Bwin.Party Delivers Mixed 2012 Financials

Internet wagering giant Bwin.Party has released its full year 2012 financials, noting mixed results due to the impact of increased taxes and fewer poker players.

Key financial indicators for the period ending December 31st, 2012 were:

• Sports betting €262.8 million (2011: €193.9 million)

• Casino and Games €268.8 million (2011: €237.5 million)

• Poker €173.86 million (2011: €184.6 million)

• Bingo €63.5 million (2011: €58.5 million)

• Other revenue €32.7 million (2011:€16.6 million)

• Total €801.6 million (2011: €691.1 million)

• Actual EBITDA was down at €143.6 million (2011: €155.2 million)

• Overall gross profit in 2012 was down 18% to €154.6 million compared to €188 million in 2011.

• Actual loss after tax came in at €64.7 million, which is an improvement on the 2011 number of €431 million

Commenting on his company's performance, Bwin CEO Norbert Teufelberger said:

“Our strategy is unchanged, but we are not relying on innovation alone to return our business to growth. We are accelerating the pace of change by shifting our revenue mix towards nationally regulated and to-be-regulated markets. This includes gearing up for a launch in the US , which now seems to be a more likely prospect within the next twelve months following recent events at state level."

“At the same time we are changing our approach to dotcom markets with increased focus on fewer but more valuable customers. We are simplifying our business, moving from ‘volume’ to ‘value’, which we believe will allow us to further increase our operational efficiency. We expect this approach to generate significant additional cashflow to offset increased investment and taxes as additional markets regulate and also to fund growth in new business areas such as payments and social gaming."

“Our current trading in January and February was impacted by some user experience issues following the dotcom migration in December 2012, the impact of which was slightly higher than expected. It was also impacted by decisions taken in January 2013 to increase our focus on nationally regulated markets and on high value customers. The result was that gross average daily revenue was down 7% versus the fourth quarter of 2012 to €2.4 million (Q4-2012: €2.6 million). However, Clean EBITDA margins for the same period are running higher than expected which has fully mitigated the revenue shortfall."

“The migration problems have now stabilised and while the user experience issues coupled with the actions taken to-date mean that 2013 total revenue is expected to be lower than current market estimates, associated cost savings mean that the Board remains confident about the full year result."

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