Caesars Interactive Entertainment (CIE) reported revenue up nearly two-thirds in the fourth quarter, thanks to its social gaming acquisitions and a full-year of real-money online gambling in New Jersey.
CIE revenue rose 63.6% to $156.4m in the three months ending Dec. 31 and adjusted earnings more than doubled to $47.9m. Income from operations came to $300k, an improvement over the $5.7m loss in the same period in 2013, but the company’s net loss grew to $18.7m from $8.8m a year ago.
CIE’s social and mobile gaming operations rose 63% to $147.7m in Q4 thanks to the Q1 2014 acquisition of games developer Pacific Interactive. Revenue from the World Series of Poker and real-money online operations in New Jersey doubled to $8.7m.
CIE’s social and mobile gaming average daily active users rose 23% to 5.7m while monthly active users rose 12% to 17.8m. Average monthly unique payers doubled to 657k, representing 4% of monthly unique users, a year-on-year increase of 170 basis points. Average revenue per user rose 7¢ to 28¢.
For the year as a whole, CIE reported revenue of $586.8m, adjusted earnings of $177m and operating income of $21.3m, while recording a net loss of $20.9m. The company blamed the losses on the Q4 closure of a development studio in Minsk, Belarus, increased marketing costs in New Jersey and $5.4m in negative foreign currency transaction changes.
CIE is part of Caesars Growth Partners (CGP), which was spun off from casino operator Caesars Entertainment in 2013 to (allegedly) protect Caesars’ more profitable assets from creditors ahead of the company’s main unit declaring Chapter 11 bankruptcy. CGP is majority owned by Caesars Acquisition Company (CACQ), another entity that was created out of thin air during the parent company’s frantic game of asset three-card monte.
CGP also controls brick-and-mortar casino operations, including Bally’s Las Vegas, The Cromwell, The Linq Hotel & Casino, Harrah’s New Orleans and Horseshoe Baltimore. The casino division reported Q4 revenue of $370.5m and adjusted earnings of $59.8m while recording a net loss of $148.5m.
