GVC Holdings Posts Impressive Gains in H1

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Sunday, October 15th, 2017 | Written by Lucy Brown

Last month, GVC Holdings released its results for the first six months of this year, during which time its gaming revenue hit €486 million, marking a 10 percent increase compared to the same period of time in 2016. The share price of the UK online gambling operator subsequently reached an historic high, while its investors celebrated the exceptional H1 performance of the company.

Furthermore, the positive trend has continued into the third quarter, leading GVC Holdings’ board to forecast the company’s entire earnings for 2017 to be in excess of initial figures predicted by analysts, and commenting upon the hugely positive trend, CEO of GVC Holdings Kenneth Alexander, stated:

“I am delighted with the strong progress across the group, which has continued to exceed our expectations since last year’s acquisition of bwin.party. A combination of high-quality talent, proprietary technology, and proven brands are key components driving the business forward.”

Exceeding Expectations

In addition, Alexander said that the ease in which GVC Holdings has integrated the Bwin.party brand into its operation following its acquisition leaves GVC able to play a “pivotal role” in the consolidation of the industry, if the right sorts of opportunities present themselves.

One of these opportunities was apparently missed by GVC Holdings in August, however, with some media reports indicating that the firm made a failed bid to acquire one of their rivals, Ladbrokes Coral. That said, Alexander is now saying that GVC Holdings won’t be doing any more deals until the government in the UK releases its review of fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBT) in the country before the end of the year.

Government Review

According to speculation, the review will likely lead to the maximum stakes of FOBTs located inside bookies being dramatically reduced, with the worst-case scenario of a drop from £100 per spin to a mere £2 costing the UK retail bookmaker market around £150 million. Until then, GVC CEO Alexander said that he intends to take no risks at all when it comes to acquiring any gambling company currently operating within an uncertain market.

H1 Results

The GVC’s B2B division, whose main clients include MGM Resorts in New Jersey, Danske Spil in Denmark, and PMU in France, saw its revenue increase by around 20 percent to €7.7 million in H1.

Meanwhile, GVC Holdings B2C division also performed exceedingly well. Its sports betting brands, for instance, which include Bwin and Sportingbet, saw their revenues increase by 6 percent to €172.7 million, while sports gaming revenue also rose by 16 percent to €182.4 million.

In terms of game brands, such as PartyPoker, PartyCasino, CasinoClub, Gioco Digitale and Foxy Bingo, they posted a combined revenue increase of 9 percent to €110.5 million, while their sports betting revenues went in the opposite direction, falling by almost 20 percent to €1.9 million. Prior to GVC acquiring Bwin.party, these segments had been the latter’s “most challenged segment”, with GVC expressing its satisfaction in having returned these operations to overall growth following years of decline.

Singled out for particular praise was PartyPoker, whose revenue soared by 32 percent during the first half of the year, with Q3 also reporting a “further acceleration” in its revenues. Accounting for much of the turnaround, according to GVC, has been “product development, increased marketing, localized market focus and improved player experience”.

PartyPoker

During H1, partypoker reported a significant increase in its first-time deposits, which grew by 35 percent versus H1 of the previous year. Also noting impressive increases was first deposit amounts, and total net gaming, with the latter reporting a 32 percent gain compared to H1 of 2016.

Some of the ways in which partypoker has been able to achieve such success includes increasing the number of its sponsorship deals offered to talented pros, with recent additions including Fedor Holz, Patrick Leonard and Kristen Bicknell.

The high-stakes tournament scene on the site has also seen a boom in activity of late, as has its cash games, with its weekly PLO game regularly attracting such pros as Sam Trickett, Leon Tsoukernik, Tony G, Matt Kirk, and Viktor Blom.

Further improvements to its software, and loyalty program have also helped draw more customers to partypoker, leading some industry analysts to predict the site soon overtaking 888poker as Europe’s second largest online poker provider.