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(Alliance News) - 888 Holdings PLC on Wednesday announced its profit more than doubled in the first half of 2020 thanks to continued strong levels of customer acquisition and high use of online services during lockdown.
The FTSE 250-listed online gaming entertainment provider posted a pretax profit in the six months ended June 30 of USD50.9 million, more than doubling from USD22.2 million a year prior.
Revenue was up 37% to USD379.1 million from USD277.3 million a year before.
Chief Executive Itai Pazner said: "This outcome reflects the group's continued strong levels of customer acquisition, general consumer trends towards increased use of online services especially during the COVID-19 lockdown period and 888's relentless focus on product leadership."
The company declared an interim dividend of 3.2 US cents per share as well as an additional one-off 2.8 cents per share, bringing the interim dividend to a total of 6.0 cents per share. This is double last year's 3.0 cents per share.
888 said third-quarter daily revenue to date is on average 56% higher than the year prior.
Going forward, Pazner said: "888 is looking forward to delivering further product enhancements including the introduction of our new poker product across markets during the second half of 2020 and the launch of our proprietary sportsbook in the UK early next year.
"In addition, we are continuing to invest in safe gambling tools and will begin the roll-out of a new customer-centric safe gambling feature called the 'Control Centre' later this year that will offer customers an improved interface to help them understand better their gambling behaviour."
888 shares were up 23% at 255.50 pence each in London on Wednesday morning. They are up 55% in the year to date.
By Greg Roxburgh; gregroxburgh@alliancenews.com
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