Playtech, like any other iGaming provider, is remaining on edge in the months to come. The pandemic has caused havoc across trading and market revenues, for that purpose Playtech have wished not to leap excessively when it comes to making further progressions and investments into the industry. The Pandemic ‘close down’ to many of today's industries, should make anyone cautious, especially as there has been drops in H1 trading figures across the country as of late.
Despite Playtech planning to lead investments into the industry, many have praised the fact that they decided to hold and halt on those plans. The first part of the year that was stricken by the pandemic showed a stop and start kind of trend within the figures. However, the TradeTech manoeuvre and business opportunity did go ahead as planned, with great success in the process of performance figures.
Overall however, figures do support the idea to put a hold on all investments, as the first half of the year showcased a drop-in revenue, by 23 percent from the previous year, at the same recorded times. Last year there was a total of £727.8 million in the revenue, whereas this year showcased only £564 million instead. The TradeTech and sporting results did however show increase and positive takings, but of course Playtech take account of all their markets combined when it comes to profits and revenue.
The EBITDA group is rumoured to have declined by 16 percent for the year from previous £192.9 million turnover. Playtech did suggest however, that these figures could have been far worse if it was not for the use and function of online casinos across the internet. This form of revenue is the one reason why Playtech was really saved despite the continuous falls in figures across their projects. The combination of live casino, bingo, online slots and casinos, in addition to the TradeTech sports betting, has allowed Playtech to remain stationary.
The adjusted profit for Playtech through a combination of all the figures stated above has ultimately dropped by an astonishing 81 percent, meaning this is the biggest drop Playtech have seen within one year recordings (from 2019). The CEO of Playtech Mor Weizer, reports that such dramatic changes within the figures of revenue and profit have most definitely affected business, yet it is the ‘resilience and diversification’ that has allowed them to get past their business projections for the first half of the year. Without a doubt, it has been ‘extremely challenging’ for Weizer and the staff of Playtech.
The early decision and action for Playtech to put a hold onto the investments, is what has allowed many of the team and staff to remain, in terms of the free cash flow that the company has to remain. This therefore puts Playtech in a great position to recover while others find ways of reclaiming lost investments made over new business models.
One of Playtech’s soon to be business models (and currently on hold) is the US takeover, alongside Latin America. Of course, part of the US has been introduced to new Playtech projects, yet the Latin Americas are still very much currently on hold. Playtech has every hope to look into this prospect further, just as soon as the revenue picks itself up back again. This period of standstill, is what is needed to reclaim the much needed profits that have been lost earlier this year.
B2B projects and revenue has decreased by 13 percent within the first half of this year (in comparison to 2019); most of which involved B2B projects within the USA. In addition to this, the Asian market was another large factor to the large overall relative decline in revenue. The Asian market is one of the largest trading markets for Playtech and this explains a lot definitely. From all the years Playtech has traded with Asia, the total decline is projected at 54% unfortunately.
It is only natural that sports betting declined within the first half of the year, due to the temporary stop of the sports matches across the world. Everything from Basketball, British football, American football etc., had come to a standstill. Only now has everything begun to kick start up again. This is bound to significantly affect all the takings for this year.
Business to Company revenue also dropped by 41 percent, due to the Snaitech takings put to a stop from closure of betting shops within the region of Italy. This was a large majority and again the absence of the major sporting events within Italy and internationally contributed to the overall decline in trading also.
It is not expected that the rest of the year 2020 should show the same trends and patterns of decline. Many of the usual sporting events and the Asian market has kicked started back up again, making Playtech very hopeful in redeeming back its lost income over the first half of the year.
Weizer Playtech’s CEO, continued to comment on Playtech’s progress, saying that the pandemic and its effects have really brought people together within the company. Now more than ever are staff members willing to go that extra mile to ensure that Playtech’s decline is only just a pit stop. Also, Playtech have recently seen an increase for the casino services, so it has not caused complete loss in their effects and legacy. More new online casino projects have risen of late and Playtech clearly have something up their sleeve.
‘The technology of Playtech is and always will be a forefront leader within the industry’. Within this COVID period, Playtech are sourcing out new ways to entertain players and launch some new projects and strategies. An increased workload and licenses has seen 50 new brands to the SaaS model for Playtech. In addition to this, any expansions have been placed to execute incrementally across the US and the Latin Americas too.
The new scale of technology is bound to put Playtech back in the top tier of profits and sales, as they are after all one of the fastest growing iGaming developers within the industry. Everyone just needs to watch this space.
