888 Poker Affected by Soccer Season

August 6 - Commenting on the poor performance of the company's 888 online poker offering this week, the Chief Executive of 888 Holdings, Gigi Levy said that the recent soccer season was much to blame.

According to Levy, 888 Poker players were so wrapped up in the action of the Euro 2008 football tournament that took the world by storm, that many of them stopped their favorite internet pastime in order to watch the games that ran during the quarter.

In the company's financial report that covered the three month period leading up to June 30th this year, it can be seen that revenues for its excellent online poker offering dropped a significant 10% compared to the previous quarter. The revenues also remained unchanged compared to the same time period in the year before - standing at $20 million.

Levy said that the drop in revenue was "driven by seasonality and the impact of the Euro 2008 football tournament." Revenues on a per-active-player basis dropped 9% from the previous quarter to $116, dropping 3% compared to the same period last year.

Gigi Levy was quick to comment that strong poker trading had already been felt in the first three weeks of July and stressed that the third quarter of 2008 had "started well".

In other areas, 888 Holdings performed remarkably well. Its new bingo and sports betting offerings rose impressively by 376% and 56% respectively, in comparison to the first quarter of 2008.

Core casino revenues rose to $35 million - an increase of 27%. These numbers were 1% ahead of the previous quarter. All in all, in comparison to the same period in 2007, total operating income rose to $69 million - an increase of 36%