888 Income Rises, shares Drop

Although 888, the leading poker and casino operator reported an increase in its income, the company's share price has dropped dramatically, as the company announced the layoffs of 15% of its workforce.

888, one of the biggest online gambling operators in the world has published the KPI (Key Performance Indicators) to its first 2010 quarter Income. KPI do not include any profit information.

The KPI indicate that 888 Q1 2010 operating income of $69M has climbed 21.4% compared with 2009 first quarter, but increased only by 4.6% compared with 2008 first quarter.

$59M, most of 888 income came from customers B2C operations. Although the B2C operations increase by 30% compared with its Q1 09, it showed no increase compared with Q1 08 results.

B2C casino income rose by 23% to $33M, while B2C poker income decreased 15% to $12M due to “a challenging poker environment.” says 888 statements.

Number of active customers increase 30% from Q1 2009 to 219,000, but income per customer decreased by 15%, to $204. The decrease in income per customer was triggered by the 33% decrease in income per customer of 888’s poker operations.

Dragonfish, 888’s Business to Business (B2B) operation income decreased by 12.6% compared with Q1 09 to $10.4M.

B2C emerging offering rose by over 200% to $14M.

The results came only a day after 888 has announced that it will lay off 15% of its workforce, located mostly in the company’s R&D center in Israel.

888 share value dropped sharply following the recent developments in the company, and closed at 81.7.