Q2 report cards: Unibet Group, Pinnacle Entertainment, PokerTek

pinnacle-unibet-pokertekUnibet Group has released its interim report for Q2 2011. Gross winnings revenue came in at £34.3m, with a profit from operations of £7.3m, compared with £39.2m and £8.4m the previous year. Of course, 2010 was not only a World Cup year, but Unibet hadn’t yet pulled out of the French market, so some drop off is understandable. Excluding those two effects, Unibet CEO Henrik Tjärnström figures his company’s underlying revenue growth was 16% year-on-year. As in their Q1 report, Nordic revenues were the star performer, up 13%. Sportsbook margins were “lower than the long-term average” but the casino side “recorded another all time high.” Interestingly, Tjärnström claims Unibet’s poker operation has seen “little sign yet of any significant impact from the closure of some US-facing competitors.”

US casino operators Pinnacle Entertainment saw revenues rise 9% to $299.1m in Q2, while consolidated adjusted EBITDA was up 39% to $69.1m. Still, the company posted a loss of $18m for the quarter, although that’s an improvement over the $49.3m loss in Q2 2010. Pinnacle owns and operates seven casinos across the US, and is backing Asian Coast Development’s plan to develop the Ho Tram Strip area in Vietnam, where MGM Resorts is slated to open the first resort casino.

PokerTek, maker of the PokerPro and BlackJack Pro electronic gaming tables, posted a $401k net loss in Q2, compared to a $2.04m loss the previous year. Revenues were $1.6m, up sharply from $768k in 2010, while operating expenses fell 8% to $1.5m. Gaming positions increased 24% to 2,710, primarily from new installations in Europe, Africa and Mexico.