Playtech Revenues Up 18% to $379M in H1

Playtech has just released its latest results for the first half of 2016, revealing an impressive 18% rise in revenues to $379 million compared to H1 of last year. As a result, shareholders in the world’s biggest iGambling software firm are now expected to receive a huge $168 million dividend.
Contributing significantly to Playtech’s positive results was its online casino games, which generated $198 million in H1, higher by 19% from the same period of time in 2015. Furthermore, mobile gaming represented 80% of the company’s revenues increase, with the vertical now contributing around 29% of the Playtech’s overall gaming revenues.
Also reporting growth in H1 was Playtech’s sports betting vertical which saw its business rise around 11% to $20 million in H1 from the $18 million collected a year earlier.
Poker, on the other hand, bucked the positive trend with revenues droping by 16% to $5.6 million, from the $6.7 million generated a year earlier. At the end of August, Playtech, owner of the iPoker network, saw its cash game traffic fall to just 760 players over a 7-day period, placing it at number 10 in the global rankings, and representing its worst standing in years. While CEO Mor Weizer commented on the “challenging” state of the online poker market, he did strike a note of optimism going forward, stating:
“Playtech remains dedicated to the poker product, as it is an important vertical in the operators’ offering. During the period we deployed our new mobile native offering across a number of customers in our client base, and launched Win2day, an Austrian operator which is scheduled to share liquidity with the Finnish monopoly, RAY. Following the French Senate’s approval of liquidity sharing between EU and EEA countries we expect to see similar liquidity pools emerge in Poker.”
Playtech shares are currently trading at 905.50 (GBX), giving the company a market capitalization of £2.93 billion. While its share price is down from a 52 week peak of 944.50p, it is still significantly higher than the 699.00p it was worth back in February of this year.