Probability plc in USA Gambling Talks
Thursday December 19,2013 : BRITISH MOBILE GAMBLING OPERATOR IN U.S. TALKS
Probability plc is in an advanced stage of negotiation with two potential US customers.
British mobile gambling technology provider Probability plc says in its most recent financial reportage that having branched out into Italy, it is now looking to the United States legalised market, where it hopes to gain a foothold in 2014.
“The company is in an advanced stage of negotiation with two potential customers to supply our platform, content and management services for regulated activity in their respective US States. These are multi-site, land based casino operators,” CEO Charles Cohen disclosed.
Probability is starting to see a resumption of growth after taking action to reshape its business-to-consumer activities
July 2013 saw the cost of customer acquisition (CPA) on the business-to-business side rise sharply, prompting a change of tack on the part of the management.
The revised approach appears to delivered the right results, with the company reporting in its interim numbers that the CPA in November 2013 was down by two-thirds on July’s level, and provisional data indicates a close to break-even EBITDA for the month.
Player retention and yield has also improved, while gaming margins have settled down after a series of big winner pay-outs in September impacted the bottom line.
Cohen says that revenues from white label clients on the b2b side of the company's activities have been boosted by improved player retention tactics and fresh content, and that mobile revenues in this sector are now back at last year's levels.
Nevertheless, NGR for the six months ended September 30 was down at GBP 3.64 million (September 2012: GBP 4.53 million) although average revenue per user from b2c and white label players managed by Probability increased by 8 percent year-on-year.
Adjusted loss before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation was GBP 1.34 million, more acute when compared to a loss of GBP 225,000 the previous year.
Loss before tax widened to GBP1.59 million from GBP 658,000 as the company grappled with challenges it experienced in the first half of its financial year.
"Whilst recovery is still incomplete we have begun to see growth again and our unrelenting focus is to build on this renewed momentum,” Cohen said, adding that Probability's move into Italy is going well after some industry-wide problems caused by the Italian regulator taking longer to approve new games than expected.
"The Playyoo business which we acquired in August 2012 is now making a positive net contribution to the group from customers in Italy," Cohen said.
"The growth of demand for our unique local games in the App Store has been fantastic. Approval times for new games by the regulator are now coming down, meaning we can speed up our release schedule for this important market in the coming months after the frustrations of 2013 which held us all back.”
