Playtech managed to stabilise the decline in its poker business at the start of 2013, achieving revenue growth of 9% over the fourth quarter of 2012.
CEO Mor Weizer (pictured) said the foundation for the quarter-on-quarter growth had been provided by the addition of new licensees such as Gala Coral and Betclic Everest in the final months of 2012, coupled with the “enhanced liquidity programme” implemented from last September.
“The positive momentum still at the end of the fourth quarter has continued into the first quarter, with completion of the Betfair migration approaching, and additional licensees scheduled to join later in the year, further reiterating the unique position the company holds in the poker space,” Weizer said in this morning’s Q1 earnings call in London.
Poker revenue still fell 18% year-on-year to €4.64m however, with CFO Ron Hoffman admitting to analysts that it was “hard to say when it will reverse and become a growth year-on-year, [but] the trends are there.”
Weizer also announced that armed with the £424m cash it recently received from selling its stake in William Hill Online, the software supplier was “assessing a number of potentially exciting opportunities.”
The Playtech boss was speaking in the wake of the company unveiling a 16% rise in gross income to €102.5m for the three months to 31 March 2013, which included a €15m profit share from William Hill Online.
The performance was driven by its core online casino products, from which revenue was up 28% to €44m from the comparable period in 2012, with the recent online slots launch in Italy contributing €3m of this. Live dealer casino – for which Playtech recently launched a dedicated facility for Paddy Power – and mobile casino also drove the revenue increase.
Sports betting revenues were also split out by Playtech for the first time, up 128% year-on-year to €4.6m. Weizer admitred that this was almost all generated by its Mobenga mobile product, but said he believed the Geneity sportsbook platform recently rolled out to three licensees would “gain significant traction going forward”.
Weizer said Playtech also intended to roll out its Mobenga mobile sportsbook, as well as online casino, on behalf of German-facing JV partner Gauselmann later this year, operating on the latter’s licence in the northermost Land of Schleswig-Holstein.
The Playtech boss said the JV partners were still discussing whether to apply for one of up to 20 sports betting licences covering the whole of Germany, the first of which are due to be issued next month. “No final decision has yet been made”, he said.
Article written by Stephen Carter
