Poll results: Readers split on bwin.party's mobile ambitions
No clear consensus on whether the operator can make up lost ground on mobile rivals
eGaming Review readers are divided as to whether bwin.party can make the necessary strides on mobile and tablet to catch-up with the industry leaders.
Last week bwin.party announced another set of “disappointing” financial results after posting a 25% year-on-year fall in clean EBITDA for 2013 and CEO Norbert Teufelberger highlighted its mobile business as one of its best opportunities to bounce back.
However 34% of respondents doubted Teufelberger’s ambition and believed bwin.party had left it too late to make an impression on mobile while 29% sat on the fence as to whether the operator would succeed.
Just over a third of readers (37%) backed the operator to gain ground on market leaders such as William Hill, which in 2013 saw 40% of all sports bets placed via mobile.
Following its results, the operator said it was optimistic that mobile and touch devices would account for nearly half of all revenues within the next two years, despite the channel only contributing 12% of all revenues last year (76.9m).
Teufelberger admitted that the company had fallen too far behind its competitors but believed it was now capable of “[reclaiming] the lead in mobile” after admitting the company had “lost the edge”.
“Merging and integration issues set us back,” he said. “However we are now in the position to put mobile first in everything we do.”