18th Apr 2006 07:01
PartyGaming Plc18 April 2006 18 April 2006 PartyGaming Plc ("PartyGaming" or the "Company" and, together with its subsidiaries, the "Group") First Quarter Key Performance Indicators and Trading Update Highlights - Group revenue up 54% to $342.6 million (2005: $222.6 million) - Active player days in poker up 28% to 14.0 million (2005: 10.9 million) - Yield per active player day in poker ahead 3% versus Q4 2005 to $18.5 - Record number of real money poker sign-ups of 263,254 (2005: 214,108), 39% of which were from outside the US (2005: 16%) - PartyCasino.com generating incremental net revenue of over $0.2 million per day following its launch in February 2006 - Substantial increase in net casino revenue to $83.1 million (2005: $12.3 million) Commenting on today's announcement, Martin Weigold, Group Finance Director,said: "I am pleased to report that we have made a strong start to 2006. The firstquarter has seen continued strong growth in poker on the back of a record numberof poker sign-ups. Blackjack has remained robust with net revenue averaging$0.7 million per day whilst the introduction of PartyCasino.com two months ago,as part of the fully integrated Party-branded platform, has exceeded ourexpectations and lifted overall net casino revenue (including blackjack) to over$1.0 million per day. "This quarter also saw the launch of the first of our multi-lingual websites.PartyPoker.com is now offered in English, French, German, Portuguese, Spanish,Swedish and Russian. More foreign language versions are going to be rolled outlater in the year along with our multi-currency offering. "The launch of backgammon, the first of our two new games this year, is imminentand should provide an additional revenue stream for the Group as well as broadenthe appeal of our Party-branded platform." Poker - Key Performance Indicators Three months to 31 March 2006 2005Active Player Days 13,956,785 10,941,341Daily average players 155,075 121,570Yield per Active Player Day 18.5 18.6New real money sign-ups 263, 254 214,108Unique active players during the period 872,969 608,696Unique active players in March 583,448 410,919Average daily revenue (excluding skins) 2,869,414 2,261,492 In the quarter ended 31 March 2006, net poker revenue was up by 23% comparedwith the previous year to $259.5 million and up by 9% versus the final quarterof 2005, despite there being two days less in the quarter. Following a seriesof successful marketing initiatives, particularly in Europe, the number of newreal money sign-ups increased to an all-time high of 263,254 (2005: 214,108)which was equivalent to 2,925 per day versus 2,492 per day in the previousquarter. This helped to boost activity levels and active player days increasedto 13,956,785 compared with 13,022,466 in the previous quarter. The international expansion of poker into territories outside the US hascontinued. Over 39% of new real money sign-ups in the quarter came fromcountries outside the US whilst in March, the proportion of new real moneysign-ups coming from outside the US exceeded 40% for the first time. Despite the record number of sign-ups and the associated increase in the numberof recreational players, as well as the continued impact of large numbers ofplayers playing blackjack, the yield per active player day increased to $18.5versus $17.9 in the final quarter of 2005. The yield per active player day wasbroadly in line with the yield per active player day for the comparable periodin the previous year. Average daily revenue in the period increased 13% fromthe previous quarter to $2.9 million (2005: $2.3 million). Casino - Key Performance Indicators Three months to 31 March 2006 2005Active Player Days 2,206,054 168,764Daily average players 24,512 1,875Yield per Active Player Day 37.7 73.1New real money sign-ups 11,024 14,304Unique active players during the period 341,351 24,248Unique active players in March 183,067 13,593Average daily revenue 923,869 137,078 Net casino revenue was up substantially year on year to $83.1 million reflectingthe addition of blackjack in October 2005 and also the launch of PartyCasino.comin February 2006. The Group has yet to engage in any major marketinginitiatives for PartyCasino.com pending the roll-out of all casino games on thesite. At launch, 22 casino games were available to players and this hadincreased to 31 by the end of the quarter. The remaining casino games areexpected to be introduced by the end of the third quarter. The launch ofPartyCasino.com has already been a success, exceeding our expectations. SincePartyCasino.com's launch, average net casino revenue overall has increased byover $0.2 million per day. Since launch, 33% of PartyPoker.com players haveplayed games in PartyCasino.com while 23% of PartyCasino.com players have playedon PartyPoker.com. In line with our expectations, the amount gambled on our casino operationsdecreased marginally to $4,470 million versus $4,501 million in the previousquarter due to reduced levels of activity on blackjack as the novelty factorwore off, mitigated by increased activity following the launch ofPartyCasino.com. The gross win margin (after bonuses and other fair valueadjustments to revenue) increased to 2.1% versus 2.0% in the previous quarter,partly reflecting the reduced influence of blackjack. This was the main driverbehind a 10% increase in the yield per active player day in casino over thefinal quarter in 2005 to $37.7. Overall, daily net casino revenue averaged$0.9 million per day which was marginally above the average in the previousquarter, as reduced revenue from blackjack was more than compensated by newrevenues generated by PartyCasino.com. Due to the success of blackjack, averagedaily casino revenues were substantially ahead of those generated in the firstquarter of 2005. Current Trading PartyGaming has made a very positive start to the year in the seasonally strongfirst quarter. On 6 April 2006 the Group successfully reintegrated each of theskins acquired over the past few months (EmpirePoker.com, MultiPoker.com andIntertopsPoker.com) on to the integrated Party-branded platform, so providingfurther liquidity to all of our poker players. The launch of our two new gamesand the promotion of PartyCasino.com should provide further impetus over thecoming months and while the usual seasonal pattern can be expected to influencethe second and third quarter performance, the Group remains confident of makinggood progress in the current year. As previously communicated, the Company expects to formally appoint MitchGarber, who succeeds Richard Segal, as Chief Executive Officer on 19 April 2006. The Group's Annual General Meeting will be held in Gibraltar on 4 May 2006. Contacts: PartyGaming Plc +44 (0)20 7337 0100Peter Reynolds, Director of Investor RelationsJohn Shepherd, Director of Corporate Communications Financial Dynamics +44 (0)20 7831 3113Edward Bridges / Juliet Clarke Conference call Tuesday 18 April 2006 For analysts and investors there will be an opportunity to put questions toMartin Weigold, Group Finance Director, by way of a conference call. Thedetails of the call are as follows: Dial-In No: +44 (0) 1452 562 815 (UK) +1 866 629 0054 (US)Password: PartyGamingUK Replay no: +44 (0) 1452 550 000 (available for 1 week)Replay passcode: 7555664US Replay no: +1 866 247 4222 (available for 1 week)Replay passcode: 7555664 All times are British Summer Time. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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