888 Holdings experienced a 55% increase in its fourth quarter revenues this month. For a company that has seen drastic drops since its withdrawal from the U.S. market, these victories aren’t taken for granted. 888 says that the increase in revenue is largely due to an increase in the number of female gamers.
One of the reasons for this is their new bingo service, 888ladies. 888ladies offers game tutorials and an online community with chat tools. This service is bringing in hundreds of new customers each day.
This is the first full fiscal year that 888 Holding has been trading without any customers from the U.S. due to the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) in late 2006. The company had no other choice but to seek other ways in which to replace the healthy stream of income from the United States market.
Its sales rose from $40 million in the last quarter of 2006 to $62.8 million this quarter. Fourth Quarter sales from casino games increased 60% while poker sales rose a lesser 16%. 888 is excited about these results and feel their strategies in replacing the lost income is proving to be a success.
In addition, the company launched a new event called the World Poker Crown, this year. The World Poker Crown is a poker tournament with a $3,000,000 guaranteed prize pool. Aside from the World Poker Crown, 888 also launched handicapped sport betting for Asia, Wink Bingo and Lucky Ace Poker.
To top off their recent success, 888 has also reported an increase of 17% in the first quarter of 2008 – a strong start to a new year.