Leading betting and gaming provider Bwin Interactive Entertainment AG has released its financial results for the first quarter of 2009 showing a 11.1 percent year-on-year rise in net gaming revenues to a record €102.1 million.
The Austrian firm reported that this figure represented a 1.1 percent increase on the final quarter of 2008’s €101 million while the first three months of this year saw gross gaming revenues reach €117.6 million, which was a 12.5 percent year-on-year upsurge.
Turnover from sportsbetting rose by 9.2 percent year-on-year to €762.7 million with a margin of 8.2 percent leading to a three percent increase year-on-year in gross revenues from sportsbetting to €62.4 million. Poker turnover rose 37 percent year-on-year to €31.1 million buoyed by the satisfactory development of the firm’s Italian poker business alongside the successful migration of the various poker labels to Bwin Poker and lucrative cross-selling.
Bwin stated that gross revenues from its casino and games business amounted to €18 million and €6.1 million, which was an increase year-on-year of 9.5 percent and 26.7 percent respectively. The growth of its games business was attributed largely to the expansion of its product portfolio along with the launch of its Italian skill games site at Bwin.it.
The first quarter of this year also saw the number of active customers rise 25.6 percent to 1.16 million while Bwin attracted 295,000 new players, a 16.1 percent increase year-on-year.
Costs per new active customer fell 17.2 percent compared to the first three months of 2008 to €123.40 while gross gaming revenues per active customer dropped 10.4 percent to €101.30 from €113.00.
All of this saw Bwin report a 72.9 percent increase year-on-year in earnings after tax of €18.9 million alongside a net cash position of €70.8 million, which is considerably higher than the €53.2 million it recorded for the first quarter of 2008.
Abstract from www.igamingbusiness.com
