Mobile drives PMU online revenue rise
Former French monopoly continues to see strong sports betting and poker performance
French operator Pari Mutuel Urbain (PMU) recorded a 4.8% rise in online gaming revenues (GGR) to 144m in the first half of 2013, with mobile and tablet accounting for 15% of horseracing wagers and 25% of sports wagers.
The operator continues to see strong growth in its fixed-odds sports betting business with its market share rising from 23.5% to 25.6% and the site the second largest in the French market.
PMU’s market share in the French poker market rose from 7.3% to 7.9%, while turnover from the bwin.party powered poker site was up 10.6% year-on-year to 278m for the six months ended 30 June.
The news comes despite the French online poker market seeing gross gaming revenue fall by more than 12% year-on-year for the first half of 2013, according to figures released by regulatory body l’Autorité de regulation des jeux en ligne (ARJEL).
Turnover from the poker vertical in the French market was also down 14% year-on-year to 2.7bn and the number of active players was down 7% to 906,000.
The H1 figures come after PMU recorded strong revenue growth in 2012 with a 16.2% year-on-year rise in online gross gaming revenues.