Gala Coral’s online partnership with software supplier Playtech continued to bear fruit in the last quarter, new financials have confirmed.
The owner of the Coral.co.uk, GalaBingo.com and GalaCasino.com sites finally completed the migration of all of its online betting, casino, properties onto Playtech-owned software platforms last October, following the deal signed between the parties in July 2011.
The operator’s third-quarter results released yesterday showed that underlying growth continues to accelerate on the back of the move, echoing the turnaround Playtech achieved with William Hill’s online business from 2009 until Hill’s paid £424m to buy out Playtech’s 29% stake earlier this year.
At Coral.co.uk, punters wagered more than double the amount they did last year on sports and gaming during the 12 weeks to July 6th, stakes growing 128% to £298.1m from £130.9m, with the bulk of this - £230.7m – provided by online casino and gaming.
This drove a 100% improvement in gross win from £6m to £12m, although final earnings (EBITDA) reflected the impact of a near doubling of its investment in technology and marketing to £7m “required to drive future growth”, growing to £600k from £100k.
Over at GalaBingo.com and GalaCasino.com, stakes were up 44% to £332.4m, with most of this - £229.8m – provided by Gala Bingo. Gala Casino however showed impressive growth, 128% to £102.6m albeit from a lower base of £45.2m. This drove a 50% increase in gross win to £19m, with earnings up 25% to £6.6m, again reflecting the impact of increased marketing costs, albeit less pronounced given the long-standing strength of the GalaBingo.com business.
Gala Coral’s group chief executive Carl Leaver called the significant growth of actives and gross profit by its Coral Interactive and Gala Interactive divisions for the third successive quarter “encouraging”, adding that the increased marketing spend would continue to drive growth into the next financial year.
The betting and gaming operator’s overall earnings from its land-based and online businesses in the UK and Italy were up 7% to £57.4m, underpinned by profit growth in all divisions with the exception of Gala Retail, consisting of its Gala-branded bingo halls and casinos. Gala Coral disposed of 19 of the latter to Rank for £179m in May, allowing it to shave £113m off its huge debt, which stands at £1.19bn.
Article written by Katy Stirland
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