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02.11.2005 For a traditionally weak time of the year, 888.com's much anticipated latest quarterly results indicate buoyant business conditions and should add to confidence in the industry already bolstered by the excellent results fromSportingbet recently. The world's largest online casino's Q3 key performance indicators and trading update this week revealed an overall rise in net gaming revenue to US$70 million, an increase of 56 percent compared with last year.
Breaking the results down, 888.com casino net gaming revenues grew by 18 percent to $40.5 million but poker was the star in growth terms with an increase of 178 percent to $29.5 million for the three months ended 30 September 2005.
Commenting on the results, 888 (casino on net) chief executive John Anderson, said: "Our performance for this three month period has been particularly pleasing given that historically, trading for the casino segment in July and August is the weakest for the year."
Cumulative results for the nine month period ending 30 September 2005 revealed an overall rise to US$194 million, an increase of 51 percent compared with the same period in 2004.
Net gaming revenue from the casino business increased 16 percent to US$120.4 million for the first nine months of 2005, while net gaming revenue from poker rose to US$73.4 million for the nine month period to September 2005, a 204 percent increase compared with the same period in 2004.
High traffic levels, combined with 888's customer retention and acquisition strategies, played a significant part in creating the strong revenues which on present indications should have continued through the month of October. The number of people who gambled with 888 between July and September was up 118 percent on the same period last year to 316,553, boosted by a huge increase in poker.
The number of people who played on 888's poker tables in the third quarter was 143 percent higher at 228,252 than in the same three months last year. Third-quarter average poker spending per player was $129, up 19 percent on the second quarter.
888 has more than 20 million account holders worldwide playing its gaming website, which include 888.com, Casino-on-Net.com, PacificPoker.com and Betmate.com. It is based in Gibraltar and has offices in Tel Aviv, Antigua and London.
Today's trading statement was the first since it listed on the London stock market last month.
CEO Anderson referred to the Party Gaming pessimism several weeks ago which caused alarm among investors, saying that those (Party Gaming) concerns were more likely specific to PartyGaming at that time than to the industry as a whole.
"As we said on the roadshow to all the investors who asked that question, I thought that it was a company-specific issue and not an industry-specific issue, and I think that has been borne out to be correct," he said.
Analyst Greg Feehely at Altium Securities said "This suggests that the online poker market is either growing more strongly than PartyGaming would have us believe, or that 888.com is taking market share, possibly both," he said.
Customer acquisition costs are stable compared with the period during the roadshow, Anderson said.
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