s online gambling properties have already begun to shown signs of recovery on the back of their migration onto Playtech-owned platforms, the company has revealed.
Gross profits from its Gala-branded egaming brands were 26% ahead year-on-year in the eight weeks to 26 November, with galacasino.com up a huge 108% and GalaBingo.com by 20%. Revenues from its Coral betting properties, however performed less strongly, remaining stable due to bonus costs associated with the launch of the new website on 11 October.
Playtech, which already provides poker, bingo and the majority of casino games to three of the UK’s top five operators – bet365, Paddy Power and William Hill - signed a 10-year deal with Gala Coral to supply all online products for its Coral betting and Gala gaming brands in July 2011. It followed this up with the acquisition of Gala Coral’s sportsbook platform supplier Geneity for £11m in January of this year, with Gala Casino moving to Playtech platforms in May, followed by Gala Bingo in July and Coral Poker in October.
Gala Coral included the update on the recent performance of its interactive businesses in its full-year earnings report for the 53 weeks to 29 September. Gross profit from its retail and online businesses was up 8% to £923.6m, with earnings (EBITDA) up 11% to £291.4m.
Across interactive, annual turnover was up 6%, driven by strong growth in actives and revenues from Coral.co.uk and the introduction of the new Gala Interactive websites. Interactive was up to £76.1 from £68.1m, with earnings up to £34.1m from £32.2m on a like-for-like basis,
CEO Carl Leaver said 2012 had been “an important transitional year for the Group”, which had “resulted in the first growth in profitability for over five years.”
The heavily indebted company also narrowed its loss for the year to £123.2m from £643.4m.
