Revenues Up & Profits Down As 888 Announce Full Year Results

Revenues on the up but profits down due to expansion and taxes

888 Holdings the online gaming firm has released its full year results along with announcing it is still pushing ahead with its growth strategy even in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The gaming company showed a rise of 4% in revenues to $560.3 million, however profits fell from the previous year’s $108.7 million to just $45.3 million prior to tax deductions.

Profits fall said the company were due to increased gaming duties in the UK market, its expansion into other regulated markets and also more tax payable in those areas. It also pointed out that the acquisition of BetBright impacted on the full year earnings for the company.

A company spokesperson said that 888 is “committed to expanding in the US” where it plans to strengthen its team, marketing and product during the year.

“We will continue to appraise potential partnerships that will support 888’s continued expansion and long-term prospects in the regulated US market,” the company said.

The gambling giant said that it has noted that the cancellation of sporting events will impact on their coming year’s results but it also said that its increase from customers into online casino and poker was strong and may offset some of the sporting business.

“Whilst the COVID-19 outbreak is setting back the global economy, 888 remains confident that it will be able to deliver on its plans for 2020 set out in this annual report,” the spokesperson said.

Chief executive Itai Pazner said: “The Board is closely monitoring the impact of COVID-19 on 888 and its customers.

“We continue to recognise that with people spending more time at home and with increased levels of stress and economic uncertainty, 888’s unwavering commitment to preventing gambling related harm is even more important than ever.

“We are proactively communicating with our customers to provide information on safer gambling and, where necessary, offer support. In addition, in recent weeks we have introduced several new alerts to our proprietary safe gambling software, the Observer, which constantly scans all customer activity and flags any potential areas of concern to our highly trained customer care team to act upon in order to prevent harm.

“Underpinned by the strength of 888’s technology, our growing customer base and our talented and committed team, the Board continues to see a number of significant and exciting growth opportunities for 888 which we are confident of progressing during 2020 and beyond.”