Online gaming giant bwin.party reported its 2012 fiscal year financial results Friday, showing disappointing results virtually across the board. Overall revenue came in at €801.6 million, down 2 percent from the previous year. EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) fell to €164.9 million, down from €199.3 million in 2011, a 17 percent drop.
The company’s poker business, highlighted by Party Poker, was its worst performing division during the fiscal year. Poker gross revenue sunk 17 percent, from €263.8 million to €219.0 million. After bonuses and other “fair value adjustments,” net revenue came in at €173.8 million. Once cost of sales was factored in, poker’s gross profit was €154.6 million, an 18 percent decline from 2011’s €188.0 million.
Poker made up 22 percent of bwin.party’s revenue, compared to 26.1 percent last year. Casino revenue and sports betting revenue were close to even, comprising about one-third each (33.8 and 32.8 percent, respectively). Each of those was a slight increase from last year. Bingo’s percentage stayed relatively flat, growing from 7.9 percent to 8 percent, while “other revenue” went up from 1.8 percent to 3.4 percent.
For the first 10 weeks of 2013, poker’s gross daily revenue is €482,000, 13 percent less than the fourth quarter of 2012.
The company cited several things as negatively affected its fiscal year, including the continuing integration effort of its multiple platforms, entry into new regulated markets, and the increasing complexity of the business.
Bwin.party also discussed its preparations for re-entry into the United States market, saying it is a priority for the upcoming year. There was really not much new information there that has not already been in the news; the company plans to take advantage of its partnerships with U.S. companies to get into the game as states regulate online gaming. On a side note, if someone didn’t know bwin.party was not a U.S. company, they could certainly figure it out from looking at the company’s PowerPoint presentation. One slide showed a U.S. map which highlighted states in which bwin.party’s partners are licensed. Two states – Iowa and Indiana – were labeled as “IA” (Iowa), Wisconsin was labeled “MI” (Michigan), and just to nit-pick, Kansas had the label “KA” when the appropriate one is “KS.”
Party Poker has been in a heated battle with rivals Full Tilt Poker and the iPoker Network recently, fighting for supremacy in the online poker world, or at least supremacy way behind PokerStars. Since Full Tilt’s revival in November, it looked like it would be entrenched in the number two spot when it comes to cash game traffic. According to PokerScout.com, though, Full Tilt has now fallen to the fourth spot with Party taking over number two and iPoker right behind.
