Online gaming operator bwin.party has posted a year-on-year fall in revenue for the third quarter of 2013, a drop that it insisted was “expected” after a “transitional” year for the company.
The firm posted revenue of €145.7 million ($196.7 million) for the three-month period through to the end of September, a 21% decrease on the €184.4 million recorded in the corresponding period last year.
The poker, sportsbetting, casino and bingo areas of the business all registered drops in sales during the quarter.
Poker has been on continuous decline throughout 2013, but the operator said it has experienced encouraging growth since the launch of its new PartyPoker.com online poker website in September.
Bwin.party said that the decrease in casino activity was down to the softness in poker, while bingo suffered from tough market conditions in the UK and Italy.
The operator added that sportsbetting had “solid fundamentals” but at a lower margin than had been expected.
Meanwhile, bwin.party also recorded a 22% decrease in the number of daily average players, from 183,700 to 143,500. Real-money sign-ups also fell by 37% to 179,300.
Bwin.party said that it is on track to exceed its cost saving target of €70 million for the year.
“Performance in the period was impacted by our shift from ‘volume to value’, continued declines in poker ahead of our dotcom relaunch, ISP blocking in Greece and a softer than expected sports margin in September,” bwin.party’s chief executive officer, Norbert Teufelberger, said.
“We have made excellent progress in respect of reducing our cost base. We now expect to exceed the €70 million target for 2013 that was communicated at the beginning of the year and this will help us to mitigate some of the impact from Greek ISP blocking which began during August.”
source : www.igamingbusiness.com
