Amaya Gaming reaps acquisition rewards

Amaya Gaming purchased Ongame Network from bwin.party digital entertainment in October for approximately us$19.42 million while November saw it pay us$167 million in order to take control of electronic machine and technology supplier Cadillac Jack.

The firm stated that its improvement in quarterly revenues was ‘primarily attributable’ to the consolidation of software licensing and hosted casino earnings from CryptoLogic, which it acquired for approximately us$ 29 million in early-April, alongside similar gains from Ongame Network and Cadillac Jack.

For the three months to the end of March, Amaya Gaming declared that adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation grew from a deficit of us$ 514,085 last year to a surplus of us$ 9.91 million although its net loss for the period increased by just over 63 % year-on-year to us$ 7.18 million.

Amaya Gaming said that its first-quarter gross profit percentage had improved by 3% year-on-year to 99 % while selling and marketing expenses grew by 106 % when compared with the same three-month period in 2012 to us$ 3.6 million. Similarly, it revealed that general and administrative expenditures escalated by 358 percent when set against the first quarter of last year to us$ 33.2 million due to a larger employee base, higher rents and increases in amortisation costs along with consulting and professional fees incurred in connection with its purchase of CryptoLogic.

For the full year to the end of December, Amaya Gaming predicted that overall revenues would total in the range of us$ 150.6 million to us$ 161.3 million while annual adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation are expected to fall between us$ 53.12 million to us$ 61.81 million.

“We're extremely pleased with the substantial positive cashflow generated from our operations in the first quarter,” said David Baazov, President and CEO for Amaya Gaming.

“This is a strong focus of Amaya Gaming's management team. So far this year, we have expanded the reach of our interactive offering in the United States with the SHFL and Aristocrat partnerships in addition to our relationship with Bally.

“Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware have recently legalised some forms of pay-to-play online gaming and a reported ten other states have considered some form of Internet gambling this year. Gaming jurisdictions are moving towards regulatory frameworks that are evolving to adapt to the convergence of both interactive and land-based gaming operations. We are well positioned to capitalise on this evolving regulatory framework due to our technology, regulatory status and strategic partnerships.

“Additionally, we are continuing to integrate the acquisitions we made in 2012 including Cadillac Jack and Ongame. We will continue to focus on realising on anticipated revenue and cost synergies from these additions throughout the rest of this year.”