RAY blames recession for revenue fall
Online revenues for January to August decline 1% year-on-year as Finnish monopoly points to "reduced purchasing power"
Finnish monopoly Raha-automaattiyhdistys (RAY) has blamed the European recession for a marginal decline in online revenues during the first eight months of 2014.
Revenues from the operator’s digital channel fell 1% year-on-year to 38.7m for the January to August period despite an increase in the number of registered customers to more than 305,000.
“The reduced purchasing power of citizens had an increasing impact on the gaming habits of Finns during the second quarter,” Velipekka Nummikoski, managing director at RAY, said.
“As a result, our gaming operations are showing little growth at present,” he added.
Total group revenues fell 1.5% year-on-year to 512.3m as the firm’s Casino Helsinki proved to be the only business unit to grow during the period after reporting a 1.1% increasing in revenue to just less than 18.5m.
Last month RAY extended its online casino contract with Playtech to launch a new-look live casino product broadcast live from a purpose-built studio within the operator’s Espoo-based headquarters.