Betfair Releases Third Quarter 2013 Fiscal Results

Internet betting group Betfair plc has released its third quarter 2013 financial report, noting mixed results in its report.

Key financial indicators for the period ending January 31st, 2013 were:

• Exchange NGR declined 6% to £56.3 million (Q3-2012: £59.7 million)

• Sports betting operations performed well - up 39% to £7.5 million (Q3-2012: £5.4 million)

• Gaming declined 8% to £18 million (Q3-2012: £19.6 million)

• Mobile revenues doubled in the quarter, accounting for over 50% of player activations in February.

• Core Betfair NGR was down 3% to £81.8 million (Q3-2012: £84.7 million)

Commenting on his company's performance, Betfair CEO Breon Corcoran said: "UK revenue was up 6% driven by the continued strength of mobile betting as well as favourable sporting outcomes. In line with our previous guidance, international revenues declined as a result of regulatory change and our focus on sustainable jurisdictions."

"Mobile revenues doubled in the quarter and the channel accounted for over 50% of activations last month."

"We are focused on delivering the plan we set out in December. The new leadership team is in place and has started to implement the changes required to make Betfair a more focused and leaner organisation.”

"Revenue from the Exchange was affected by the continuing impact of previous regulatory developments in Greece, Germany, Cyprus and Spain, and was down 6% to £56.3 million."

"In the UK, football revenue growth was strong, helped by more fixtures falling in the period. This was offset by the large number of racing cancellations (69 compared with 8 in the prior year) following the poor weather conditions."

Speaking about the mobile betting market Corcoran said: "Over 50% of our customers in the UK and Ireland placed a mobile bet in the period and the channel accounted for approximately 20% of exchange commissions. Our mobile products have been enhanced through the introduction of integrated content and a notification service that keeps customers updated when goals are scored in their selected matches.”

Sportsbook revenue jumped by 39% to £7.5 million, which caused the CEO to comment: "The launch of our Sportsbook will provide a simpler product experience, which should enable us to address a greater proportion of the recreational segment of the online market while offering our existing Exchange customers more betting opportunities," he said. "A limited number of customers are currently trialling the new Sportsbook website before it is rolled out on a wider basis."

"During the period, we also launched our new sportsbook-specific iPhone app to complement the existing exchange app. Take up has been encouraging and mobile accounted for over 40% of sportsbook revenue in January."

Speaking about gaming operations Corcoran said: "In January, we launched the iPoker network on our ‘.com’ site, which includes our UK business. We will initially offer both the iPoker and Ongame networks before migrating all customers to iPoker from July."

Related casinos