21st Jul 2006 07:00
PartyGaming Plc21 July 2006 21 July 2006 PartyGaming Plc ("PartyGaming" or the "Company" and, together with its subsidiaries, the "Group") Second Quarter Key Performance Indicators and Trading Update Highlights • Group revenue up 49% to $319.3 million (2005: $214.8 million) • Active player days in poker up 23% to 14.0 million (2005: 11.4 million) • Real money poker sign-ups of 232,446 (2005: 186,560), of which 46% were from outside the US (2005: 23%) • Poker net daily revenue of $2.7 million per day (2005 : $2.1 million) • Casino net daily revenue of $0.8 million per day (2005 : 0.1 million) Commenting on today's announcement, Mitch Garber, Chief Executive Officer, said: "I am delighted to announce that PartyGaming's performance in the three monthsto 30 June 2006 exceeded expectations with both poker and casino deliveringstrong performances in the seasonally quieter second quarter. I am particularlypleased by our continued international expansion with 46% of our new real moneypoker sign-ups and 24% of our overall revenue in the quarter coming from outsidethe US. "The development of our fully integrated platform, enabling customers to play abroad variety of games using a single player account and shared purse, hascontinued apace. PartyGammon, our online backgammon game, was launched onschedule last month, PartyBingo was added this month and other new games will beadded to the platform during the fourth quarter. "Continuing to drive international expansion remains a clear objective and overthe coming months we aim to pursue the growth of our non-US businessaggressively, particularly in Europe and South America, where we continue to seea number of attractive opportunities. The KPIs reported below are consistent with the definitions that were agreed atthe recent meeting of online gaming companies held in Gibraltar and announced on6 July 2006. Poker - Key Performance Indicators Three months to 30 June 2006 2005Active player days 13,989,980 11,402,342Daily average players 153,736 125,300Yield per active player day $17.4 $17.0Yield per unique active player in the quarter $250.1 $307.2New real money sign-ups 232,446 186,560Unique active players during the period 972,228 630,539Unique active players in June 601,587 417,533Average daily revenue (excluding skins) 2,672,450 2,128,546 Six months to 30 June 2006 2005 Active player days 27,946,765 22,343,683Daily average players 154,403 123,446Yield per active player day $17.9 $17.8New real money sign-ups 495,700 400,668Unique active players during the period 1,249,229 842,382Average daily revenue (excluding skins) 2,770,388 2,194,652 In the quarter ended 30 June 2006, net poker revenue increased by 21% comparedwith the previous year to $243.2 million but was down 6% versus the firstquarter, reflecting the seasonal pattern seen in previous years. The Group'smarketing effort, across a number of different channels, has continued to drivenew real money sign-ups for poker which totalled 232,446 in the period (2005:186,560), equivalent to 2,554 per day, versus 2,925 per day in the previousquarter. Unique active players also increased strongly, benefiting from thesuccessful reactivation of a number of inactive players during the quarter aswell as the addition of players from EmpirePoker.com. Active player days were23% ahead of the previous year and slightly ahead of the previous quarter,despite the lower frequency of play during the seasonally weaker second quarter. Our concerted drive into territories outside the US has continued in the secondquarter with over 46% of our new real money sign-ups coming from outside the USfollowing a particularly strong take-up in Europe. Over 27% of our pokerrevenue in the quarter came from outside the US compared with just 15% in thesecond quarter of 2005 and 24% in the first quarter of the current year. Yield per active player day was $17.4 compared with $18.5 in the previousquarter but was 2% ahead of the same period in 2005, reflecting a reduced amountof time spent playing online during the second quarter. While higher playernumbers were unable to offset the impact of the lower yield, resulting in areduction in average daily revenue (excluding skins) in the quarter to $2.7million, this was over 25% ahead of that achieved in the second quarter of 2005. Casino - Key Performance Indicators Three months to 30 June 2006 2005 Active player days 2,106,868 164,314Daily average players 23,152 1,806Yield per active player day $36.1 $79.7Yield per unique active player in the quarter $222.6 $488.2New real money sign-ups 12,734 20,185Unique active players during the period 341,667 26,823Unique active players in June 172,629 16,358Average daily revenue 835,897 143,897 Six months to 30 June 2006 2005 Active player days 4,312,922 333,078Daily average players 23,829 1,840Yield per active player day $36.9 $76.4New real money sign-ups 23,758 34,489Unique active players during the period 521,158 42,661Average daily revenue 879,640 140,506 Compared with the previous year, casino revenue in aggregate was up by 481% to$76.1 million reflecting the introduction of blackjack on to PartyPoker.com inOctober 2005 and the addition of PartyCasino.com to the integrated platform inFebruary 2006. The amount gambled in our casino business increasedsubstantially to $4.13 billion, up from $460 million the previous year.Compared to the previous quarter, the amount gambled declined from $4.47 billionto $4.13 billion reflecting a seasonally quieter second quarter and a reductionin the amount gambled on blackjack. The yield per active player day fell by 4% to $36.1 from $37.7 in the firstquarter due to seasonality and an