Online Casino Style: News - 888.com Cancels Interim Dividends

09/13/2010		Online Casino Style - News: 888.com Cancels Interim Dividends
Home History Games News Dictionary		Though many of the world’s most popular online gambling websites are coming in with positive reports for their half-year updates, one of the internet casino industry’s biggest names is reporting quite the opposite, admitting to their less-than-stellar performance. The numbers were apparently so bad that the online casino group had to cancel the payments of their interim dividends to stock-holders, with a number of contributing factors being blamed for the lack of profits. 888.com is known to provide a wide range of online gambling products which include both sports betting options in live venues and over the web, as well as internet casinos. The World Cup in South Africa should have provided an influx of income this year, but instead, the excitement associated with the football games actually acted as a distraction from the company’s other interests, such as poker. Additionally, the economic difficulties quoted by most of the online gambling industry as problems in the last two years apparently continue to plague 888’s bottom line. The pre-tax profits for the firm dropped dramatically compared with last year, plunging 44 percent to $8.4 million for the first six months of the year. Revenues managed to soar, hitting $130 million, a jump of 10.5 percent more than last year, but the marketing costs associated with 2010’s January through June also increased, by 19 percent, eventually resulting in a 39 percent loss for EBITDA. Poker was particularly down, generating only $19.6 million, while bingo held rather steady by bringing in $23.5 million. Online casino activity continues to increase, rising to $59.3 million from last year’s $55.9 million. But a poor first half of the year hasn’t entirely discouraged the chief executive officer, Gigi Levy, who was proud to report that already in the second half of the year, poker gaming has picked up by 15 percent, a trend that could continue into December. "We look at consolidation as one of the possible routes to realizing our full value and feel that longer term this is the direction the industry will take. We have always stated that we will look into all relevant deals and expect the recent merger news to accelerate such discussions in the industry," said Levy.

09/13/2010

Online Casino Style - News:
888.com Cancels Interim Dividends

Though many of the world’s most popular online gambling websites are coming in with positive reports for their half-year updates, one of the internet casino industry’s biggest names is reporting quite the opposite, admitting to their less-than-stellar performance. The numbers were apparently so bad that the online casino group had to cancel the payments of their interim dividends to stock-holders, with a number of contributing factors being blamed for the lack of profits.

888.com is known to provide a wide range of online gambling products which include both sports betting options in live venues and over the web, as well as internet casinos. The World Cup in South Africa should have provided an influx of income this year, but instead, the excitement associated with the football games actually acted as a distraction from the company’s other interests, such as poker. Additionally, the economic difficulties quoted by most of the online gambling industry as problems in the last two years apparently continue to plague 888’s bottom line.

The pre-tax profits for the firm dropped dramatically compared with last year, plunging 44 percent to $8.4 million for the first six months of the year. Revenues managed to soar, hitting $130 million, a jump of 10.5 percent more than last year, but the marketing costs associated with 2010’s January through June also increased, by 19 percent, eventually resulting in a 39 percent loss for EBITDA.

Poker was particularly down, generating only $19.6 million, while bingo held rather steady by bringing in $23.5 million. Online casino activity continues to increase, rising to $59.3 million from last year’s $55.9 million. But a poor first half of the year hasn’t entirely discouraged the chief executive officer, Gigi Levy, who was proud to report that already in the second half of the year, poker gaming has picked up by 15 percent, a trend that could continue into December.

"We look at consolidation as one of the possible routes to realizing our full value and feel that longer term this is the direction the industry will take. We have always stated that we will look into all relevant deals and expect the recent merger news to accelerate such discussions in the industry," said Levy.