| 888 Poker Revenues Back To Normal After Poor H1 2010 |
888 Holdings, the owners of 888 poker, have today revealed that its poker revenue for H1 2010 fell by around a quarter (25.2%) to $19.6m (£12.7m) from the $26.2m (£17m) it made in the first half of last year.But Gigi Levy, the Chief Executive Officer of 888, maintained the decline was “roughly in line with general online poker trends" and the declined worsened during the World Cup, especially due to the weak euro and pound currencies.
Levy commented: "Our business experienced a difficult first half against the backdrop of a challenging economic environment, with trading impacted by a number of factors including general online poker weakness, adverse F/X movements and, in relation to Poker and Casino in Q2, the FIFA World Cup.”
888 holdings' pre-tax profits, which includes revenues generated from their poker, casino, bingo and sport-betting activities, fell from $14.9m (£9.7m) in H1 2009 to only $8.4m (£5.4m) for this half. The massive 43% decline was blamed on an “industry-wide slump” in online poker.
On a brighter note, he reported that the month of August has seen poker revenues increase by more than 15%, returning back to the normal expected level for this time of the year: “Trading in August has been significantly stronger than in July, with a double digit daily revenue increase especially in casino and poker. Boosted by the release of the new platform, Poker has seen an increase of more than 15% in revenue in August.”
Following the recent merger between PartyGaming and Bwin, Levy stated his desire to try and consolidate their business with other successful online companies, adding: "We look at consolidation as one of the possible routes to realising our full value. We feel that longer term this is the direction the industry will take."
Other possible courses of action to boost interest in their online activities were reported to be new software and a new 3D casino.
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