bwin.party chief Norbert Teufelberger has admitted NJ regulators’ decision on whether or not to allow PokerStars into the Garden State will dictate the size of the opportunity for his company and Caesars.
“I think this is [PokerStars'] only ‘in’ card, they are trying to play for the US. They have already been excluded from Nevada. Other markets most likely will have language in their law which excludes them. New Jersey doesn’t. So it will be up to the licensing authorities to make a determination on whether or not to let them in”, he said today.
Teufelberger told analysts in this morning FY earnings call that the decision on whether or not to issue interim casino authorisation to PokerStars for its proposed buy of the Atlantic Club casino would be critical in deciding how the market will ultimately be carved up. WSOP brand owner Caesars owns four casinos in Atlantic City, while bwin.party B2B partner Boyd Gaming owns one.
“It is obviously clear that if PokerStars is in the market, the opportunity will be smaller. If Pokerstars is out, then it’s going to be, I would assume, very much between us and Caesars.”
The bwin.party boss called New Jersey, where it is set to partner Borgota owner Boyd Gaming and will meet with the Gaming Commission next week, “the first significant opportunity” in the US. “It’s very important to be there from Day 1. So we are currently working on setting up the operational structure for the United States, because New Jersey could potentially open at the end of this year.”
Teufelberger also admitted that while a Nevada licence “could be beneficial for California”, ostensibly in reference to the Silver State potentially entering a compact agreement allowing liquidity sharing with the US’ largest state, where bwin.party has a B2B deal with the United Auburn tribe, “we are not pushing it very hard right now, as we are not sure we will need it.”
The online gaming and betting group this morning posted a 2% fall in pro-forma revenue to €801.6m, with earnings down 17% to €169.4m, due to flat revenue and increased gaming taxes, most notably in its largest national market of Germany.
Current trading since the turn of the year has been hit by user experience issues arising from the migration of the company’s dot.com players from its various brands onto one platform, with average daily revenue down 7% to €2.4m, the company revealed. Performance was also been impacted by the company’s withdrawal of acquisition marketing spend in its dot.com markets to refocus on regulated markets and higher value customers.
Explaining the rationale behind refocusing on retention rather than acquisition in dot.com markets, Teufelberger said: “The customers we acquired a long time ago are still generating fantastic returns. What happened in the last 6-12 months is that the new customers that we paid dearly for are not producing anymore. The way we see it, it will not be that easy for competitors to go in, because they will [need to] steal the customers from us, and we will do everything to keep them, by providing a substantially better and tailored service to them.”
Article written by Stephen Carter
