Bwin is the latest to announce losses

Following on from Ladbrokes disappointing results published in our general casino news section a week or so ago the next online casino operator to report losses is Austrian based Bwin. Bwin who are in the middle of procedures to merge with ParyGaming announced a post tax loss of €2.8 million in the second quarter despite record betting on the World Cup in South Africa mostly due to an increase in “in play” betting. In terms of gross revenues all the major divisions of sports betting, online casino betting and poker all showed healthy increases but offsetting this was marketing and set up costs for the imminent entry into the French market. You may remember that back in June Bwin won a license to operate sports betting in the French market but according to the company the start up costs for this venture have been underestimated. This being the case the company is looking forward to the second half when these costs should no longer be there. How this will affect the merger is not yet known as the share prices of the two companies have been theoretically tied since the basis of the merger was announced but as Bwin and PartyGaming still have to carry out the final due diligence on each other with the prospectus expected in November and completion in the first quarter of 2011 there is plenty of time for things to change.

Sports betting at Bwin is over 50% of revenues whist online casino betting is under 20% so the merger with PartyGaming should redress that balance.