888 Q3 revenues soar 22%
Strong growth across all verticals help propel operator's quarterly revenues to record high
888 Holdings is expecting to report full-year EBITDA ahead of current market consensus after the operator recorded a 22% year-on-year increase in Q3 2014 revenues.
The group posted “record” revenues of US$114m in the three months ended 30 September 2014, up from the $94m posted during the same period last year, following strong growth across all verticals.
The company’s flagship B2C casino grew strongly over the quarter with a 23% year-on-year revenue increase from $45m in Q3 2013 to $56m this year.
888’s B2C ’emerging offering’, including its Kambi Sports Solutions-powered sportsbook, was the fastest growing area of the business and continued the momentum from its strong World Cup performance as revenues increased 84% year-on-year to $9m.
Poker and bingo both bucked current industry trends with revenues from the two verticals increasing 3% year-on-year to $23m and 9% year-on-year to $11m respectively. B2B revenues were up 41% year-on-year to $16m following expansion into the US.
888 CEO Brian Mattingley, who is to switch to the position of executive chairman in May 2015, said he was “delighted” by the company’s performance across all areas of the business during the quarter.
“This was driven by an outstanding performance from casino, reflecting our leading product and superior technology, as well as impressive growth in sport, our B2B business and bingo,” he said.
888’s active B2C casino and poker customers increased 17% year-on-year to 584,000, while the operator revealed it had 17.3m registered customer accounts from its casino, poker and sportsbook combined.
“We continue to build customer numbers reflecting the core strengths of the 888 brand, our leading product offer and CRM systems,” Mattingley said.
“With our highly skilled and innovative team, we continue to look forward with confidence as we further develop the business,” he added.
On the back of the results, analyst Ivor Jones at Numis Securities increased 888’s full-year EBITDA forecast to $95m from $86m.
“The fact that 888’s financial performance, once again, exceeded our expectations in 3Q14, demonstrates the benefits of its operational excellence,” Jones said.
888 Holdings’ share price at the time of writing was up 4p to 134p.