Amaya Inc, owner of online poker giant PokerStars, has announced its intention to change its name to The Stars Group Inc as CEO Rafi Ashkenazi continues his push to further distance the company from the controversial tenure of former CEO and co-founder David Baazov.
In the Group’s 1Q1y earnings release on Friday, which saw revenue for the quarter increase by 10% year-on-year and its reliance on poker fall, Ashkenazi said Amaya had, “experienced incredible growth in change over the past years.
“We have divested the entirety of our B2B businesses and today we are a pure play consumer-facing operator with poker cards as our primary brand. However, we continue to grow and evolve as a company,” he said.
“As we undergo this transformation, we look to embrace the future of our business while also recognizing the incredible consumer goodwill and loyalty associated with our primary brands. We have decided to change the name of our corporation from Amaya to The Stars Group Inc. We intend to ask our shareholders to approve this name change at our upcoming annual meeting.”
Amaya saw its revenue increase to US$317 million in the first three months of the year, up from US$288.5 million 12 months earlier, while adjusted EBITDA increased 22% to US$151 million and net earnings by 18% to US$66 million.
The results included an increase in revenue percentage derived from the Group’s casino and sportsbook operations – which began rolling out in late 2015 – to 27% of total revenue, up from 21% in 1Q16. Poker accounted for 69% of total revenue, down from 75%, although poker revenue itself grew 1.1% to US$218.7 million.
“We continued our momentum in the first quarter as we execute on our strategy and reinforce the foundation for sustainable and diversified revenue growth, including through the strengthening of our core management team and operations,” Ashkenazi said.
Amaya’s long-term outstanding debt sits at US$2.53 billion. In March, the Group announced the successful repricing and retranching of its US dollar and Euro denominated first lien term loans resulting in the reduction of the applicable interest rate margins by 50 basis points, removing the Euribor floor on the Euro denominated first lien term loans and raising €100 million of incremental Euro denominated first lien debt which it used to reduce its US denominated first lien debt.
Amaya also said it expects to finalize the outstanding US$47.5 million balance of the deferred purchase price for its acquisition of the Rational Group – former owner of PokerStars and Full Tilt – by the end of June, having already made two separate US$75 million payments since the start of the year.
Minority shareholder and former CEO Baazov is still facing insider charges stemming from his time in charge of Amaya.
