Mixed bag of first quarter results from OPAP

Greek gaming firm OPAP felt the effect of its new video lottery (VLT) rollout reporting a decline of 8.7 percent on first quarter net profit to Euro 39 million (Q1/2016: Euro 42.8 million). Declining sports betting results were offset by a good performance in numerical and scratch card games.

OPAP, who launched the new business at the beginning of the year, expects the first phase of VLT installations to complete in the middle of next year with the true benefits only felt at the end of its 2018 fiscal period.

Key performance indicators for the three month period ending March 31, 2017 include:

– A 5.3 percent increase in total gross gaming revenues to Euro 358.9 million (Q1/2016: Euro 340.7 million). Weak sports betting results were again offset by numerical and scratch card games.

– Adjusted EBITDA was down 0.4 percent to Euro 78.5 million (Q1/2016: Euro 78.8 million) burdened by the cost of the VLT rollout and agent strikes.

– Net income from games was Euro 148.3 million, up 6.2 percent y-o-y.

– Gross gaming revenues on sports betting was Euro 95.4 million, down 6.9 percent (Q1/2016: Euro 102.5 million).

– Net earnings on numerical games amounted to Euro 223.1 million, up 10.9 percent. Scratch and lottery amounted to Euro 38.5 million, up from Euro 37.1 million year-on-year.

– Gross gaming revenues on OPAP’s new VLT division was Euro 1.8 million.

– Additional distribution of gross dividends amounting to Euro 0.60 per share.