PokerStars Turns Focus Away from Online Poker
The Stars Group has released its second-quarter earnings report.
Despite the 51 per cent increase in total revenue in the three months, ending June 30th, the reports show a 20 per cent decrease per share.
The increase is due to the company’s recent acquisition of Sky Betting & Gaming in July of 2018. The Stars Group, which is the parent company to online poker site PokerStars, has started to rely more on sports betting, with the product vertical increasing from 20 to 36 per cent of overall revenue. In May, the company announced a sports betting partnership with Fox Sports to launch Fox Bet and also signed a deal with the National Basketball Association.
Online poker, which used to make up 53 per cent of the company’s revenue, decreased and now makes just 30 per cent. Online casino revenue also slipped, from 31 to 25 per cent.
The CEO of the Stars Group Rafi Ashkenazi commented: “The second quarter underpinned the success of last year’s acquisitions, particularly with the record performance of Sky Betting & Gaming and our increasing product and geographic diversification, as we continue to transform and position the business to execute on our strategy for strong, sustainable future growth.”
He also reflected on the fact that 2019 has been and still is “a year of integration, execution and debt reduction”.
The company is committed to applying “key strategic priorities” in the future, while also establishing itself as a market leader in the U.S.
They are confident that their actions which were taken over the last year, including reassessing their fixed cost base, will put the company in a strong position to deliver their mid-term growth targets from the end of 2019.
The Stars Group has revised their EBITDA expectations after the adjusted net earnings fell 10 per cent to $243 million.
The company’s stock price bottomed out roughly 20 per cent to 12.8 per share with the news.
