Amaya hits ‘record revenues’ despite poker being hit by currency fluctuations

Presenting its full-year 2016 results, Toronto-listed Amaya Inc was pleased to report ‘a record year of revenues’ as the company looks continues to diversify its product portfolio and increase its profile within regulated online gambling markets.

Amaya governance would declare full-year 2016 group revenues of $1.15 billion up 8% on corresponding FY 2015’s $1.07 billion.

The operator would hit ‘record revenues’ despite a 4% annual decline in poker revenues to $846 million, as its core product was impacted by adverse fluctuations against its main $ currency.

Continuing to drive its product diversification, Amaya governance was pleased to detail that its casino and sports betting divisions had generated circa 23% of group revenues (FY 2015 – 17% of total group revenues).

Closing its full-year 2016 results, Amaya would declare a group EBITDA of $524 million. The TSX firm would further report net earnings of $136 million, reversing FY 2015’s operational losses of $20 million which had been driven by Rational Group assets takeover costs.

Further to reporting its topline metrics, Amaya governance disclosed that the firm’s long-term corporate debt stands at $2.4 billion. During 2016 Amaya governance undertook restructure to its debt facilities which the company hopes will save it $15 million per year.

Rafi Ashkenazi, Amaya Inc Chief Executive Officer commented on 2016 corporate performance

“Our proactive changes to the poker ecosystem and customer acquisition initiatives continue to reverse certain negative trends and we are starting to see organic growth in that business, our casino offering exceeded expectations as we introduced limited marketing campaigns and focused on our cross-sell efforts, and we continued to build and develop our sportsbook.

“The strong performance of our business has helped us to reduce our currency risk, lower our interest expense, and accelerate the payment of the remaining amounts owed on our deferred payment obligation, all of which will allow us to continue pursuing our four strategic priorities. We expect to continue our 2016 momentum and execute on our strategy in 2017,”