Stars Group Q2 revenue gains 34.8 percent, helped by Australia

Monday 13th of August 2018

Canada-based Stars Group, owner of the PokerStars brand, reported a 34.8 percent jump in Q2 revenue, helped by recent acquisitions in Australia.

The total came in at $411.5 million. The company reported a net loss for the period of $154.8 million, though on an adjusted basis profit was up almost 15 percent at $131 million.

"The Stars Group's quarterly results reflect both continued organic growth within our International business and the contributions of our Australian acquisitions," said CEO Rafi Ashkenazi. "We continued enhancing our products and user experience across all verticals and executing on our cross-selling strategy."

"The continued emergence of our sports betting and casino offerings and the addition of our 2018 acquisitions have transformed our business and greatly enhanced the foundation and diversity of our consolidated revenue base, which will now be nearly equally split among verticals and roughly 75 percent locally regulated or taxed," said Mr. Ashkenazi.

In April, the company said it was upping its stake in CrownBet from 62 percent to 80 percent, while CrownBet subsequently bought William Hill Australia.

Poker revenue for the quarter was $217.0 million, or an increase of 6.9 percent from the prior year. Gaming revenue for the quarter was $101.9 million, or an increase of 26.3 percent, while sports betting revenue surged 122.2 percent to $19.6 million.