More good financial news for the online casinos

This month’s online casino news contains mostly encouraging news for our online casino operators and for casino gambling in general. In spite of worries in some quarters about the effect of the online casinos on their land based rivals, the Rank Group have just announced a massive 33% leap in operating profits at their Grosvenor Casinos over the first six months of their financial year. Unfortunately this excellent performance was offset at Rank by a slump in revenues for their Mecca Bingo operation and continuing problems with their online gambling business, Blue Square. Nevertheless it is encouraging that their casino estate is doing well in spite of online competition. Also reporting this month were 888 Holdings, one of our biggest online casino operators, and here it is all good news. They claim to have gained more than 3 million customers during the past year spread over their online gambling platforms, and have seen revenues rise by 13% to just under £240 million. 888 Holdings offer online sports betting, online casino games including online poker, and have a successful and growing mobile phone operation which enables customers to play casino games on the move. Apparently the mobile phone element of the business is showing the biggest growth in new customers, and is certainly a sign of where the future of online casino games is going. Another big player in the online casino market currently attracting a great deal of interest among sector analysts is Playtech, the online casino software supplier. As a result of the recent sale of their stake in the joint online venture with William Hill they are expected to have nearly £500 million at their disposal for possible acquisitions, and some analysts are forecasting a substantial rise in their share price over the next few months. Currently valued at £1.3 billion and at the top end of the FTSE250, any big increase in share price would take it closer to the top 100.