XLMedia share price plummets 30% after casino sites demoted by Google

XLMedia’s share price tumbled more than 30% today after Google demoted the ranking of its online casino affiliate websites.

Updating investors, the Jersey-headquartered lead generation firm said it first became aware of the Google-ordered demotion as of 18 January 2020.

The drop off in search visibility has resulted in a significant decrease in traffic to XLMedia’s casino sites, affecting the firm’s ability to generate online visitors for operators, as well as triggering a negative impact on revenues.

XLMedia said: “While it is too early to accurately assess the financial impact of this action by Google, any further material delay to the full restoration of rankings of these online assets would result in a corresponding reduction of both revenue and adjusted EBITDA during that period.”

The affiliate added that a review of the process is underway, with a view to resolving issues with Google as soon as possible.

XLMedia will provide an update as soon as more information becomes available and confirmed that its other online publishing assets were unaffected by the demotion.

Google said it does not share justifications for commercial decisions.