NetPlay TV plots PoC cost savings as revenue growth slows
Q2 revenues up 5% year-on-year as operator begins "preparing itself accordingly" for December's UK Point of Consumption tax
NetPlay TV recorded 5% year-on-year revenue growth throughout Q2 2014 as the company began to prepare itself for this year’s onset of the UK Point of Consumption tax regime.
In a trading update released this morning NetPlay revealed net revenue for the quarter stood at £7.4m, up on last year’s figure of £7.1m but a slower rate of growth than previously experienced by the operator.
The company attributed the lower growth rate to the negative impact of the World Cup on revenues of its SuperCasino brand and a “moderate softening” of its marketing output on British terrestrial television network Channel 5.
“This was mitigated in part by a strong start to the quarter and the directors expect that with the World Cup having come to an end, revenues will return to similar levels as those seen at the beginning of the quarter,” the statement read.
Mobile continued to be a highlight for the operator with more than half of new customer registrations deriving from mobile or tablet devices, adding to a total increase of 38% in new depositing players throughout the quarter.
More than one third of total net revenue was derived from mobile devices in Q2, up from 26% in 2013.
The operator also shed some light on its cost saving efforts ahead of December’s Point of Consumption tax, which stands to impact on its predominantly UK-facing business.
NetPlay said it had “begun preparing itself accordingly” for the 15% profit tax and revealed it had started work on the “consolidation of certain locations”, with NetPlay CEO Charles Butler having previously refused to rule out the closure of one of its two overseas offices in Sofia and Guernsey.
“We have people in different locations and rather be drawn on what changes we will make at this stage, I can say we have certainly identified efficiencies in the fact we are running multiple locations at the moment across our products,” Butler said at the time.