SHARES in poker machine developer Ainsworth Game Technology have fallen more than eight per cent after the company warned that profit would fall in the first half of the 2014/15 financial year.
BUT Ainsworth chief executive Danny Gladstone said profit for the full year should be ahead of the 2014 result.
Mr Gladstone said revenue from Australian operations in the first half was expected to be down about 30 per cent on the prior corresponding period.
The revenue decline would be largely due to the timing of product approvals and was expected to be regained in the second half.
«Given the expected lower domestic revenue in half one of FY15 (the 2014/15 financial year), the company advises that it expects to report a lower profit in half one compared to the corresponding period,» Mr Gladstone told shareholders at the company’s annual general meeting in Sydney.
Mr Gladstone said domestic and international revenues, primarily from the key North American market, would be more heavily weighted to the second half of the year.
«It is expected that given the weighting of international revenues more aligned to the second half, overall profitability for FY15 should be ahead of the previous 2014 year,» he said.
Shares in Ainsworth fell 23 cents, or 8.46 per cent, to $2.49 on Wednesday.
Ainsworth also said it is set to expand further into the increasingly lucrative world of online social casinos.
Social casinos have no real cash bets, with players paying for virtual casino chips that cannot be cashed out.
Mr Gladstone said the company could not ignore the fast growing social gaming market, which is estimated to be worth $US5 billion by 2018.
Ainsworth has already entered into a joint venture with a social gaming operator and developer to enter the market with the Players Paradise casino, scheduled for release in January.
«Whilst our timing to enter this market is behind our major competitors, it has provided the company with the ability to develop a quality mobile offering complete with improved mobile technologies which now account for over 50 per cent of revenues in this online segment,» Mr Gladstone said.
«It is the company’s intention to launch a second social casino during 2015 which will provide unique mobile and tablet game offerings.»
Chairman Len Ainsworth said online gaming was the greatest change in the sector he had witnessed.
The proliferation of social networks had created massive user bases in the social casino segment, which could provide the gateway to real money gaming, he said.
«Over the past 12 months our digital strategy has been established to service the key market segments of real money wagering and social casino gaming and participate in these revenue opportunities,» Mr Ainsworth said.
