888 in "advanced talks" over US B2C deal
Expects to make announcement during full-year results at the end of March acting CEO Brian Mattingley tells eGR.
888 is in “advanced negotiations” with a US firm over a “nationwide” B2C deal and expects to make an announcement during its full-year results presentation next month, its acting CEO has told eGaming Review.
Brian Mattingley (pictured), who has led the business to three consecutive record-breaking quarters since the departure of former chief executive Gigi Levy in April last year, told eGR that following last week’s extension of its current B2B partnership with Caesars Interactive to supply poker software, the re-invigorated business “sees a huge opportunity” for a B2C deal.
“We are already in pole position in the US as we are the only supplier to have gained suitability approval from Nevada regulators, plus we also have a terrestrial partner in Caesars, that’s two out of the three requirements,” he said.
“We have filled in all the forms and are now awaiting Nevada regulators to carry out the necessary testing and investigations and expect to hear back on an interactive gaming licence as and when they get back to us.”
“We see a huge opportunity for a B2C deal in the US and are advanced negotiations with a potential partner. This would be a nationwide deal. We expect to announce something during our full-year results at the end of March,” he said.
Mattingley added that Nevada would become the blueprint for other US states “as and when they regulate” and that 888 and B2B subsidiary Dragonfish would be in prime position to exploit the market opening.
On 31 January Dragonfish extended its deal with Caesars to supply poker software for the US market ahead of potential regulation. The original agreement only covered the UK, but has been extended to the US to allow Caesars to launch real-money poker products as soon as intrastate or federal regulation is passed. The deal is non-exclusive, meaning that Dragonfish will be able to sign licensing agreements with other US customers ahead of the market opening.
Earlier today 888 revealed another set of stellar results seeing a 28% year-on-year increase in fourth-quarter revenues and a 26% rise in income for the full year driven by a strong performance in poker and casino. Three record-breaking quarters have helped 888 post overall revenues of $331m for the year, up from $262m in 2010.
Mattingley put the operator’s recent success down to a combination of renewed focus on its core products including poker and casino with the former seeing a 58% year-on-year increase in revenues (up to $61m).
“We have transformed our poker network since the introduction of Poker 6. We have managed it brilliantly, made it more recreational than the aggressive networks out there where sharks are tolerated and we want players to come in and enjoy the game. They maybe smaller initial stakes but players stay longer with 888 and play longer sessions with us.”
He added that the proprietary marketing software 888 has developed over time has now been perfected and led to “a considerable improvement on results prior to this strategy being put in place this time last year”.
“The software suite is purposely directed to targeting players. Overe the years we have invested considerable sums in this but it is beginning to pay dividends seeing us move from 13th in the poker site rankings to fourth today,” he said.
“The sophistication of our marketing suite means that we understand what players want and can target individual players with the promotions they want and react to.
“As more markets open up this will only increase as we’re finding players prefer to play recreational poker. The majority of our investment will continue to be in our marketing and ensuring that our platforms remain fresh,” he added.
The interim CEO added that despite writing off its social gaming business Mytopia late last year it was still closely monitoring the space, but explained that despite it not currently being a “high priority” social would be a “very strong” marketing tool in the future. “We continue to evaluate our marketing techniques on Facebook,” he added explaining that he considers this to be a method of recruiting players that is “still in its infancy”.