Playtech announced on Thursday its results for the six months ended 30 June 2020, together with a trading update for July and August 2020.
"The attitude of our people coupled with the resilience and diversification of our technology-led business model has delivered a strong first-half performance during an extremely challenging period for the industry. These strengths, combined with early decisive action to focus on the safety of our employees and protect the Group's cash flow, has placed us in a strong position to benefit from the recovery and to capture the exciting market opportunity in the US and Latin America," said CEO Mor Weizer.
Group highlights
"The extraordinary trading conditions during the pandemic have brought us closer than ever to our licensees and we have seen even greater demand for our products, with an increased focus across the globe on intelligent software and personalized player journeys and protection tools. As the leading technology company in the gambling industry, our licensees look to us to deliver innovation that changes the way players experience gambling entertainment. Key to this approach is Sustainable Success, our new ESG strategy launched in H1, which aims to consolidate our position as a global leader in safer products, data analytics and player engagement solutions and build a safe and sustainable gambling industry for the benefit of all stakeholders," Weizer went on.
Divisional highlights
B2B Gambling
B2C Gambling
TradeTech Group
"As well as increasing our work with existing tier one licensees and adding more than 50 new brands to our SaaS model, we have also continued to execute our expansion into strategically important markets such as the US with our first launch in New Jersey and further structured agreements in Latin America. The scale of our technology and the breadth of our product offering mean Playtech can capture commercial opportunities in the fast-growing US and Latin America markets outside the remit of traditional B2B suppliers and we are investing in accelerating this strategy," Weizer concluded.
While the Group saw an extremely strong start to the period in January and February driven by TradeTech, a strong performance from Snaitech and favorable sporting results, the adverse impacts of COVID-19 between mid-March and June led to the Group's total reported revenues decreasing by 23% to €564.0 million (H1 2019: €727.8 million) and down 22% on a constant currency basis and after excluding acquisitions made in 2019 and 2020.
However, despite the pandemic, the Group's Adjusted EBITDA for the first half exceeded €160 million, a decline of only 16% and 15% on a constant currency basis. This was driven by the strength of online Casino (including Live), Bingo, Poker, and an exceptional performance by TradeTech. The Group's total reported EBITDA decreased by 15% to €138.1 million (H1 2019: €162.0 million).
See the company's half-year report here.
See the company's half-year presentation here.