888 Blames World Cup for Online Poker Woes

September 1 - Online casino and poker group, 888 Holdings, announced that revenues for the six months to June 30, 2010 were lower than expected.

As such, the group will be forced to forgo an interim dividend payment and 888 has launched cost cutting strategies to ensure that it gets its finances in line.

According to Gigi Levy, Chief Executive of 888, the World Cup had a powerful impact on traditional casino and poker activity, leading to a decline in the number of players compared to normal years.

He also blamed the weakness of the online poker market and currency exchange movements.

The company said that while revenues were 10.5% higher than the previous year's numbers in the same time period, they were still lower than expected.

Levy hopes that cutting costs will reduce the company's overheads by up to $6 million in the second half of the year.

He justified the scrapping of an interim dividend by saying that money would be used "to continue investing for future growth, and to support potential acquisitions."

Touching on the idea of consolidating with other groups in the industry in a bid to solve financial pressures, Levy said: "We look at consolidation as one of the possible routes to realizing our full value and feel that longer terms this is the direction the industry will take."

"We have always stated that we will look into relevant deals and expect the recent merger news [Party Gaming and Bwin] to accelerate such discussions in the industry," he added.

888 Poker revenue fell from $26.2 million to $19.6 million in the first half of 2010.