Bwin H2 results: EBITDA up 40%
Bwin's earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) are up 40%, the Austrian betting and gaming operators half-year results have revealed.
BWIN HAS reported earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) up 40% at the half-year stage.
The Austrian betting and gaming operator recorded EBITDA of 51m over the six month period, 42% up on the 36.5m recorded at the same point last year. Second quarter EBITDA was even more impressive, up 42% on the same period last year, to 15m compared to 10.6m at Q208
Gross gaming revenue for the half was 212.7m, a 6% rise on 207m at the same point in 2008, while gross gaming revenue for the quarter was.95m, a 7.3% drop on 102.6m during the same quarter in 2008.
Betting turnover rose 6% in the half, to 1.6bn from 1.5bn at mid-year 2008, while quarterly betting turnover rose 2.2% to 810.9m, from 793.4m in Q208.
However sports betting margins were poor, which the company attributed to a favourable run of results for customers towards the end of the last football season, and stood at 5.9% for the quarter, from 7.9% for the same period last year.
In other quarterly KPIs, gross revenues from sports correspondingly fell 25% to 44.8m, from 59.3m for the same period last year, with net gaming revenue (NGR) falling 26% to 37.4m, from 50.4m. The European Soccer Championships occurring in the equivalent quarter last year, however, limits the conclusions that can be drawn from year-on-year comparisons.
The fall in sports revenue was in part offset by a 12.8% rise in net gaming revenue from poker, to 20.2m from 17.9m, underpinned by the growth of the poker business in Italy. This resulted in a 12% fall in overall NGR to 77.8m, from 88m a year earlier.
The company announced the longer-than-expected migration of operations and players across to its P5 poker platform was now complete, which it said positioned Bwin to cope with future challenges including pooling international liquidity and running separate regional networks.
Re-emphasising his buy recommendation, analyst Ivor Jones of Evolution Securities said the investment in systems and geographic spread was paying off for the Austrian-based operator. “The business continues to grow its top-line modestly despite reducing marketing and tech development costs. The result is the sector’s best bottom-line growth,” Jones said.
Games NGR achieved double digit growth of 23.1% to 5.7m, compared to 4.6m for the equivalent quarter a year earlier, which the company said had been supported by the launch of its new backgammon platform in early June.
NGR from the casino segment dipped marginally to 14.6m, from 15.1m a year earlier. The company said this was in line with expectations, with no special marketing activities having been undertaken due to internal responsible gaming considerations.
Active customer numbers remained broadly stable compared to the Euro 2008 quarter, reaching 1,057,000, compared to 1,095,000. The number of new active customers however fell by 15.1% to 251,000, due to increased sign-ups during the Euro 2008
With average gross gaming revenues in the first six weeks of the current quarter 2% higher than for the same period last year, the company said sports betting margin had normalized since the previous quarter to between 7% and 9%.
With turnover expected to be boosted by the launch of the football season across Europe, the company confirmed its FY09 EBITDA target of 110m