Depressed Shares of Company Bounce Following Assurance That "Major Changes" Are Ahead

Published on 2014-08-29 22:55:00

Shares of Bwin.Party Digital Entertainment PLC (BPTY on the London Stock Exchange) bounced 12.66% to close at 90.30 following the release of the company's H1 2014 earnings report.

The company, which is well off of its 52 week high of 135.50, has been struggling mightily due to underperformance in a few key areas, including online poker. PartyPoker has been destroyed by Pokerstars in many key markets throughout the world and now the company has to deal with the prospect of having to compete with the world's #1 online poker room in key US markets such as New Jersey. In short, Bwin.Party has been unable to buck a negative trend that has destroyed shares of the company over the past 18 months or so.

CEO Norbert Teufelberger addressed the underperformance in comments that were released earlier today. Teufelberger said that the company would continue to cut costs and focus on developing the Bwin brand in Europe and the Partypoker/World Poker Tour brands in the United States.

Teufelberger said that Bwin.Party would seek to cut 15 million Euros in costs in 2015 and try to improve the performance of its various businesses. This is obviously easier said than done, as the company faces severe competitive pressures in the online poker, casino and sports betting markets. Pokerstars is obviously a very stiff competitor in the online poker industry, but Bwin.Party also faces very tough competition in the online sports betting industry from the likes of William Hill.

It's certainly going to be an uphill climb for Bwin.Party - it's going to be interesting to see how they do.

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Filed Under: Poker Room News