Confidence from 888 Holdings is Tempered with Acknowledgment of the Need for Adaptation
Published April 3, 2020 by Lee R
In these challenging times, 888 Holdings reveals a strategy for operating effectively.
Prominent gaming brand 888 Holdings has reported rises, but is cautioning against the as yet unreflected impact of Coronavirus.
Gains
Gains come in the form of a rise in customer activity across casino and poker services, in light of subsequent cancellation of events worldwide.
Performance
Via trading update, 888 reported the overall business had performed well for 2019 to date and in line with the board’s expectations, as evinced by with an 18% year-on-year increase in daily revenue.
Verticals
Casino and sport verticals rose 24% year-on-year, while new customer acquisition across the group’s B2C business was up 20%, and average daily deposits 32%, with customer activity still on the rise across casino and poker products.
Adaptive Customer Activity
The operator points out the rise in customer activity as a way forward to absorb the complete disruption of the sports betting vertical by Covid-19.
Facing Sportsbetting's Reality
If the disruptions were to linger until September 2020, 888 has acknowledged the potential for a "high single digit millions of dollars" decline in group earnings before EBITDA for 2020.
Sports betting contributed 16% of 888 Holdings’ total group revenue in 2019.
Corona Effect
If the current macro-economic uncertainly continues, 888 Holdings has made it clear the operator would not be immune, and would likely result in declines in consumer spending across all online gaming product verticals.
With more people at home, 888 Holdings also pointed out the very real possibility of increased stress from economic uncertainty, which increases the organizational prioritization of vigilance on safe gambling and preventing gambling-related harm.
Increasing Protections
To this end, 888 is adding proactive communication to players regarding safe gambling tools for limiting and controlling play, while leverage its Observer software to scan player data and identify harmful behavior.
Outlook
The 888 Board expressed “confidence” to investors for managing these challenges. Let's hope that players and other iGaming organizations manage the challenges effectively as well.
