Latest Numbers From Party Poker
Published: Friday, January 27, 2006 Online-Casinos.com
LATEST NUMBERS FROM PARTY POKER'S OWNER PARTY GAMING
Almost 850 000 new online poker players signed up at partypoker in 2005...and 30 percent were from outside the USA
The world's largest online poker room operator Party Gaming has released its fourth quarter trading update showing some impressive results.
Party Gaming is a public company listed in London which owns Party Poker, the largest online poker room with millions of poker players around the world.
Party Group revenues for the quarter were up 65 percent to US$320.3 million compared with US$194 million for the same period in 2004. Net online poker revenues (excluding skins) were up by 31 percent compared with the previous year to US$233.7 million.
Party Gaming spokesmen said the growth reflected the increase in player sign-up numbers and the improvement in player yield.
The new blackjack and online casino game offering appears to have distracted poker players, because for the three months to December 31 2005, yield per active player day increased by only 8 percent, but was down from US$19.1 compared with the same 2004 period.
New real money players playing on Party Poker increased to 229,227 during the quarter, bringing the total number of real money signups for the year to 839,317, ahead of Party Gaming's stated target of 800,000.
Average daily revenue during Q4 was US$2.5 million compared with US$1.9 million for the same period in 2004, an all time high for a quarterly period since the launch of the PartyPoker site in August 2001, the company said.
More than 30 percent of the poker sign-ups came from outside the USA, with European Union (EU) and Scandinavian countries providing most of the players.
Richard Segal, Party Gaming chief executive, said: "Excluding the UK, Europe provided 7.5 percent of our group revenues in Q4 compared with Q3 2005 while the UK supplied 2.5 percent revenues for the same period. North American players provided 82 percent of our revenues compared with 84 percent in the same period."
Net online casino revenues were US$82.3 million in Q4, way ahead of the US$11 million achieved in Q3 2005. While sign-up numbers were consistent with previous quarters, the significant upturn in casino figures was the result of cross-selling blackjack through PartyPoker.com with 44 percent of all active poker players in the period also playing blackjack, the company said.
With the strong performance of blackjack, daily net casino revenue reached an average of US$ 900 000 per day compared with an average in the previous year of $100 000.
"During the quarter, 44 percent of active Party Poker players also played blackjack, which had a substantial and sustained impact on the profitability of the group. The success of blackjack has transformed our casino business and proved very popular with a large number of our poker players. Party Gaming's next major milestone will be the launch of the fully-integrated platform and shared purse in the first half of 2006" Segal said.
Contrary to recent press reports, Segal added that the legal dispute between Party Gaming and Empire Online over the termination of the 'skins' agreement in October 2005 would be lengthy and protracted and "Although there is some uncertainty with any litigation, PartyGaming is confident or achieving a successful outcome".
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