PartyGaming Posts Net Loss Of $26.5 Million In 2009

Online gambling giant PartyGaming PLC has released its financial report for the year ending December 31st, 2009 showing a drop in the company’s profits from $66.9 million in 2008 to a $26.5 million net loss in 2009.
While the Gibraltar-based company’s revenue decreased only slightly by 5.7% from $472.9 million in 2008 to $446.2 million in 2009, it was the 28.3% fall in its online poker operation that caused most concern. PartyPoker saw its net revenues drop from $274 million in 2008 to $196.7 million in 2009, but fortunately its losses were offset by an improvement in performance by the company’s other online gaming operations.
PartyCasino saw its net revenue increase 12.1% from $175 million in 2008 to $196.2 million in 2009, while PartyBingo was up an incredible 555% to $32.8 million and the PartyGaming sports book improved 5% over the previous year to reach $19 million.
PartyGaming has accounted for their $26.5 million net loss throughout the year by drawing attention to the fact that in April 2009 the company agreed to pay $105 million over 3½ years to the U.S. Department of Justice in their UIGEA legal dispute. Despite withdrawing from the US market, the deal means the company would be well placed to take advantage of any future changes to US online gambling regulations, with PartyGaming CEO Jim Ryan commenting:
“We believe that at some point the U.S. will regulate online gaming and we want to be ready to take that opportunity. We have a number of organizations who are willing to do business with us. It is our ticket back.”
Also, PartyGaming spent £95.9 million acquiring the popular online bingo and casino site Cashcade and $12.3 million purchasing the World Poker Tour, both of which are expected to have a significant effect on the company’s long-term prospects.
Following the release of PartyGaming’s 2009 financial results, Jim Ryan said: “We delivered a solid performance during 2009, which demonstrated the resilience of our business model that continues to generate strong cash flow, even in the most challenging of circumstances. With some acquisitions and major B2B deals already under our belt, we plan to do more in 2010 and I believe we are on course to meet our objective of becoming the world’s most valuable online gaming company.”