Turning point for Bwin.party after 19% drop in revenues

Bwin.party Chief Executive Officer Norbert Teufelberger believes that the group has reached a ‘turning point’ after suffering a ‘challenging year’.

Total revenue for 2013 dropped by 19% from €801.6m (£671.5m) to €652.4m (£546.5m) which the company said reflected its shift in policy from ‘volume to value’, ISP blocking in Greece, migration losses and the full year impact of gaming taxes in Germany. Total Clean EBITDA fell by 25% year-on-year.

Teufelberger commented: “2013 was a challenging year for our business, but it also marked a turning point as we increased our focus on regulated and to-be-regulated markets, began to roll-out new and refreshed versions of our mobile and desktop products, and commenced the transformation of our technology infrastructure through the adoption of the Agile development methodology. Having streamlined the shape and size of our business we now have the foundations to return our business to sustainable growth.”

In his review of the year, Teufelberger added: “Whilst [results were] disappointing, this masks good progress on several key objectives: we increased the proportion of our business in regulated and/or taxed markets having launched into Belgium and New Jersey; we began the transformation of our software delivery process with our shift to an Agile working methodology; we launched our new poker product; we grew the proportion of our revenue coming through mobile and touch and introduced our new mobile product for sports betting in Spain.”