Playtech Full Year Results Shine

Published: Friday, May 23, 2008 Online-Casinos.com

PLAYTECH FULL YEAR RESULTS SHINE

Online gambling software developer on a roll


Fresh from its positive quarter 1 results announcement earlier this week, the online gambling turnkey provider and games developer Playtech plc has followed up with an impressive full year report for the year ended 31 December 2007.

Financial Highlights from the annual report show:


Total Revenues up by 86 percent to $103.6 million (2006: $55.6 million)

Casino revenues up by 58 percent to $74.7 million (2006: $47.3 million)

Poker revenues up by a whopping 269 percent to $27.4 million (2006: $7.4 million)

Adjusted net profit before tax of $70 million (2006: $68 million, including the now abandoned US income)

Cash generated from operating activities of $62.6 million (2006: $72.6 million) was 95 percent of Playtech's operating profit before non cash items

Cash investment in CY Foundation of $10.25 million and the fair value of such investment on 31 December 2007 was $18.9 million. Deferred revenues of $27.6 million recorded in the balance sheet

Cash investment in AsianLogic of US$5.0 million and the fair value of investment on 31 December 2007 was US$15.9 million. Deferred revenues of $10.6 million recorded in the balance sheet

Operational highlights of the year were many and diverse, including the phenomenal growth of the iPoker network into a major force in online poker; the successful completion of the integration of the non US assets of the Tribeca poker network to the iPoker network; 15 new licensees added (8 from Tribeca) including some in the important Asian market.

The board reported further investment in development, and pre and post sale resources bringing the total number of Playtech employees in various locations to approximately 650. This contributed toward enhanced product development including the conversion of the majority of the downloadable casino games into flash, introduction of flash Bingo and upgrade of the live gaming software.

During the year the company completed its Videobet switchable technology, allowing operators to operate gaming machines on a stand alone basis and switch to server-based without any additional cost or time constraints. A joint venture agreement with Unicum will allow Videobet's software to be used on at least 500 stand alone gaming machines located in the Ukraine

As the full year closed in December, the iPoker network held the European Championship of Online Poker ("ECOOP") which saw over 44 000 players participating for an aggregate of $2.85 million in prize money. The company plans bigger and better tournaments in this vein, upping the prize-pool guarantee to $3.5 million.

Looking ahead, the company statement flagged significant growth in January with 14.4 percent improved revenues over the monthly average revenues in the fourth quarter of 2007. 6 new licence agreements have already been signed in 2008 in line with Playtech's strategy to diversify geographically, focus on regulated markets and migrate licensees from competitors

The company reported a strong pipeline of potential new licensees, along with the launch of new Asian P2P games, planned to take place end of the first quarter of 2008. New games development has also accelerated and embraces a large number of slot, table and card games and additional Asian P2P games.

Roger Withers, Non-executive Chairman, commented: "I am pleased to report another strong set of full year results for Playtech with all key performance indicators performing ahead of targets.

"The Group continues to expand rapidly with increased product development in new geographical markets leading to a number of new significant revenue streams.

"We have had an excellent start to 2008 and the Board is highly confident of the Group's performance for 2008 and beyond and its ability to maintain our position as the world's leading provider of software solutions to the online gaming industry."