Maiden quarterly profit reported by Probability plc

The UK mobile technology firm Probability plc has published its trading update for Q4 of its financial year ended 31 March, 2013, hailing the year as ‘transformational’ and reporting its maiden quarterly profit.

Key Performance Indicators are listed as:

* 60 percent of platform revenue in the quarter derived from business-to-business services (Q4 FY12: 43 percent).

* Average Revenue Per User (“ARPU”) from B2C and white label players in the quarter of GBP119 per player, an increase of 11 percent.

* Net Gaming Revenue of GBP 1.9 million, a decline of 9.5 percent compared to the same period last year.

* Full year NGR of GBP 8.8 million, a 20 percent increase on the previous year, producing a modest full year positive EBITDA for the core UK business.

* Net cash and equivalents at the end of the quarter of GBP 3.6 million (including net proceeds of GBP 2.6 million raised by the placing in January 2013 (see previous InfoPowa report).

Operating highlights included:

* Mobile slot games provided to 14 different brands hosted by Dragonfish, including Foxy Bingo, Wink Bingo and 888Ladies.com.

* Launch of 6 new slot games  including the first from a partnership with Glu Mobile, Samurai vs. Zombies Slots, and a second bespoke title for Paddy Power, Steaks And Stallions. More titles were released in this quarter than in the whole of the preceding nine months, made possible by the Probability’s new “Slot-O-Matic” technology which reduces time to market for new games by 90 percent.

* Significant contract wins, new product releases and the first operating profits from Playyoo, the company’s Swiss subsidiary focusing on the Italian regulated market, which was acquired in July 2012 (see previous InfoPowa report).

Probability CEO Charles Cohen described the year as ‘transformational’, with the company entering the Italian market and the core UK business delivering its maiden quarterly profit, along with a modest EBITDA profit for the full 2013 financial year.

“Although achieving profitability within Q4, we experienced softer demand in January and February 2013 following record income in December 2012 across both B2B and B2C,” Cohen revealed.

“Given the seasonality experienced we actively chose to reduce planned marketing spend within the period as we look to maximise the impact of our marketing investment. We saw a strong recovery in March vs. February with both active players and NGR up 23 percent and 7 percent respectively, partly driven by new game releases.

“Over this year the business has evolved from being predominantly a B2C operator to now successfully monetising its unique technology platform. More than 60 percent of platform revenues came from the B2B business in Q4 2013 (43 percent in Q4 2012) as we become an increasingly critical part of our partners’ mobile offer and increase our network, with 888 Dragonfish now joining Paddy Power, William Hill, Lottomatica, SNAI and others.  Despite this shift, our B2C business has continued to grow more than 15 percent this year compared to last.

“We remain confident of growth in FY14 as we invest in both B2C and B2B revenue streams, supported by aggressive future proofing of our technology platform and game offering with Slot-O-Matic and other innovations.”