Poker players stopped to watch the World Cup

Despite some online casino operators reporting increased profits due to the world cup 888 has recently reported first half profits more than halving to $4.29 million. The principle cause according to 888 was the reduced revenue in the poker section which fell by $6.6 million to $19.6 as players deserted poker while watching the football but strangely enough online casino and bingo revenues were up which could suggest that the female population turned to online gambling instead of watching the football. 888 Chief Executive Gigi Levy said “our business experienced a difficult first half against the backdrop of a challenging economic environment” and at the same time announced a scrapping of the interim dividend which would normally trigger a decline in share price but in 888’s case did not. 888 added that both casino and  poker divisions had made a strong start to the third quarter aided by the change from Casino on Net to 888 casino as previously reported here at onlinecasino.ie. 888 Has been active in mergers and acquisitions in recent times but it seems it has yet to reap the full benefits of that activity. Analysts will be looking for some of those benefits to hit the bottom line so that the dividend can be reinstated. In the meantime, 888 remains a very strong online casino operator and poorer than expected  results in one quarter do not it a basket case and some analysts still expect full year results to be on target.