Poker Business News From Europe

Chilipoker Prepares Partnership for French Regulation

Chiligaming, owner of Chilipoker, has entered into a strategic partnership with leading French Internet service provider, Iliad with a view to entering the market when online gaming is regulated in France.
The company said in a statement that, “This opportunity will give us access to their 4.2 millions household and 12 million users when French regulation will allow it. It will be the first time in Europe that a big ISP is entering into online gaming and we are very proud that they have choosen us to promote our own ‘chili’ brands to their customers.”
In 2008, Chiligaming had net gaming revenue of over $8 million and employed 35 people. It aims to launch sportsbook (chilibet), bingo (chilibingo), and casino products (chilicasino) this year.

Mixed Fortunes for PartyPoker Business

PartyGaming Plc, the parent company of PartyPoker.com, has issued a trading update containing fourth quarter 2008 key performance indicators and figures for the first five weeks of 2009.

The update showed that in the five weeks to February 4, 2009 new player sign-ups at the site increased to an average of 1,494 per day, bringing the daily average to 51,000 active players per day.

This generated gross daily poker revenue of $756,700, a 4 percent decrease over the fourth quarter of 2008 when it was $785,300.

The company said of the fourth quarter key performance indicators for poker, that “Continued competitive pressures, particularly in poker, where sites that continue to take bets from U.S. customers are distorting the market, and a delay in the launch of the Group’s new loyalty scheme both affected player frequency.”

Overall for the year these factors meant a 14 percent decrease in active players year-on-year, though they were up 7 percent on the third quarter of 2007.

Gross revenue dropped 7 percent quarter-on-quarter. The company said, “The competitive pressures together with promotion costs associated with the relaunch of PartyPoker during the period meant that bonuses and other fair value adjustments to revenue increased to 27 percent of gross revenue overall, compared with 20 percent in the previous quarter and 21 percent in the fourth quarter of 2007. As a result, average yield per active player day was down 6 percent versus the prior year and down 21 percent versus the previous quarter.”

The Group, which comprises PartyPoker, PartyBets, PartyBingo, and PartyCasino, saw revenue rise 3 percent to $472.9 million in 2008, compared to $457.8 million in 2007.

Bwin Poker Revenue Up 14 Percent

Bwin, the publicly quoted Austro-German betting giant reported gross gaming revenues up 19 percent for the full year to end December 2008 to €420.9 million from €353.5 million in 2007.

Poker revenue for the year leapt 14.2 percent to €94.2 million in the same period from €82.5 million in 2007. Active poker customers for 2008 grew 33 percent to 678,409 from 509,416 a year earlier.

Fourth quarter poker revenue for 2008 was up 27.1 percent to €27.7 million from €21.8 in the same period of 2007 while the number of active poker customers from October to December 2008 expanded 54 percent to 376,092 from 244,230.

The company continues to face legal difficulties in Germany but this has not affected its’ performance which improved considerably on the third quarter of 2008.

DevilfishPoker Grows

Devilfish Gaming Plc, owner of DevilfishPoker.com, has announced its interim results for the second half of 2008 showing strong growth in poker revenue, yield per active player, and user sign ups.

The company, which is quoted on the London PLUS market and was launched on the Entraction network in May 2008, said daily poker revenues were now regularly exceeding €3,000 per day and that there had been a four-fold increase in monthly poker revenue between July 2008 and January 2009.

Further, gross poker revenue for January 2009 exceeded €76,000 with continued encouraging growth.

Yield per active poker player jumped from €22 in June 2008 to €94 while the total number of user sign ups exceeding 8,000 players with 2,400 of these active cash or tournament players.

Ladbrokespoker Moves Network; Poker Revenue Falls

Ladbrokespoker.com has joined the Microgaming network, moving from its own standalone software to share player liquidity with other sites on the network.
The company says the move will mean more players, a choice of US$ and euro currencies, a new lobby and software, bigger events and promotions, and a better multi-table tournament schedule.

Microgaming recently stopped accepting players from 13 U.S. states, and while it lost the online poker room Doyle’s Room in January, it picked up Carlos Poker.
Elsewhere, Ladbrokes Plc, owner of LadbrokesPoker.com, published its full year results for 2008. In the year to end December 2008, poker generated revenue of €29 million, down 6.5 percent on 2007’s revenue of €31 million.

Active customers fell by 3.3 percent to 146,000 and yield per unique active player fell 3.4 percent to £198, though as poker is currently played in U.S. dollars, this was helped by the US dollar strengthening over the period.
The interim statement said, “The competitive environment for Poker remains extremely challenging.”

Poker Revenue Falls at Betsson

Swedish betting company Betsson, which was earlier this year ranked by business magazine Business Week as the 14th fastest growing company in Europe, has released its full year report for 2008.

Poker accounted for 16 percent of Betsson’s total gross profit for the fourth quarter of 2008, a slim figure when compared to that of the same period the year previous, which was more than double at 34 percent.

Poker’s share of total gaming activities fell from 38 percent in 2007 to 19.1 percent in 2008, and gross profits for poker also saw a decline from SEK193 million (€17.8 million) in 2007 to SEK158.5 million (€13.8 million) in 2008.

Entraction Network Booms

Sweden’s publicly-quoted Entraction network, which is home to online poker rooms such as DevilfishPoker.com and NoIQPoker.com, has published its interim report for 2008. The report shows that net turnover for poker jumped 31 percent during the year to SEK238 million (€21 million) from SEK180 million (€16 million).

From October to December 2008 net poker turnover grew 36 percent to SEK68.9 million (€6.1 million) from the same period in 2007. Turnover between October and December 2008 was up 18 percent on the period July to September 2008.

The company said, “Entraction assimilated market shares on the poker market in Europe, which expanded by just over 11 percent in 2008. We have signed agreements with several important customers including Goldwin, Bet1128, and NoiQPoker, and it is very pleasing that PokerScout now ranks Entraction as the poker network that is expanding at the fastest rate in the whole world. The range of tournaments in Entraction’s poker network was improved in 2008, which contributed to an increase in turnover.”