Gala Coral "harvesting rewards" of strategic switch

Newly-crowned eGR Operator of the Year Gala Coral Interactive says the firm’s recent success can be traced back the “difficult decision” made to switch platforms and set up base in Gibraltar.

Last night the firm scooped the headline prize at the eGR Operator Awards in London during a ceremony which also saw its GalaBingo.com brand snap-up two prizes for Bingo Operator and Mobile Bingo Product.

And speaking to eGaming Review this morning, Gala Coral’s chief marketing officer Phil Walker said the firm was “privileged” to have won a hat-trick of awards and that the success justified the decision taken in 2011 to partner with technology supplier Playtech and set up a digital division in Gibraltar.

“I think the scale of that strategic decision four years ago to move to Gibraltar, to change our technology platform and to fundamentally rebuild and grow the business was a difficult decision to make and also difficult to execute,” Walker said.

“But now we are harvesting the rewards of that decision and with great technology and a fantastic team of people, and we are delivering marketing leading numbers.

“The fruits of that labour are coming home for us and the next two or three years are going to be equally momentous for us as we continue on this upward curve,” he added.

Gala Coral has been one of a small number of operators to have delivered significant growth over the year. While its full year results aren’t published until next Monday, revenues for the nine-month period ended 4 July were 51% ahead of last year.

Walker said Gala Coral’s financial performance, driven by standout performances from its Coral and Gala Bingo brands, was key to it being crowned Operator of the Year and added that the firm had taken a customer-orientated approach to stave off the impact of higher taxes.

“We understood the challenges Point of Consumption (PoC) would represent so we were able to drive through PoC rather than let it affect us negatively,” Walker said.

“We went back to basics in that we focused on the right offers for tightly segmented groups of customers, understand what they need and tailor the proposition,” he added.

Gala Coral is currently headed towards a merger with rival Ladbrokes, however Walker said the firm would not be distracted from its day-to-day operations.

“It’s business as usual,” Walker said. “Continue to drive daily, weekly and monthly performance so we continue to focus on tech, product, marketing and customers.

“The prospect of what might happen in the next 12 months… we just keep our head down and keep driving the numbers forward and just get on with the day job,” he added.