Bwin chief promises French profit in 2011
Bwin expects to make a profit in France next year following successful poker and sports betting verticals there.
Bwin expects to make a profit in France in 2011 despite incurring heavy launch costs of around 5m to enter the market, the co-CEO of Bwin said following the company’s second quarter results.
Speaking yesterday following Bwin’s results that saw the Austrian egaming firm post 27% drop in quarterly operating profit in the second quarter of this year, co-chief executive of Bwin, Norbert Teufelberger said, “if patterns continue to do as they do right now”, he expects Bwin to make a profit in France next year.
Bwin, that is planning to merge with PartyGaming at the beginning of 2011, said its marketing costs for the quarter were up 30% and that EBITDA fell from 15.1m in Q2 2009 to 11m this year.
Teufelberger admitted that the company had “spent more on the initial marketing campaign in France than we expected” and that the total cost of being regulated in France was “quite substantial”¦ in the region of 5m”.
He added that poker was up in France, having seen single-digit growth, and that Bwin is “still absorbing some of the tax and passing some of it onto the consumer”. Sports betting in France was also successful in Q2 of this year. He added “the net margin we’re generating on [sports betting] in France is higher than what we’re generating on dot com.”