PartyGaming sees 30% growth in revenue
PartyGaming's half-year results were announced today and showed a 30% increase in revenue due to acquisitions and marketing spend.
PartyGaming posted a 30% increase in revenue to 181.2million in the first half of 2010, from 139.9m last year, due to “acquisitions and strong growth in casino and sports betting” it said in its statement.
However, Party’s first set of figures since announcing its merger with Bwin to form the world’s largest listed online gaming company, revealed that heavy marketing spend on casino and the acquisition of bingo operator Cashcade meant that earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) only rose 14% from 42.3m in 2009 to 48.1m this year. The Cashcade deal was also the catalyst to strong bingo revenue growth, seeing it leap from 1.2m in 2009 to 25.8m in 2010.
Casino revenue grew from 62.1m in the first half of last year to 76.4m in 2010 following chief executive Jim Ryan’s new marketing strategy brought in to compensate for dwindling poker takings. Casino EBITDA however dipped slightly from 25m to 24.3m.
Sportsbetting revenue climbed from 5.4m to 10.2m year-on-year, due to a favourable run of results during the football World Cup in June.
Jim Ryan said: “Clean EBITDA margins in the first half were slightly lower than expected due to the delayed launch of cash game poker in Italy but we retain our previous full year guidance of approximately 28%, subject to the returns achieved on planned marketing spend in both France and Italy, where we are continuing to expand the share of our respective poker networks.”
All verticals were up for Party with the exception of poker, which in a general industry decline due largely to the football World Cup, fell from 71.2m in 2009 to 64.4m this year.
PartyGaming again blamed the “continued dominance of US-facing sites” adding it would expand its French and Italian poker offerings as a result. In late July it received clearance to launch five French-facing networks including for PartyPoker and its PartyBets and Gamebookers sports betting brands.
Jim Ryan announced that Party’s white label for French TV broadcast giant AB Groupe went live today, while the room for Paris-based gambling venue Aviation Club de France is scheduled to launch in September.