BPTY.L Regulatory News (BPTY)

28 October 2015

bwin.party digital entertainment plc

('bwin.party' or the 'Company' and, together with its subsidiaries, the 'Group')

Third quarter 2015 trading update

Key points

· Clean EBITDA for the nine months ended 30 September 2015 up 5% to €79.8m (2014: €76.1m). Excluding EU VAT and UK point of consumption tax ('POCT'), Clean EBITDA would have increased by 26%

· Total revenue in the nine months to 30 September 2015 down 8% to €429.9m (2014: €465.8m) reflecting the absence of a major football tournament, the sale of non-core businesses and the impact of EU VAT

· Sports betting turnover in the nine months to 30 September 2015 up on the same period last year, despite no World Cup. Sports margin has recovered from the first half, although still lower than last year

· Original target of €15m reduction in administration expenses for this year already met at end of third quarter. Further savings anticipated in Q4

· Current trading[1] has been strong with average daily revenue of €1,484,300, up 9% (2014: €1,372,100); excluding EU VAT, total net revenue is up 12%

Commenting on today's announcement, Norbert Teufelberger, CEO, said:

"Whilst our year-on-year revenue performance has been held back by the impact of EU VAT and the absence of a major football tournament, we have a made a strong start in the fourth quarter, particularly in sports betting and casino. Our operating and financial performance is continuing to improve on the back of the changes that we initiated in previous periods - we have already achieved our full year target for cost savings of €15m and anticipate making further savings in Q4.

"Despite the impact of the introduction of VAT in a number of EU markets, as well as the POCT that was introduced on 1 December 2014, our Clean EBITDA for the nine months ended 30 September is 5% ahead of the same period last year. Excluding the impact of EU VAT and the POCT, Clean EBITDA would have been €96.1m, an increase of 26% on the same period last year.

"Current trading has been strong, despite the impact of EU VAT and further declines in poker. With solid progress on expanding our mobile footprint and the full year benefit of the cost savings already made, we remain confident about the outlook."

Full details of all of the Group's quarterly KPI data by segment will be made available for download at the Group's website at http://www.bwinparty.com later today.

Recommended offer by GVC Holdings PLC

On 4 September 2015, it was announced that GVC and bwin.party had reached agreement on the terms of a recommended offer by GVC to acquire the entire issued and to be issued share capital of bwin.party.

The requisite shareholder documents associated with the transaction are well-advanced and it is expected that they will be posted to shareholders shortly, enabling the transaction to complete in early 2016.

Contacts:

bwin.party digital entertainment plc 

Investors

Peter Reynolds +44 (0) 20 7337 0177

Media

Jay Dossetter +44 (0) 20 7337 0134