Need to know: financials, Betfair, flotation and Florida

THIS week’s Need to Know is centred on the 2009 financial results of four major operators on either side of the Irish Sea.

Two of the four, UK bookmaking giants Ladbrokes and William Hill, both published results bearing the scars of the string of bad football results (for bookies) in the English Premier League and the UK cold snap that caused a wave of cancellations in their core racing markets in December, including two-day weekend events at both Ascot and Haydock Park.

William Hill fared better of the two rivals, with sluggish group net revenue growth overall masking stellar performance in its William Hill Online, which significantly outperformed the group as a whole prompting chief executive Ralph Topping to describe the online arm as an “almost unrecognisable” business from 2008.

Meanwhile Ladbrokes recorded 2009 pre-tax profit down more than 25%. “In the third quarter, our customers had a good and long-running winning streak,” said departing Ladbrokes chief executive Christopher Bell in a conference call, also blaming the UK economy.

Also hit by both the football and racing results was Paddy Power, whose pre-tax profit in 2009 was down 15% year-on-year despite an increase in turnover of more than a third.

PartyGaming recovered some ground at the tail-end of 2009, achieving $132.2m in gaming revenues in the final quarter, but could not entirely assuage overall net losses of $26.5m against a $66.1m profit in 2008.

The company saw a 44% fall in earnings before interest tax depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) in poker, but a 12% rise in casino EBITDA, leading PartyGaming chief executive Jim Ryan to announce a new marketing plan for casino to help continue the growth in that vertical.

ALSO unveiling financial results this week was Sportingbet, though these were second quarter, not year-end; while in other news Florida become the second US state to file an intrastate egaming bill, the UK’s Betfair ramped up its UK election betting offering and InterCasino gave players the chance to win a trip into space. (Seriously).

OUR bloggers, meanwhile, shared their thoughts on topics including a Betfair stock market flotation, a new federal US online gambling bill and on what operators need to do to get a French licence.

EGR readers discussed whether ‘the whole branded content thing is a red herring’, why ‘until Betfair can assure investors that betting duty levels will not change, a float would seem very risky‘ and whether Florida poker ‘is a long shot’ or the state ‘is surely going to wake up‘? Feel free to join them.

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