Unibet CEO hails poker turnaround

The return to growth of Unibet’s poker business in Q2 is testament to the operator’s bold decision to move it to a standalone platform, according to CEO Henrik Tjärnström, who remains “optimistic of the opportunities” for the product in the future.

In its Q2 2015 financial results released this morning, Unibet reported an all-time group revenue high of £80.5m, which included the first year-on-year growth from its poker arm since Q3 2012.

Revenues from the vertical during the three months ended 30 June 2015 increased 12% year-on-year to £1.9m which follows a decrease of 8%, 28% and 31% year-on-year in the last few quarters.

And speaking to eGaming Review this morning, Henrik Tjärnström said although he expects it to remain a small part of the overall business, he is confident poker will continue its positive momentum as other operators attempt to replicate its success.

“We’re very optimistic of the opportunities and even if it’s only 3% of the total like now, rather than the 20% it was before, if we can keep growing it’s an important complement for our total offering for the customer which helps us to keep customers to stay with you,” he said.

“We found it last week that Full Tilt are changing to where we are and we see that as a testament to what we’ve done, particularly for an operator which is largely focusing on poker-only,” Tjärnström added.

In 2013, the Stockholm-listed operator took the decision to leave Microgaming’s MPN network in favour of launching a new standalone poker product powered by Estonia-based supplier Relax Gaming.

The Unibet Poker product is targeted largely at the casual end of the player spectrum and includes 3D backgrounds, the ability to change avatar and screen name, achievements and missions, as well as disabling HUDs, scripts and all table selections.

Stan James strategy

Last month Unibet announced it had acquired the digital business of UK and Ireland-focused operator Stan James for £19m which Tjärnström told eGR this morning will see Stan James’ poker players migrate from the MPN to its own platform.

Unibet is hoping to complete the acquisition of Stan James Online in the second half of Q3 2015 with the £19m paid fully in cash and based on a multiple of approximately 6x the firm’s 2015 EBITDA.

And although its latest acquisition is expected provide revenue contributions by the end of this quarter, Tjärnström said a decision with regards to the long-term viability of the Stan James brand and platform had yet to be finalised.

“In our due diligence process we’ve got a base case but we don’t want to go in with a biased view, although we’re really confident it will be a win-win for everyone,” Tjärnström said.

“When we get to completion we will really be able to start working on the longer-term plan, particularly with regards to the UK market from a branding and product point of view.

“We see this as a revenue synergy case and if we can uplift their revenues per customer closer to where we are then it should be a really good opportunity for us as a group,” he added.

According to figures released at the time of the acquisition, Stan James’ online arm recorded £10.5m in gross winnings revenue for the five months ended 31 May 2015 and posted £1.4m in EBITDA during the same period.