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The last couple of years have been amazing to watch for GVC Holdings, as the company embarked on a quest for domination of the gambling industry, and has given it a pretty good go so far!The final financial report of 2017 was released on Friday, and shows how consistent the company’s growth has been in the last year or two.
The numbers
GVC’s full-year net revenue from gaming went up to €1.008b, a rise of 13% from the year before, which goes up to 17% if you remove the Turkish-facing operations, which GVC has separated from.Clean earnings hit just shy of €240m, an improvement of 40% on the year before, with pre-tax profits at €178.7m.Year-on year comparisons are a little skewed as Bwin.party was purchased by GVC at the beginning of 2016, but with a rise of 2% in pro-forma betting handle despite the UEFA European Championships the year before shows definite improvement.Out of GVC’s sites, PartyPoker was the most impressive, seeing a revenue rise of 42%, well over the movement in the global poker market in general, which only rose by 2% in the same period.PartyCasino also warrants mention, seeing growth for the first time in many years after changing management and unveiling a new TV campaign.CEO of GVC, Kenny Alexander did not hold back when talking about Bwin’s management before the takeover, saying Party Poker had been “very, very poorly managed” by people who were “letting it die”.
The future
With GVC’s takeover of rival Ladbrokes Coral all but definite, with shareholders voting overwhelmingly in favour of the move, we can expect GVC to keep on growing through 2018 and beyond.If the trajectory continues as it has been, GVC may be the only giant left in the industry!