Playtech pushes on with Q3 revenue rise

Industry supplier Playtech has posted a 47% increase in revenues for the third quarter with increases in all divisions, apart from poker.

The growth has been boosted by the company’s recent acquisitions, the figure would be around half if they were discounted, but it still represents impressive progress for the firm. Regulated revenues accounted for over half of group revenues in the quarter, with over 40% of Gaming revenues from regulated markets compared to 35% in Q3 2014, and 73% of growth from these regulated markets

Mobile accounted for 23% of software revenues in the quarter, up from 17% in Q3 2014.

Playtech CEO Mor Weizer commented: “Playtech delivered a strong operational performance in the third quarter with reported growth of 47% and underlying growth of 17%. Three quarters of our growth in Q3 came from regulated markets which now account for over half of all group revenues.

“Our Gaming division continues to enjoy double-digit underlying growth with our strong pipeline of opportunities giving us confidence in maintaining our momentum. Our Financials division had a strong quarter driven by customer acquisition, with a focus on our direct marketing channels, and we hope to complement our growth with the completion of the acquisitions of Plus500 and Ava Trade.

“Given the strength of our business and the momentum that we are enjoying, we have confidence for the remainder of 2015 and beyond.”

A research note from Investec left its BUY recommendation unchanged, as well as suggesting that the acquisition of Plus500 would be a share price catalyst, however it did note that growth in Asia was dropping.

It said: “There is evidence that Asia is slowing down (Q3 growth was 34% versus 49% in Q2). This is due to onboarding processes (AML and KYC procedures) implemented by two licensees (one is Bet365, the other unnamed). In 3Q15, growth was 34% versus Asian growth of 83% in 3Q14. This partly reflects the law of large numbers, however, absolute growth slowed from €19m in 3Q14 to €14.5m in 3Q15. After stripping out the impact of FX rates and Markets Limited, there is a clear indication that Asian growth is lower than in the past.”