PartyGaming sees 54% growth in Q1 revenue |
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Tue, 18 Apr 2006 13:20
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LONDON: Online gaming company PartyGaming Plc. posted a 54 per cent increase in first-quarter revenues as its newly-introduced gambling platform helped it to sign record number of new players and boost income from games like blackjack. The company said in a statement its revenues in the three months ended 31 March rose to $342.6 million from $222.6 million a year earlier and against market expectations of $323 million.
PartyGaming's finance director Martin Weigold said the quarter saw continued strong growth in poker on the back of record number of sign-ups. The introduction of the new platform in February that enabled playing multiple games without the players having to log in each time and deposit funds in different accounts, helped in enhancing the revenue.
The London-listed and Gibraltar-based company disclosed it had 263,254 new poker players during the quarter, and 39 per cent of them from outside the United States. Active player days had gone up 28 per cent, while blackjack revenues averaged $0.7 million per day.
PartyGaming has been trying to reduce its dependence on the U.S., mostly because of legitimacy questions involved in online games in the country. Nearly 22 per cent of its income during the quarter came from outside the U.S. against 13 per cent a year ago. The company said it intends a 50:50 split between sales from the U.S. and elsewhere "over time".
It now plans to introduce traditional games, including backgammon and blackjack, to the web.
The company has already launched gaming sites in French, German, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish and Russian languages.
PartyGaming shares rose 1.75 pence to 153.5 valuing the company at just over 6.1 billion pounds.
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