(RTTNews) - Online gaming group 888 Holdings Plc (888.L: News ) Tuesday said operating income for the third quarter declined 10% year-on-year, but remained flat sequentially. The company said B2C business showed resilience during the historical seasonally weak summer period, while Dragonfish continued its impressive growth.

For the third quarter, total operating income declined 10% to US$60.9 million from US$67.7 million in the comparable period last year, but remained unchanged sequentially, demonstrating resilient trading during the historical seasonally quiet summer period.

Total B2B operating income rose to US$12.7 million from US$11.0 million in the year-ago period. However, total B2C operating income decreased 15% to US$48.2 million from US$56.7 million for the same period in 2008.

Third-quarter total B2C operating income per active Casino and Poker customer was US$248 compared with US$270 last year, and 7% higher sequentially over US$232 in the second quarter.

Total B2C Casino operating income fell 16% to US$29.4 million from US$34.8 million, while B2C Poker operating income was down 28% to US$12.5 million from US$17.4 million last year.

Active Casino players for the third quarter dropped to 62.4 thousand from 72.5 thousand, while total operating income from Casino per active player declined to US$471 from US$480 last year. Active Poker players for the quarter dropped to 133.8 thousand from 149.3 thousand, while total operating income from Poker per active player declined to US$93 from US$117 last year.
Third-quarter total operating income from B2C Emerging Offering was US$6 million, a decrease of 5% from US$7 million sequentially, mainly due to unfavorable sport trading results in August, but increased 44% year-on-year.

Chief Executive Officer Gigi Levy said, "We are particularly pleased with the 99% growth achieved in our B2C emerging segment during the first three quarters of the year.
Whilst Poker remains challenging the B2C business showed resilience during the third quarter. The fourth quarter started well and given that our various business initiatives
are progressing as planned we expect to grow the business further during the year."

As at September 30, 888 had 6.8 million Casino, Poker and Sport real money registered customer accounts, representing an increase of 23% since 2008.

Ground-breaking Dragonfish B2B deal with Harrah's was announced in September, is progressing on track to launch the WSOP and Caesars online casino and poker brands by next week.

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