Baazov severs ties with Amaya

This week’s surprise announcement came from Amaya, which reported that its suspended CEO, David Baazov, has left the company altogether and that interim chief exec Rafi Ashenazi has accepted the post as a permanent position.

Our readers will recall that Baazov voluntarily took suspension at the beginning of this year as he fought to clear his name on insider trading charges levelled by the Quebec securities authorities.

Baazov has resigned all of his positions with Amaya, but has in the past intimated that he is assembling partnerships with a view to making an offer for the company. Amaya has revealed that it is still considering its options in this regard.

Baazov commented on his departure in a statement, saying:

“I am proud of my contributions in building Amaya into the successful company it is today, and continue to be supportive of its strategy and management.”

Amaya’s second quarter results were also posted this week, showing an imprssive jump in net earnings, along with a 24.5 percent hike in adjusted earnings and a 10 percent rise in revenue calculated in US currency.

The company’s adjusted earnings rose to $89.7 million or 46 cents per share from $72.1 million or 36 cents per share in the comparative period in 2015.

Real-money online poker revenue for the quarter was generally stable y-o-y at $215.6 million, whilst online casino and sportsbook revenue represented 21 percent (Q2-2015: 12 percent) of total quarterly revenue of $285.9 million (up 10.2 percent year-on-year). Poker’s contribution to group revenue fell from nearly 90 percent last year to 75 percent this year.

The half-year 2016 performance of the company shows an 8 percent rise in group revenue to $5.7 billion, and EBITDA up 12 percent at $253 million, with customer registrations rising by 1.9 million to 103 million.

Related and similar