The owner of PokerStars, which recently decided to rebrand itself, is writing a new chapter of the companys history with a more than 200 percent increase in its second quarter net income.
The former Amaya Inc., now called the Stars Group Inc., announced that its net income jumped 213 percent to US$70.5 million in April to June 2017 period compared to US$22.5 million it posted during the same period last year.
Stars Group has made a turnaround this year after a tumultuous 2016 when it is plagued with weak earnings and after its founder David Baazov has been dragged into the insider trading controversy.
To strip off their tainted image, the company decided to drop Amaya and change it to Stars Group, packed their bags to Toronto from Pointe-Claire, Quebec, hired new executives, and expanded its game offerings other than poker.
Rafi Ashkenazi, chief executive officer of Stars Group, pointed out that their gamble is paying-off with more than double income.
Our evolution and transformation into The Stars Group continued as we completed our name change and head office move, while our second quarter saw the strengthening of our core senior management team and continued solid revenue growth led by our real money online casino offering, Ashkenazi said in a statement.
Breaking the Stars Groups data further, it looked like their decision was right to rely less on its poker and expand its offerings. Real-money online poker revenues for the quarter were $202.9 million, or a decrease of approximately 5.9% year-over-year.
The data of its casino and sportsbooks revenues, however, tell a different story. Star Group reported that the combined real-money online casino and sportsbook revenues in the second quarter grew 50.2 percent to $89.6 million.
Total revenues for the quarter increased approximately 6.8% year-over-year. Excluding the impact of year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates, total revenues for the quarter would have increased by approximately 7.9%.
The company also announced that it estimates 2017 revenue, reported in U.S. currency, will be at the upper-end of its previous range of between $1.2 billion and $1.26 billion.
It also has revised 2017 estimated adjusted earnings range upward to between $413 million and $437 million, from $400 million to $430 million.