24th Mar 2015 08:01
LONDON (Alliance News) - 888 Holdings PLC Tuesday reported strong growth in pretax profit and revenue in 2014, driven by the continued growth of its casino, poker and sport products, but its first-quarter is already showing a hit from tax changes in various jurisdictions.
The online gaming provider said pretax profit rose 28% to USD68 million in 2014, from USD53 million in 2013, as revenue increased 14% to USD455 million from USD401 million, and margins increased. Its closely-watched adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, which also strips out impairment charges, grew 33% to USD101 million from USD76 million, with the adjusted Ebitda margin rising to 221% from 18.9%.
It said it will pay a final dividend of 4.5 cents per share compared with 4.0 cents the year before, bringing the total dividend for the year to 15 cents per share.
"Our core Casino product delivered another outstanding performance reflecting our strength and heritage in this vertical, while 888Poker cemented its position at number two in the PokerScout global rankings at the year end. The outstanding 115% revenue growth from 888Sport was an undoubted highlight of 2014 and we continue to see very exciting growth opportunities in this vertical," Chief Executive Brian Mattingley said in a statement..
888 said the number of registered customer accounts increased 15% during the full year.
However, the company is facing a hit from regulatory tax changes in the UK and from sales tax changes in other countries, as well as an impact due to the strength of the US dollar. The impact is already showing through.
The company said average daily revenue during the first quarter of the current financial year was 6% lower than the previous year, but was up 7% on a constant currency basis excluding VAT.
"Trading during the first quarter of the year has been in line with our expectations with significant increases in new customer recruitment as well as increases in deposit level and bet volumes," Mattingley said.
By Karolina Kaminska; [email protected] @KarolinaAllNews
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