Amaya to ramp up PokerStars marketing spend
CEO David Baazov eyes a "window of opportunity" as recent taxation changes in Europe sees some operators scale back spend
Amaya Gaming CEO David Baazov (pictured) has fired a warning shot to competitors after revealing plans to significantly increase marketing spend for its PokerStars and Full Tilt brands as it looks to double the size of the poker sector.
Speaking to investors after Amaya revealed 2014 revenues of CA$688m (£370m) yesterday, Baazov said the Toronto-based firm sees a “window of opportunity” as other operators look to scale back marketing spend following the introduction of PoC in the UK and VAT changes in Europe.
The chief exec said that PokerStars and Full Tilt would launch “innovative marketing campaigns” including the use of endorsements from global celebrities and “compelling consumer promotions” aimed at improving the popularity of poker in the coming months.
“The business is opportunistically looking to leverage its scale, reputation, and expertise to grow its business, including through targeted marketing efforts designed to grow its market share in jurisdictions that have recently established gaming duties and taxes and where we expect competitors to scale back marketing efforts,” Baazov said.
Sportsbook potential
Amaya will be focusing on a number of verticals for growth with the firm having launched its sportsbook product in a select number of markets yesterday, and Baazov said that sports betting would “eclipse casino over time” to become its second largest product offering.
“Sports betting is a very large addressable market for the business and is a product that much of the current player base have been asking PokerStars to provide for some time,” Baazov said.
“The business believes there is a strong crossover potential between the verticals, and PokerStars wants to grow the poker economy by attracting players from elsewhere who are currently making sports bets with other providers,” he added.
But Amaya said poker would continue to be Stars’ core offering, and planned to “double the size of the poker sector” in the next five years.
“We are a poker-first business and will build upon and leverage the popularity of our poker brands and our operational excellence to deliver future growth,” Baazov said.
New Jersey launch nears
Baazov also told investors he expected PokerStars and Full Tilt to be licensed in New Jersey by the third quarter, and also revealed plans to launch a daily fantasy sports product in the US before the start of the NFL season in September.
“We clearly see a strong demand for it [DFS] and specifically the US players that were formally PokerStars players who would like to see us launch fantasy sports,” Baazov said. “The goal is to be up before the NFL season starts,” he added.
The chief executive remained coy about whether Amaya would acquire, white-label, or build its own DFS platform, but said given the size of its player-base it would be tough to acquire an operator that could handle the potential volume of players.
“Given the size of our database, you couldn’t actually acquire somebody and leverage their entire platform because nobody’s software that we have seen can currently support the volume that we would have if we launched fantasy sports,” he added.