Playtech Second Quarter Results Show Positive Growth

Playtech is a leading software development company to the online gaming industry, and also operates the iPoker Network which is a series of poker rooms sharing the same software, but maintaining their own individual brands.
Playtech Ltd’s 2nd Quarter 2009 results have shown Gross Income increase to €33.1 million, which is 23.3% higher than its 2nd quarter results for 2008. The figure was also only marginally lower than its 1st quarter results of  €33.8 million.
Overall, Playtech’s Gross Income for the first half of 2009 at €66.9 million, shows an improvement of 29.8% over the 2008 same period figure of €51.6 million. The company made the following comment on the results: “The Board is confident the Company will deliver strong growth for the full year to December 2009 compared to 2008. However, owing to the slower than anticipated start to WHO (William Hill Online) and the general challenging economic environment impacting some of our licensees, the Board believes that full year trading will be below current market expectations.”
Playtech’s results reveal a change in its geographical revenue stream as 2nd quarter figures show Europe now accounting for 62% of its revenue down from 72% in 2008, while revenue derived from Asia Pacific was up to 32% from 21% during the 2nd quarter last year.
Italy continues to be a good source of growth for Playtech and the company announced: “The Italian poker network is exceeding management’s expectations and is now Italy’s third largest poker network by revenues generated by the network licensees, while further positive progress in regulations will bring new opportunities in Italy from this strong base.”
In the French market, Playtech has partnered up with Chili Poker which runs on the iPoker Network, “in anticipation of the introduction of new regulations liberalizing the French market for online gaming.”
Playtech have also managed to procure lucrative deals with new clients which include the Serbian State Lottery, Betfair and NetPlay TV which should help secure strong growth for the company going forward into the 3rd and 4th quarters.