House! 888 reports bingo success in Q2

According to the firm the strongest growth was in its bingo and business-to-business divisions.

A 15% increase in sales from the same period last year saw the betting firm post total revenues of $111m (£65.8m) for the quarter. The announcement saw the FTSE 250 listed company’s share price increase by 0.21% to 121p.

Announcing the results last week, the firm’s CEO Brian Mattingley said:

“I am pleased to report that 888 has delivered another strong performance in the second quarter which, in combination with our very good start to the year, has once again resulted in record-breaking revenue for H1.”

Mattingley went on to highlight how the firm’s back-end systems are fundamental to recent success. With stringent systems, Software Test Design (STD) and increasing the interactive options likely to be more and more important to offer a difference from competitors, he continued:

“This outcome has been driven by strong performances across both our B2C and B2B lines of business and is testament to our exceptional brands, technology, marketing and CRM systems.”

It is not all about developing systems, ensuring robust tests, offering new lines and the exciting world of STD. Bingo is itself seeing excellent growth, showing classic games are still sought after. As well as 888, Foxy, Wink and Betway are all growing their online bingo offerings in the UK market for example.

Mattingley was quick to warn about over-excitement, explaining that how brightly the full year results shine will be very much dependant on trading. However, he went on to add that he is confident for the growth of the firm.

There is also confidence in 888 from elsewhere.

Analysts at London based global investment bank Daniel Stewart & Co backed up an earlier ‘buy’ rating for shares in the firm. Investec too took the chance to also reiterate their ‘buy’ rating.

Investec has since updated this to a ‘hold’ status, which has been matched by two other analysts. One analyst has a ‘sell’ rating.

Consensually though, 888 Holdings Public Limited Company has a ‘buy’ rating, while at the time of writing, the firm’s share price was priced at 124.75p.