Exclusive: Bet365 claims Power 50 crown for third year running
Following extensive assessment process Stoke operator shows consistent signs of growth in every vertical, particularly in in-play and mobile betting.
Bet365 has topped eGaming Review’s annual Power 50 list of the industry’s most powerful operators for a record third time.
Following an extensive assessment process the Stoke operator was found to have continued where it left off last year showing consistent signs of growth in every vertical, particularly in in-play and mobile betting.
During the year the company offered bets on more than 50 sports and in excess of 120,000 different events in-play with in-play betting revenues during the first six months of 2012 generating £205m and growing 44.9% over the previous period, while during the financial year ending March 2012, in-play revenues topped £344.8m, by far the dominant contributor within its total sports betting income.
It also consistently beat its competitors in offering hundreds more events with Sportingbet and Paddy Power coming second in football and tennis respectively, while launching new features including Multi-View and Match Live, while also adding a further 50% more live streamed events to its sites as well as launching a bet365 app for both iPhone and iPad in the Apple App Store in the UK and a number of other countries.
The top four from this year’s Power 50 list is unchanged with bet365, William Hill Online and Paddy Power and bwin.party remaining firmly establishing themselves in those positions, however William Hill was found to have caught up with bet365 with the judges expecting the battle to hot up further should it acquire Playtech’s 29% stake in its joint venture and also acquire some of Sportingbet’s strongest territories.
There were however, three significant changes in this year’s top 10 with Jackpot Joy owner Gamesys rising a huge nine places to fifth after its turnover rose from £99m to £142m from the end of March 2011 to the same period this year, its ongoing approaches to new products, customer service and innovation as well as achieving what no other operator has done in launching real-money bingo and slots products on Facebook.
The second change in the top 10 was equally well deserved with 888 rising ten places to, rather ironically, eight from last year’s 18th position after a torrid time last two years. Seven successive quarters of revenue growth to the end of June has seen its share price more than treble from a low of around 30 pence to more than £1 in the last 12 months. Poker has also stood out within this revival, with the product flourishing in a vertical where few others have demonstrated any positive movement whatsoever.
Skybet broke into the top 10 for the first time in the list’s eight year history after enjoying phenomenal growth in 2011/12 and becoming one of the fastest growing companies in online gaming. Recording 20% or more growth for the last four years running, the UK focused operator saw its revenue increase by 43% in the 12 months to the end of June 2012 to £113m, active unique users double to more than one million and post a sizeable profit in 2012, up by more than 50% on the same period last year.
This year’s fastest riser was France’s poker specialist Winamax that rose from 2011’s 48th to 24th this year due largely to overtaking PokerStars as the number one site for poker liquidity in France following an expansive marketing effort.
New entries this year include the Asian Logic owned Dafabet that provided eGR with numbers for the first time, in at number 21; former Danish monopoly Danske Spil that has claimed 60% of the newly regulated online market there (number 23); mobile casino specialist mFortune (27) that has seen its net gaming revenue and active player numbers double year-on-year; Germany’s mybet (34), Betfred (42) that has begun to invest healthy sums in developing its online operation and Titan (48) that has claimed one of the few places on iPoker 1 following the poker network’s split in July.
There were, however a number of casualties with Ladbrokes, Paf, and Sportingbet all slipping out of the top 10. Ladbrokes slipped the furthest down from 10th to 15th following another poor online performance but with CEO Richard Glynn promising the delivery of new front and back end technology in 2013 which he and the board appear to believe will turn round its egaming fortunes.
The Power 50 list 2012 in full:
- bet365 (1)
- William Hill Online (2)
- Paddy Power (3)
- bwin.party Digital Entertainment (4)
- Gamesys (14)
- Betsson (5)
- Betfair (7)
- 888 (18)
- Skybet (12)
- PMU (8)
- Sportingbet (6)
- Hong Kong Jockey Club (16)
- Paf (9)
- SBOBet (11)
- Ladbrokes (10)
- Unibet (13)
- Lottomatica (17)
- Rank Interactive (23)
- Gala Coral Group (29)
- 12Bet (27)
- Dafabet (NEW ENTRY)
- Tabcorp (21)
- Danske Spil (NEW ENTRY)
- Winamax (48)
- Sisal (33)
- Snai (19)
- mFortune (NEW ENTRY)
- Betclic Everest Group (25)
- Sportech (20)
- Sporting Index (26)
- GVC Holdings (28)
- Svenska Spel (45)
- BetVictor (24)
- Mybet (NEW ENTRY)
- 32Red (30)
- Mr Green (32)
- PKR (22)
- Tombola (31)
- Genting Alderney (43)
- Boylesports (47)
- Gaming Media Group (34)
- Betfred (NEW ENTRY)
- Probability (44)
- Stan James (36)
- Webis Holdings (38)
- 188Bet (37)
- Intralot Interactive (42)
- Titan (NEW ENTRY)
- La Francaise des Jeux (FDJ) (35)
- Zynga (50)