French launch hits Bwin profits

Strong growth in Italian poker revenues at Bwin were a highlight in a quarter where overall profits fell 27% and poker revenues outside of Italy dropped by 14.5%.

Online gaming giant Bwin paid the cost of an expensive launch in France with overall profits falling 27% in Q2 to €11 million despite a 16% rise in revenues.

The firm, which posted a profit of €30.3 million in the previous quarter, said the drop was 'attributable mainly to the additional expenses caused by the major event of the Soccer World Cup and the market launch in France.'

Bwin launched its poker site bwin.fr on the first day the French market went live and has been heavily active in marketing in the region.

It said gross revenues were three times those previously experienced in the French region on the bwin.com site in its first month of operation.

Bwin's French network also includes eurosportsbet.fr and sajoo.fr and is currently the third largest poker site in France, some way behind pokerstars.fr and everestpoker.fr.

The firm said in a statement it would be 'rapidly expanding' its poker network, and stressed the importance of the marketing spend in Q2.

'It was extremely important to be present in the market right from the beginning, and to invest heavily in customer acquisition as] it is either very difficult or very expensive to make up lost ground at a later date,' a bwin statement said.

Gross gaming revenues for the entire poker division increased by 21.1% to €32.5 million, but excluding the Gioco Digitale Italian site they declined 14.5% to €23.0 million.

Bwin put this fall down to the World Cup and 'continued stiff competition, particularly from poker providers still offering real money gaming to US customers.'

But Bwin was encouraged by its growth in Italy, gaining market share for the first time since its move to a new platform in February 2010 and it said it was well placed for the launch of cash games in Italy later this year.