Almost Paradise: Poker Site Sees Sharp 33 Percent Decline

Paradise Poker, once among the top three largest Internet card rooms in the world, witnessed a sharp decline in revenues of 33 percent in the first 6 months of its financial year to end January 2012.

The company, which is owned by sports betting powerhouse Sportingbet Plc, called the current poker market conditions “challenging”.

Poker makes up 6.0 percent of gross gaming revenue.

Sportingbet overall recorded a loss for the period. 

The company said pretax loss for the first-half ended January 31 was 7.2 million pounds, compared with a profit before tax of 19.6 million pounds a year ago.

Sportingbet faced particularly daunting obstacles in Turkey following the dismantling of its Turkish language website -- which accounted for 29 percent of European and Emerging Markets net gaming revenue, as well as by the ongoing recessionary environment in the region.

"Their two biggest European markets, Spain and Greece, were pretty weak, and with regulatory changes coming through, visibility for earnings from those markets is still quite poor," Peel Hunt analyst Nicholas Batram said.

- Aaron Goldstein, Gambling911.com