Interim results show that poker channel continues to underperform
Friday 10th August 2007
The UK’s largest publicly quoted bookmaker, Ladbrokes, has published its interim results for the first half of 2007 and announced that, despite record profits, its poker channel at Poker.Ladbrokes.com has continued to under-perform as a result of competition from Scandinavia and Great Britain.
“Our e-gaming business continues to perform well, with good growth again in sportsbook, casino and games products, but poker continues to be impacted by the competitive environment in the Nordics and the UK,” said a company statement.
Ladbrokes said that the net revenue for its poker site was £15.7 million, which was down £2.7 million with increased competition affecting both player numbers and yield. The average monthly active player days fell by 14.9 per cent to 422,000 while yield per unique active player fell 10.6 per cent to $288.
However, the first half of 2007 saw a record operating profit for the site hit $390 million and the London-based company said that localisation remains a focus with it delivering new software for Swedish and Danish languages in the first half with four other languages planned by the end of the year.
Ladbrokes pioneered live poker on European television with its Ladbrokes Millions tournament and said that it continues to have a strong presence in the European market.
