For the six months to June 30, total revenue at online operator bwin.party fell to €296.5m, down 6.5 per cent compared with the same period in 2014.
Issuing the unaudited results, bwin.party blamed the fall on “the absence of the FIFA World Cup, lower margins in sports, market declines in poker and the impact of EU VAT in certain markets.”
In a statement, CEO Norbert Teufelberger, focused on improvements in earnings: “Clean EBITDA increased by two per cent year-on-year [to €47.3m] despite the introduction of VAT in a number of EU member states and the new UK point-of-consumption tax.
“However, our progress on non-core asset disposals and other cost saving initiatives is running ahead of plan - excluding the impact of EU VAT and UK point-of-consumption tax, clean EBITDA would have increased by 24 per cent [to €57.7m]."
Reflecting on the year to date, Teufelberger added bwin.party remains “confident about the full year outlook.”
Bwin.party said that nationally regulated and/or taxed markets represented 60 per cent of total revenue, up from 56 per cent year on year.
Gross gaming revenue from mobile grew by 50 per cent and now represents 30 per cent of overall GGR, up from 19 per cent for the same period in 2014.
With regard to bids to acquire the operator, the company said: “Whilst discussions with GVC are continuing, there has been no change to the board's recommendation for 888's offer and the associated shareholder documents are expected to be sent to shareholders shortly.”
