Italian gambling giant battles in 2012

Reports earlier this week that the CEO of Italian gambling giant SNAI, Stefano Bartoli, was on his way out in an ‘amicable’ departure may have been rooted in the group’s poor 2012 FY performance under his command.

The company’s just-released 2012 results make for dismal reading, showing:

* Increased losses of Euro 42.6 million (2011: Euro 40.5 m illion loss)

* Group revenues down almost 8 percent at Euro 514.4 million

* Earnings off 34 percent at Euro 64.5 million

* Debt increased by Euro 15.2 million, bring total debt burden to Euro 369.6 million

Bortoli’s team blamed the weak performance on a VLT screw-up that cost the company dearly in business and fines from the regulator; worse than expected sports betting and horse racing revenues; and higher pay-outs to punters.

The introduction of online slots into the Italian dedicated market, along with a positive player reaction to SNAI’s launch of its Playoo mobile app enabled the online operations of the company to boost revenues by 16.7 percent to Euro 5.6 billion in one of the few bright spots of the results.

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