Canadian gaming supplier Amaya Inc. reported what it called a “massive jump” in revenue for the first quarter, owing to its acquisition last year of Rational Group, the parent company of online gaming giants PokerStars and Full Tilt.
Montreal-based Amaya, which acquired Rational for $4.9 billion and has been spinning off non-core assets, posted an adjusted profit of C$82.5 million ($69 million), or 41 cents a share. That compared with a year earlier loss of C$1.3 million, or 1 cent a share for the same quarter last year.
Quarterly revenue rose to C$340.1 million, from C$12.8 million, a year ago, said Amaya, which recently signed a deal to sponsor Brazilian soccer star Neymar Jr., who plays at the club level with Barcelona FC in Spain.
“We saw continued strength in our core consumer online gaming business in the first quarter,” said Amaya CEO David Baazov in a statement, adding that PokerStars grew its share of the global online poker market and saw gross deposits rise some 9 percent on a domestic currency basis.
PokerStars estimates it controlled some 66 percent of the online poker market, based on cash game and tournament players in the first quarter, up from 62 percent a year earlier.
Last month, Amaya spun off and listed its Diamond Game unit into a new entity dubbed Innova Gaming Group. Diamond Game designs, develops and markets games mainly for the North American lottery industry. In March, it agreed to sell its Cadillac Jack slot-manufacturing subsidiary to an affiliate of private equity firm Apollo Global Management LLC for C$476 million.
