888 Post Annual Results With Online Sales Suffering

888 Holdings has reported its full yearly results to the end of December showing a drop of 3% in revenues to £1.9 billion in like for like sales last year, this the company says was due to its proactive investment in enhanced player safety measures.

Online revenues suffered a 15% fall in revenues offsetting a return to normality in its 1,400 retail outlets as the effects of COVID dissipated.

Last year the company acquired the European assets of betting company William Hill from Caesars Entertainment for almost £2 billion and the effects of that remained as 888 posted a loss of £115.7 million for the year compared to a profit of £59 million in

2021.

However when removing the costs of that acquisition the company had a pre-tax profit of £80.5 million which is still 10% lower compared to the previous year.

Lord Mendelsohn the chairman of 888 Holdings said, “The combination with William Hill transformed the group and brought together two exceptional and complementary businesses to create one of the worlds leading betting and gaming businesses.”

January this year the company said it had investigated shortfalls in its Middle East VIP program and would affect the company’s revenues by £25 to £30 million.

“The group’s financial performance in the period primarily reflected the extensive actions being taken to drive higher standards of player protection,” Lord Mendelsohn said.

“While recent compliance issues in the Middle East were very disappointing, they have underlined the importance of our enhanced and proactive risk management framework.”

Although the results for 888 were disappointing the company now says that for this full year it expects no further hits to its performance.