Bwin.Party Suffers H1 Poker Losses, Outlines Shake-up Plan

Online gambling company Bwin.party has released its H1 interim results ending 31st June, revealing a 7% fall in revenue to €317.1 million from the €342.5 million generated in H1 2013. While the company’s sports betting division reported a 7% rise in revenues to €127.4 million, all other verticals declined with online casino down by 8% to €103.3 million in H1, and Bwin.party’s internet poker down a massive 31% to €44.1 million ($57.9 million) from the €63.9 million ($83.9 million) taken in the same period in 2013.
Impacting bwin.party’s iPoker revenues has been its withdrawal from unregulated grey markets such as Greece, as well as strict regulatory demands in many of the regulated markets where it does now operate. Furthermore, the company’s foray into the United State’s nascent iPoker industry has thus far failed to stem the decline and during H1 bwin.party incurred a further €7.3 million operating loss in New Jersey. Commenting on the situation, a company statement, said:
“Operations in New Jersey are attributed to a good deal of the losses in bwin’s financial statement, yet poker is the most under-performing aspect for the company. The number of active players and daily average players are down 11%. New player sign-ups are also down by 4%. bwin’s other operations, such as sports betting, bingo and casino games, took less of a hit.”
As a result of its overall disappointing H1 financial figures,  bwin.party Chief Executive Norbert Teufelberger has now announced a wide-ranging shake-up of its business designed to assist the online gambling giant’s recovery. The range of measures the company is now pursuing includes a restructuring of its senior management, and a streamlined product range and workforce designed to reduce costs by €15 million ($19.7 million) in 2015. In addition, Bwin.party is planning on selling off a further €40 million ($52.5 million) in company assets.
Following announcement of its H1 results, shares in the company are currently trading up slightly at 90.70p, giving the company a market capitalization of £744.87 million. That figure is an improvement on its 52 week low of 79.00p, but way off its 52 week peak of 135.50p