888 Optimistic On 2nd Quarter Trading Results

888 Holding plc has posted a $60.9 million total operating income for its 2nd quarter, which represents a drop of 12% on the 2008 figure, but an increase of 7% on its first quarter results.
The CEO of 888, Gigi Levy, (pictured right) remained upbeat and said: “We are extremely pleased to report very good sequential quarter on quarter progress in Q2 2009 both in our B2C and B2B lines of business. Trading was stronger in Casino and Emerging Offering with Poker remaining softer, in line with wider industry trends.”
The company results give an insight into how the market is fairing in the different gaming areas with its Casino business showing a 20% fall from last year but with the Poker business falling by almost twice that at 36%. The bigger drop in the poker market could be due in part to poker players being able to cut back on their outlay more easily than say casino players, as well as being able to save extra costs by entering satellites and free roll tournaments.  
888’s Emerging Offering segment was 88% up on last year at $7 million and its business-to-business division was also up 28% on 2008 at $12 million operating income. These results were received favourably by the market with 888 shares rising this morning by 2 per cent to 84.5p.
Gigi Levy said of these overall figures:“We are particularly encouraged with increased active customer levels in both B2C Casino and Poker. We enter the seasonally quieter summer period with delivery of our strategy on track and we remain committed to investing in the business in spite of the macro-economic environment.  We are confident of delivering further growth during 2009 based on additional planned B2C activities and a set of newly launched B2B partnerships which we expect to start generating revenues in the coming months.”