Greek gambling company OPAP has cited the performance of its Hellenic Lotteries business and Stihima sports betting service as the main drivers behind a year-on-year jump in revenue during the three months through to September 30.
Revenue for the third quarter amounted to just under €1.1 billion ($1.3 billion), which represented an increase of 19.1% on the €897.6 million achieved in the corresponding period last year.
Gross gaming revenue for the quarter jumped by 17.9% from €293.2 million last year to €345.6 million in the most recent quarter, while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased by 33.1% from €70.8 million to €94.2 million.
Elsewhere, net profit grew by 25.9% from €44.4 million to €55.9 million while payout percentage remained relatively flat at 67.7%.
The third-quarter results place OPAP’s revenue for the nine months through to September 30 at just under €3 billion, a 12.9% increase from the €2.6 billion posted at the same point last year.
Gross gaming revenue for the first three quarters of the year is up 10% to €961.8 million while EBITDA has also jumped by 37.3% to €239.1 million.
Kamil Ziegler, chairman and chief executive officer of OPAP, said: “Q3 2014 was marked by another consecutive increase of our top line, providing with further evidence of stabilisation.
“New products’ introduction along with legacy games rejuvenation is driving our performance; to prove that, scratch tickets, continue to be well perceived by the punters, while Stihima revenues rose for yet another quarter.
“On the operational restructuring front, positive results were once more evident in various fields namely distribution costs, headcount and IT expenses, resulting in additional efficiency gains and higher profitability growth.
“Going forward, we remain cautiously confident for the future and focus our efforts on the timely execution of our plan so as to conclude the rollout of 16,500 VLTs by the end of 2015.”
source : www.igamingbusiness.com
