SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Publishing its full-year 2017 results (period ending 30 December) FTSE250 gambling technology supplier Playtech Plc has delivered metric growth in-line with corporate expectations, despite facing headwinds in both its regulated and unregulated operations.
The industry technology provider reports full-year 2017 group revenues of €807 million, up 14% on corresponding FY 2016’s €708 million.
Closing its 2017 accounts, Playtech governance declares an adjusted group EBITDA of €231 million (FY 2016: €202 million), combined with reported group net-profits of €248 million (FY 2016: €193 million).
Playtech has faced a difficult end-of-year trading, as last November the FTSE firm was forced to revise its market forecasts due to a slowdown in Asia and problems delivering its Sun Bingo supplier contract.
Despite its Asian trading woes, a diversified Playtech details a number of operational highlights achieved during 2017, which will strengthen the group’s long-term growth position and strategy.
2017 highlights include the migration of live casino assets to Playtech’s new purpose-built Riga Studio, and the strong continued momentum of its enlarged Playtech BGT sportsbook division, which gained new clients in HpyBet, Magic Betting and SAS and furthermore, renewed tier1 partnerships with Paddy Power, Betfred, OPAP and Boylesports during 2017 trading.
Commenting on full-year 2017 results Alan Jackson, Chairman of Playtech stated: “Playtech’s performance continues to be converted into strong cash generation enabling a 10% increase to the full year dividend.”
“Playtech’s strategy to improve the quality of earnings for the Group, organically and through M&A, was evident in the increase in regulated revenue to 54%. The health of the core business coupled with the strength of the balance sheet means Playtech is strategically well placed to execute on M&A that will continue to drive this growth and further diversify Playtech’s revenue base.
“The completion of the Playtech BGT Sports integration and the completion of the new Live Casino studio in Riga are key operational milestones in the extension of Playtech’s omni-channel offering and the quality of both offerings has already delivered new clients.
“Momentum in TradeTech Group continued with improvements across all KPIs. The division is strategically well positioned for the potential incoming regulations in the financial trading industry and 2017 saw TradeTech consolidate its B2B offering creating a full turnkey financial trading solution.”
Playtech FY 2017 Performance Overview
