Contents
The biggest news from the call: Amaya has been forced to adjust their guidance for 2015 by a material amount, dropping from a range of $1.456bn – $1.564bn to $1.289bn – $1.339bn.
That’s a drop of $167 – $225mm. Amaya chalked up the haircut to FX pressures, a slower-than-expected rollout of sport and casino products, and delays in Portugal.
Misc points of note:
PokerStars received approval to operate in New Jersey at the end of September.
The initial expectation was that a launch of PokerStars and Full Tilt would follow shortly. But it quickly became apparent that early 2016 was a more likely target.
Baazov extended that window further on the call, saying that we should expect a PokerStars to enter the NJ online poker market in the “first half of 2016” – suggesting a launch could move into the spring.
Baazov teased “a new poker variant targeting the large and growing skilled video gaming community.”
PokerStars has quite a bit of cultural crossover with the eSports community (see the recent Hearthstone match at BlizzCon between Elky and Daniel Negreanu).
The company is understood to be focusing aggressively on the eSports betting market and a PokerStars variant that tapped the growing interest in wagering on eSports – either directly or peripherally.
PokerStars and Full Tilt now control an estimated 71% of the global online poker market, per Amaya.