Tuesday July 8, 02:35 PM
Update: PartyGaming hit by poker
By John Harrington
LONDON (ShareCast) - The poker boom is starting to wane at PartyGaming (LSE: PRTY.L - news) , though the online gambling group is managing
to largely replace lost poker revenues with increased income from casino and bingo games.The group's overall gross revenues since the end of April have eased off, and although some drop-off is to be expected at this time of year the company said the decline has been slightly bigger than expected. The group blamed the distraction of Euro 2008 and strong competition from operators still able to accept US players on their sites for the disappointing performance of the poker division during May and June. Since the US cracked down on non-US based poker sites, PartyGaming has lost its lead in the online poker market, with iPoker and Full Tilt Poker overtaking it in recent months while PokerStars has more than double the number of customers. In sports betting, Euro 2008 also proved a liability, with the gross win margin damaged by an unhelpful string of results at the start of the tournament, although overall the tournament prompted a marked increase in betting volumes. The strong performance in casino has been driven by a rise in the number of players and cross-selling from the poker sites. Operational efficiencies and lower marketing costs mean that Clean EBITDA margins are expected to be substantially higher in the first half than last year. Full year results will be hit by a $4m one-off charge associated with the replacement of the chief executive, said the group.
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