Playtech to beat forecasts after bumper Q3 continues in Q4
After a powerful performance in the third quarter continued into the fourth, Playtech said it was confident of beating market expectations for the full year.
Playtech
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16:35 19/04/24
Boosted by the World Cup sports betting and strong continued growth from its casino business, total revenue hit £116.5m in the three months to 30 September, up 28.6% on the same period last year.
In the first 21 days of the fourth quarter, average daily revenue improved 3% on the recently completed third quarter and by more than 22% compared to fourth quarter last year.
"The strong growth seen through the first half continued through the third quarter resulting in the strongest-ever quarterly performance, driven by our flagship casino, including mobile and live, sport betting, land-based revenue and services," said chief executive Mor Weizer.
He added: "Looking ahead, the management team is confident of exceeding current market expectations for the full year."
Casino revenues in the third quarter rose 33.3% to €62.4m, while the much smaller sports segment more than doubled rebenues to €7.1m, while bingo rose 9.5% and poker by 3.1%. Services revenues were 19.3% higher at €34m.
Playtech was exceptionally active in the period, launching an innovative new live casino offering for Skybet and RAY, as well as a new web and mobile sport offering for the new GazzaBet website owned by RCS Media in Italy, with a Gazzetta dello Sport casino and mobile casino to follow.
The FTSE 250-listed group also launched a turnkey white-label arrangement with Trinity Mirror and renewed its William Hill bingo contract, as well as completing two significant acquisitons.
The pruchase of Aristocrat Lotteries in September makes it the largest supplier of video lottery terminals (VLT) software in the world, while a 33.3% stake bought in UK gaming and bingo operator BGO Entertainment for £10m gives Playtech access to a game design studio and will see BGO soon move across to the Playtech platform.
Broker Shore Capital said the quarterly revenues were well ahead of its 16% growth forecasts and therefore its full year estimates for earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of €193m will need to rise by around €10m.
"Our discounted cash flow analysis suggests that medium-term growth of circa 10% per annum would be worth close to £10 per Playtech share."
Panmure Gordon upgraded forecasts by around 6%, or circa €11m, to EBITDA forecasts.