Bwin.party Suffers a Downswing in 2014

Bwin.party Suffers a Downswing in 2014

Thursday, 12 March 2015

Bwin.party, the parent company of partypoker and a string of additional platforms, has posted a pre-tax profit loss of €97.9 million for 2014.

Despite last year being the a World Cup year, bwin.party's sportsbook couldn't prevent it from taking a 6% drop in total net revenue (from €652.4 million in 2013 down to €611,9 million in 2014) and that left the company with an overall deficit.

The results, which were posted on the London Stock Exchange, certainly won't give the company's investors a lot to smile about, but bwin.party's CEO, Norbert Teufelberger, believes the company has done a lot of good in 2014.

Commenting on the results, Teufelberger said that improvements in the company’s mobile footprint and reach in regulated markets has certainly improved. However, he suggested that regulatory problems with regards to poker in Europe, coupled with issues in Greece, contributed to the reported loss.

"We have made solid progress this year in growing our share of revenues from nationally regulated and/or taxed markets, increasing our mobile footprint and reducing our cost base. However, the full year impact of ISP blocking in Greece coupled with the structural decline of regulated poker markets in Continental Europe affected our overall financial performance for the year."

A closer look at the numbers reveals that sportsbook revenue was boosted by 1% in 2014 (thanks in part to the World Cup), but poker wasn't as strong. Although bingo and casino games also performed poorly, it was a 29% drop by bwin.party's poker platforms that hurt the overall bottom-line.

Although revenues appear to be declining, the company's stock market value appears to be active amid talks of a takeover. Although a potential buyer has not yet been revealed, the talk of a possible sale has caused share price to rollercoaster over the past week.



Tags: bwin.party, financial results