Poker Revenue Down 17 Percent At bwin.partyFull Year 2012 Sees Continuing Decline Of bwin.party Poker Revenue |
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bwin.party has published its full year 2012 figures which see a continuing decline in pro forma gross poker revenue which fell 17 percent in 2012 to €219 million from €263.8 million a year earlier.
This is an even steeper rate of poker revenue decline than the 10 percent seen in 2011.
Overall gross profit in 2012 was down 18 percent to €154.6 million compared to €188 million in 2011.
2013 has started in with a largely similar drop in gross average daily revenue which is down 13 percent in the 10 weeks to March 11, 2013 to €482,000 from €552,000 in the same period last year.
Most other key performance indicators (KPIs) also fell including active player days (down 23 percent), daily average players (dropping 23 percent) and new player sign ups (a fall of 46 percent). Only the yield per active poker player day was up seeing seven percent increase.
Party Poker got a boost in in December 2012 with the migration of bwin poker players to the site.
In its full year results report the company said, “The trend in poker revenue and player activity continued into the second half of 2012 reflecting challenging market conditions in several markets including Italy as well as the short-term impact of certain management actions. As expected, the dotcom poker market continued to decline in 2012 driven by the ring-fencing of certain newly regulated markets and the impact of associated gaming taxes.
“In Spain, despite having secured a top three position in the market, the overall market size has turned out to be smaller than previously thought, perhaps a function of the particularly challenging economic conditions in Spain.
“While the decision to improve our poker ecology with a greater focus on the more casual customer impacted overall player activity, it also benefited player yields that increased to €9.5. Having terminated our relationship with a number of major poker affiliates during the year, total new player sign-ups were down 16%, despite the positive effect of a major marketing campaign around Euro 2012 that increased new sign-ups in sports betting.
“The decision to renegotiate a number of our major affiliate deals (see below) coupled with the removal of high stakes tables prompted a 46% reduction in new player sign-ups and a 23% reduction in active player days and daily average players. Having become clear that large numbers of historic sign-ups were failing to generate positive ROI, we have re-based our poker business which is focused on player value and a much improved poker ecology. While this is reflected in the 7% uplift in player yields, the net effect was a 17% decline in average net daily revenue, a trend we are determined to reverse.
“In our half year results in August 2012 we set out a four point plan to revitalise our poker business. The plan is on-track and we have already improved our poker ecology through a number of discrete actions including: the removal of high-stakes tables above $5/$10 thereby reducing the likelihood that lower stakes (but net depositing) less experienced players might lose to higher stakes, more experienced players; at the same time this step improved our poker liquidity at lower stake levels and we also removed high stakes heads-up tables for the same reason.
“Other steps included the removal of badbeat jackpot tables that tended to appeal to more experienced players and we also renegotiated a number of key affiliate agreements that prompted a number of higher stakes players to leave our sites, improving the balance of casual and experienced players and improving the ecology.”
The company, which last year signed a deal with Zynga Poker to host its forthcoming real money poker product also said it planned to revitalize the Party Poker brand “centred around the recreational player.”
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