Indian gaming operator Delta Corp saw its net revenue grow 36.8% in the three months to 30 June 2018 to 109.9 crore, boosted by a 48.7% increase in income from gaming operations.
Casino revenue for the company grew 53% for the quarter, with Union Gaming’s Grant Govertsen attributing the improvement to “a notable amount of player displacement from the nearby small-scale hotel-based casinos that have either closed or downsized due to the recent license fee hike” in the Indian casino hub of Goa.
It is estimated that around half of the market supply has shut down.
Delta’s online gaming segment also enjoyed 16% growth to 39 crore following the company’s 2017 acquisition of popular online poker platform Adda52.
“We continue to expect the online segment to experience high rates of growth as the company’s Adda52 platform continues to gain traction,” Govertsen added. “We are forecasting 120% growth in this segment in FY19, followed by 30% and 20% in the subsequent years.”
Delta Corp’s casino segment remains somewhat in limbo as the government continues to debate the relocation of the state’s six floating casino ships to a new onshore “entertainment zone” along the northern border.
The company operates three offshore casinos and a hotel-casino in Goa, Casino Deltin Denzong in Sikkim and The Delton integrated resort in Daman.
According to Govertsen, physical space remains the biggest constraint to Delta Corp’s ongoing growth.
“For Delta, the biggest impediment to growth in the out years will be a lack of physical space to accommodate customers given that riverboat casinos have a finite amount of space (currently at 50-60% capacity),” he said. “It is this reason that the move to onshore is so important for the company and for the shares.”