increase in bonus rates which averaged 11.9%of gross casino revenue during the second quarter, versus 9.3% in the firstquarter. The fall in the yield year on year was attributable to theintroduction of blackjack on to PartyPoker.com. PartyCasino.com now has 39individual games that are live and, despite having had limited marketing supportso far, it is already attracting an average of over 23,000 real money playersper day. Consolidated Key Performance Indicators As previously announced, the Group intends to begin to report KPIs on aconsolidated basis to take into account the launch of the integrated platformand shared purse. Going forward PartyGaming will present all of its KPIs on aconsolidated basis so that real money sign-ups, daily average players, uniqueactive players, active player days, yield per unique active player and yield peractive player day will be provided on a consolidated basis as well as for poker,casino and emerging games separately. The consolidated KPIs for the secondquarter 2006 and the comparable period in 2005 are shown below (comparable datafor each quarter since the beginning of 2004 is available at www.partygaming.com/investor/documentation.html). Three months to 30 June 2006 2005 Active player days 14,478,235 11,566,656Daily average players 159,101 127,106Yield per active player day $22.1 $17.9Yield per unique active player in the quarter $318.2 $314.6New real money sign-ups 245,254 206,745Unique active players during the period 1,003,599 657,362Unique active players in June 621,805 433,891Average daily revenue (excluding skins) $3,508,821 $2,272,443 Six months to 30 June 2006 2005Active player days 28,840,802 22,676,761Daily average players 159,341 125,286Yield per active player day $22.9 $18.6Yield per unique active player in the period $507.8 $477.6New real money sign-ups 519,532 435,157Unique active players during the period 1,301,073 885,043Average daily revenue (excluding skins) $3,650,266 $2,335,158 Unique active players increased by 53% on the comparable quarter in 2005 to over1 million players, with substantial increases experienced in all geographicsegments. Europe performed particularly strongly with a 237% increase in uniqueactive players to 171,531. Active player days in the second quarter increased by 25% versus the samequarter in 2005 driven by continued growth in the size of the active playerbase, partially offset by a small reduction in the average frequency of play. Yield per active player day in the quarter increased by 23% to $22.1 reflectingthe positive impact from cross-selling higher yielding casino games such asblackjack to PartyPoker players. As a result, average daily revenue increasedsharply to $3.5m per day, up from $2.3m in 2005. Current Trading As we begin the second half, we continue to develop our poker business. Thecommencement of the World Series of Poker on 25 June 2006, together with thelaunch of a new multi-million dollar tournament called "Party Poker Monster",which is expected to have the largest ever prize pool online, should both bepositive for our poker business over the coming months. While bonus rates incasino are expected to increase from current levels, the marketing launch ofPartyCasino.com should benefit the Group in the second half of the year. Continuing to drive international expansion remains a clear objective and overthe coming months we aim to pursue the growth of our non-US businessaggressively, particularly in Europe and South America, where we continue to seea number of attractive opportunities. New Debt Facility In order to give the Group additional financial flexibility, the Group hasreplaced its existing $200 million credit facility with a $500 millionmulti-currency revolving credit facility, with the following banksparticipating: Royal Bank of Scotland, Dresdner Kleinwort, Bank of Scotland,West LB and Commerzbank. 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 Video interview with Mitch Garber, Chief Executive Officer Friday 21 July 2006 A video interview with Mitch Garber covering the KPIs and Group strategy isavailable from 7.00am today on www.partygaming.com and www.cantos.com. Conference call Friday 21 July 2006 For analysts and investors there will be an opportunity to put questions toMitch Garber, Chief Executive Officer and Martin Weigold, Group FinanceDirector, by way of a conference call to be held at 9.30am on Friday 21 July,2006. The details 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. Appendix KPI Definitions The KPIs reported are consistent with those used previously and with thedefinitions that were agreed at the recent meeting of online gaming companiesheld in Gibraltar and announced on 7 July 2006. Active player days Aggregate number of days in the given period in which active players havecontributed to rake and/or placed a wager. This can be calculated bymultiplying average active players by the number of days in the period Yield per active player day Net gaming revenue excluding skins in the period divided by the number of activeplayer days in that period Unique active player A player who has contributed to rake and/or placed a wager in the period. Yield per unique active player Net gaming revenue excluding skins (net of customer bonuses and other fair valueadjustments to revenues) divided by the number of unique active players in theperiod. Real money sign-up A new player who has registered and deposited funds into an account with thecompany. Customers are categorised between lines of business according to wherethey first register on the gaming site to address the issues posed by sharedpurse. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
BPTY.L