888 Holdings reported increases in both group revenue and active customers for the first quarter of 2012. Group revenue of US$94 million was an increase of 25 percent compared with the same period last year and it was in no small part down to an increase of 29 percent in B2C revenue to US$83 million. Active customers across B2C casino and poker reached 566,000 – an increase of 87 percent and according to the release driven by “successful new customer recruitment” and “marketing initiatives”.
Brian Mattingley was recently appointed permanent head honcho (aka CEO) of the firm, and commented: “Our focused strategy has led to another excellent quarter, with ongoing strength in Poker driving March to the highest ever monthly revenues in the history of 888. Poker has continued its robust performance in the early stages of Q2, with our other product areas seeing an expected return to seasonal patterns.”
888 is equally excited about the prospects that will emerge in new markets, with Mattingley adding: “There are significant growth opportunities offered by the liberalisation of new markets, which will take investment to realise. We will continue to invest throughout 2012 in order to build market share.”
Breaking down the B2C results further, casino was up from $33.4 million to $42.2 million with poker increasing from $11.34 million to $21.2 million. Bingo was the only one to disappoint as revenue dropped from $14.2 million to $13.6 million.
In terms of current quarter performance average daily revenue is up 26 percent compared with the previous year. This set of results follows up an impressive set of end of year ones released a month ago and the comments about new markets will fuel talk that they will attempt to put together a big effort to tackle the U.S. market.
