Part 1: Strictly bingo
7.5% to £38.8m, while a trading statement at the second half of calendar year 2018”. It added that
start of May said that net gaming revenue for it believed it was through the worst and that
Mecca rose 10% (though gross gaming revenue the business was “adjusting accordingly” to the
was flat) (see table 5). disruptive regulatory and tax factors (see table 6).
Of course, Stride has had to as it was one of
Rank has since moved to bolster its digital
offering through the acquisition of Stride Gaming, the more high-profile companies to be singled
submitting a 151 pence per share bid for the out by the Gambling Commission for failures in its
business in May. Should the deal be completed, it anti-money laundering and social responsibility
will migrate its digital assets to Stride’s proprietary procedures. That cost the company a £7.1m fine.
Subsequently, in response to press speculation,
platform, and will see the operator become one
of the largest in the sector, with annual pro forma the company announced it was undergoing a
revenue of approximately £185m. strategic review, which included the potential of a
“We have long been impressed with the quality of
sale of the company.
This has come to pass, with Rank Group making
the Stride management, technology and operations,
which, we believe, offer significant opportunities to a 151 pence per share offer for the business,
create value when combined with the Rank brands, which values it at £115.3m. Stride’s current chief
customer-base and infrastructure,” Rank CEO John executive Darren Sims will lead the new, enlarged
O’Reilly said at the time. digital bingo business, with operations chief Eitan
“The joining of our businesses will accelerate
Boyd switching to the same role.
delivery of Rank’s transformation plan and create
one of the UK’s leading online gaming businesses.”
Sun also rises
The last of the big names to mention is Playtech
One Stride forward, two steps back and its Sun Bingo operation. Having recently
The company left with an unfilled bingo card, at agreed a new contract extension with brand
least before the Rank deal, is Stride Gaming. It has owner News UK, Playtech said it has sorted out
similarly reported negative trading figures, with the technical difficulties that accompanied the
revenue for 2018 down £4.4m, or just under 5%, to initial migration a couple of years back and is now
£85.5m. seeing healthy revenue growth. This came in at
The most recent trading statement said
€33.7m for 2018, up 44% (see table 7).
that trading was again 5% below expectations,
Playtech said the strong revenue growth was
“reflecting greater disruption arising from fiscal driven by the continued focus on targeted and
and regulatory changes implemented in the data driven marketing.
Table 6: Stride five-year financials
Stride Gaming 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
Revenue (£m) 8.5 27.8 47.8 89.9 85.5
Pre-tax profit (£m) 0.9 0.4 0.1 -26.7 -0.1
Source: Company reports
Table 7: Playtech bingo five-year financials
Playtech 2015 2016 2017 2018
Bingo revenue (€m) 20.5 19.8 26.2 26.3
23.6 33.7
Sun Bingo (€m)
Source: Company reports
iGaming Business Market Monitor • UK bingo market, Sweden and Germany • June 2019
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