888 Holdings Q3 Results Down 10% On Same Period Last Year

Gambling websites operator 888 Holdings plc has released its 2009 third quarter results, which shows total operating income at $61 million, unchanged from Q2 but 10% lower than the equivalent 2008 third quarter period.
Business to business operating income for Q3 was 15% higher than Q3 2008 at $13 million and was 2% higher than Q2. Conversely, Business to consumer operating income had fallen by 15% to $48 million but was practically level compared to the Q2 results, mostly due to good casino results.
Between September 2008 and 2009, 888 Holdings plc has seen its registered customer accounts increase by 30% to its current level of 6.8 million and the company is now in the enviable position of being debt free with cash and cash equivalents of around $105m with $35 million of that figure representing liabilities to customers.
Management said Q4 has started well with the daily average revenue and new customer recruitment up 8% in the first five weeks compared to the Q3 average and is now confident of hitting its full year targets.
Commenting on the figures, Gigi Levy, the Chief Executive Officer of the Company said: “We are pleased with the results achieved during the third quarter. Our B2C business showed resilience during the historical seasonally weak summer period and Dragonfish has continued its impressive growth. With Harrah’s set to launch in coming days and a strong pipeline, we remain confident of reaching our targets.”
“We are particularly pleased with the 99% growth achieved in our B2C emerging segment during the first three quarters of the year. Whilst Poker remains challenging the B2C business showed resilience during the third quarter.
“The fourth quarter has started well and given that our various business initiatives are progressing as planned we expect to grow the business further during the year.”
Following the results, shares in 888 Holdings Public Limited Company fell slightly by 1.6% to 96.40 pence.