Gambling Industry Financial News — Weekly Round-up for October 13, 2017

By Brian Cullingworth, Last updated Oct 13, 2017

G.V.C. Releases Trading Update

Positive KPIs in latest company report

The multinational sports betting and gaming group, GVC Holdings plc has released a trading update on its Q3-2017 key performance indicators, reporting the following highlights:

* Group daily NGR up 10 percent (+13 percent constant currency) year-on-year at Euro 2,647,000;

* Underlying daily NGR up 18 percent (+21 percent constant currency); includes stripping out Euro 2016 and Kalixa;

* Sports Brands daily NGR up 11 percent (+14 percent constant currency) at Euro 1,967,000; win margin for the period was 11.2 percent;

* Games Brands daily NGR up 15 percent (+17 percent in constant currency) at Euro 612,000; Partypoker NGR grew 48 percent year on year, continuing to benefit from product improvement and increased marketing investment. Casino brands NGR also grew in Q3, whilst bingo returned to underlying growth during the period. The decline in B2B and non-core reflects the disposal of Kalixa in May 2017;

* The Group has also enjoyed a strong start to Q4.

Chief executive officer Kenneth Alexander reported:

“Underlying growth in Q3 represents the highest rate achieved since the acquisition of bwin.party in February 2016.

“The quick wins made in 2016 have been supplemented by further and continuous improvements across all areas of the business. GVC operates in an industry with significant opportunities and challenges. The combination of our talented employees, proven technology and strong brands, gives me confidence that we can continue to drive shareholder value.”

Nektan Issues Trading Update

Strong growth continues at Gibraltar-based online gambling provider

International B2B mobile gaming solutions and services provider Nektan plc has released an update on trading for the three months ended 30 September 2017 (Q1 FY18), reporting:

Managed Gaming Solutions (Europe)

* Continued strong growth compared to Q1 FY17, with NGR in the quarter increasing by 88.4 percent at GBP 3.9 million;

* Cash wagering up 125.3 percent y-o-y at GBP 126.7 million;

* First time depositors up 186 percent at 40,148;

* A significant increase in deposits, with the company attracting a higher quality of player;

* Nektan launched 5 new sites and 1 new partner in Q1 FY18 and is currently running a total of 83 brands with plans to launch 10 new sites with 4 new partners during the current quarter to 31 December 2017;

* In Q1 FY18, Nektan launched 42 new games with 4 games vendors taking the group’s total mobile games portfolio to over 350;

* Continued penetration into the Swedish market, with plans to launch a new localised casino proposition during Q2 FY18.

B2B activity:

* Nektan expects to announce its first platform deal in relation to its B2B business in the next month. The core Nektan Evolve technology will be utilised to deliver a mobile casino games platform in up to 23 countries with the business partner responsible for B2B localised licensing. The solution is expected to be live before the end of the calendar year. The company says it views this development as very important and part of its strategy to diversify into newer geographic markets outside Europe.

On-Premise Gaming (North America):

* Interest in Rapid Games’ “On-Premises” mobile gaming solution continues to grow and the product is currently going through internal review and approval processes in several tier 1 tribal casinos;

* Respin continues to expand its Rapid Games product offering recent approvals for several new games in both its class II and class III portfolios as well as being one of the only operators to receive platform certifications for GLI 16, 26, 21 and 11 regulations allowing it to be one of the first companies to offer mobile casino in the US;

* The company has entered into multiple strategic content partnerships to further enhance its games portfolio and is in the process of adding multiple “smart table” solutions to its approved client library.

Gary Shaw, Interim CEO at Nektan, reported:

“Our core European business continued to progress in Q1 FY18 as expected. The proposed launch of new commercial partners during the current quarter will see that growth continuing. Our strategy to leverage our core technology asset Evolve into geographically diverse markets through platform licensing deals will see the business develop into one of the first gaming technology businesses with its platform live across three major continents.

“I am particularly pleased with the progress being made in the US where our investment positions Nektan as one of the first movers in mobile casino gaming.”

Shift In Dominance In Italian Online Sports Betting Market

PlanetWin365 pips bet365

Italy’s online sports betting market saw a shift in dominance during September 2017 with SKS365’s PlanetWin365 operation taking 14.9 percent of the market share and pole position away from long-time market leader bet365 (12.99 percent). Eurobet and SnaiTech came in at 9.85 and 9.44 percent respectively.

The sports betting market performed well as a whole in September delivering growth of 32.4 percent y-o-y to reach Euro 48.1 million (September 2016: Euro 36.6 million).

Other impressive performances over the month saw GoldBet triple its market share to 5.81 percent.

In terms of online casino, Lottomatica headed the chart with a 9.35 percent market share, followed by SISAL at 8.5 percent and PokerStars at 7.95 percent.

 

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