New 888 CEO thrilled with turnaround

New 888 Holdings chief executive Brian Mattingley has described the last year as “challenging, stimulating and bloody hard work”, but that steering the group to record revenues, culminating in generating US$1m a day in turnover, has been “great fun”.

Officially announced as the company’s new CEO this morning, Mattingley said the first half of the year had been a “serious challenge” but that the hard work paid off during the second period posting three consecutive record quarters, the group’s second-highest half-year revenues in August followed by a 42% year-on-year rise in Q3 revenues and 28% growth in the final quarter of the year. This resulted in Mattingley today announcing a 26% rise in the group’s revenues for the year, up from US$262.1m to $331m, with EBITDA rising from $28.6m to $55.6m for the year.

“The first half of the year was challenging, stimulating and bloody hard work but I have the luxury of working with Aviad Kobrine, who is our long standing and well-respected CFO, and also bringing into the team Itai Freiburger [new COO] who is probably the most talented individual in the industry. The three of us work very well together and the chemistry is fantastic,” he told eGaming Review this morning.

Since stepping in as interim CEO to replace Gigi Levy, who left the company almost a year ago today, Mattingley has overseen a turnaround in the group’s fortunes with the turning point, he said, being the way the group refocused its efforts on its core recreational poker and casino products.

“The way Poker 6 responded to the strategy, the way we implemented policies which made poker and casino more of an entertainment feel than pure, hard gaming has been central to our success.

“It’s our products. As they’ve evolved and as our marketing team began to drive our products through to our core B2C customers, that was the real turning point, and you could see the results coming through.

“August was a great month and we just missed our record turnover. October was the first time ever we surpassed the revenue streams we had as a company, even including when we were in America, while in December we hit $1m a day in turnover. There are things like that when you just sit there and you say ‘it is working’,” he added.

In today’s results Mattingley outlined 888’s ongoing strategy as continuing to concentrate on its core products groups; continuing to focus on its B2C customers; appraised its Dragonfish B2B contracts and where they were suboptimal, renegotiated or terminated them; continue to develop a pipeline of new B2B opportunities which will be fewer but have a “greater positive impact on our revenues and profit”; work to improve margins by maximising operational efficiencies and driving volume and, where necessary, cutting costs; and concentrate on locally regulated markets.

In October last year 888 launched its casino product in Italy with minimal investment, a move Mattingley said he was “very pleased with”.

“We have not gone out and spent a vast fortune in Italy. The B2B market has grown, we have five local partners who understand the culture and our B2C site has gained a 5% market share. I’m very pleased with that because we haven’t spent a lot of money. There are some of our competitors that have significantly higher market share but they have spent considerably more,” he said.

The operator has also applied for a Spanish licence, however after having met the Chief Minister in charge of gaming last Thursday, he was told that the regulator there would not issue licences until at least the summer.

Meanwhile on the US, he added that the company was “still in advanced discussions” with a US firm over a “nationwide” B2C deal and that the delay in announcing further details is due to not wanting to rush into such an important agreement.

“I for one am not keen to rush into contracts or any deal of this nature where you are putting your technology and brand into the melting pot, and where someone else is putting a bigger brand in. It takes a lot to get good, clean, robust contracts.

“We are on track to bring this to market but until such a time was when we have thrashed out all the issues and we have signed the deal I’m in no hurry. We have got more people chasing us in the States, it’s becoming embarrassing. This one is important for us and I’m very, very sure we’ll do the deal. But if it doesn’t work, there’s other people out there,” he added.