SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Paddy Power chief executive Patrick Kennedy has hailed another ‘good year’ for the bookmaker, which has marked growth in every division, particularly online which now delivers over three quarters of the group’s profits.
The firm has reported a 17.5% upturn in revenues to €745m (£613m) for 2013, and record profit before tax of €141m (£116m), up 5% on 2012, despite what it called ‘significantly adverse sports results’ in the second half of the year.
Kennedy commented: “We continue to build out our industry leading penetration in mobile sports betting and eGaming: mobile net revenue powered ahead by 73% in 2013 and now accounts for over half of total online revenue. Investment in mobile will continue to be significant in order to take advantage of our market leading position and avail of its exceptional growth potential.”
For online Paddy Power’s scale continues to increase significantly with net revenue up 21% to €473m (£389m) and active customers up 19% to 1.9m. Operating profit was also up, by 10% to €108.1m (£89.0m).
For UK Retail, net revenue was up 2% with machine gaming net revenue returning to growth in the second half. Operating profit of €13.9m (£11.4m) was down €0.9m mainly because of the additional €1.8m (£1.48m) tax bill from the introduction of Machine Games Duty in February last year.
