I have just bought into this company as it is well below the float price and has been savagely knocked back by the US gambling fiasco. The trading statement looks promising and new contracts coming in IMO the market is undervaluing this company. It supplies the software to so many of our successful gambling companies. I'd welcome any comments.

New multi year high today.

11 Mar Playtech Ltd PTEC Panmure Gordon Buy 557.50 551.50 627.00 627.00 Reiterates

UPDATE 1-Ladbrokes signs Playtech deal to boost online presence<888.L>11 Mar 2013 - 08:41

LONDON, March 11 (Reuters) - Ladbrokes , Britain's second-largest bookmaker, is betting on a tie-up with gaming software developer Playtech to rack up earnings from growing demand for online gambling. Playtech has finalised an agreement to advise and assist Ladbrokes with its digital services for an initial period of five years, the companies announced on Monday. Ladbrokes, a familiar sight on Britain's high streets with 2,200 retail outlets, has struggled to keep up with the online offering of UK market leader William Hill . Earlier this month, William Hill took full control of the internet venture it previously ran with Playtech, buying out Playtech's stake for 424 million pounds, as it looks to expand online. [ID:nL6N0BS7AW] The online gambling sector is seeing a wave of consolidation and deals, amid signs that the U.S. is readying to legalise it. Online gambling firm 888 <888.L> announced two U.S. agreements on Monday. [ID:nL6N0C31UZ] The first new feature Ladbrokes' website customers will see is a 'Vegas' tab, giving access to a virtual casino. The company said the deal with Playtech should help spur growth. "I'm very confident that over the next five years this is going to allow us to accelerate our EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation)," chief executive Richard Glynn told Reuters. "What this will allow us to do is offer a comparable digital service." Ladbrokes declined to specify how much profit it expects the deal to generate, but Playtech will receive an early instalment of its success fee - described by Glynn as a "no win no fee" arrangement - if base EBITDA uplifts of 35 million pounds ($52 million), 70 million pounds and 100 million pounds are achieved before 2017. The deal boosted shares in both companies, among the top FTSE-350 risers on Monday. Ladbrokes shares were up 5.7 percent to 239 pence, having risen almost 50 percent in the past six months, while Playtech shares climbed 3.4 percent to 571 pence. ($1 = 0.6699 British pounds) (Reporting By Isla Binnie, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien) ((isla.binnie@thomsonreuters.com)(+44 20 7542 1497)(Reuters Messaging: isla.binnie.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) Keywords: LADBROKES PLAYTECH/

11 Mar Playtech Ltd PTEC Deutsche Bank Buy 557.50 551.50 550.00 650.00 Reiterates

Deutsche Bank Note This Morning........

(looks like Ladbrokes news wasnt out when penned)

Probably get that tomorrow.

Playtech
(PTEC.L),GBP551.50 Buy
Price Target GBP650.00
Target price increased to £6.50 from £5.50 to reflect WHO disposal. Despite near term earnings
dilution from the William Hill Online disposal and a increase in the rating to 13x headline FY14
earnings or 10x post adding back the £424m William Hill Online disposal, we retain our positive
view on Playtech based on underlying forecast outperformance potential and strong likelihood of
continuing accretive M&A and JV deals via PTTS.

Broker updates today so far......

Playtech Broker Views

Date Broker Recommendation Price Old target price New target price Notes

11 Mar Canaccord Genuity Buy 568.75 604.00 604.00 Reiterates
11 Mar Investec Hold 568.75 400.00 - Retains
11 Mar Panmure Gordon Buy 568.75 627.00 627.00 Reiterates
11 Mar Deutsche Bank Buy 568.75 550.00 650.00 Reiterates

Ladbrokes
▲ Neutral
Previous: Underweight
LAD.L, LAD LN
Deal with Playtech should accelerate Digital growth;
upgrade to Neutral ▲

Price: 240p
Price Target: 240p
Previous: 160p
European Beverages, Hotels &
Leisure
Price (p) 240
Date Of Price 11 Mar 13
Price Target (p) 240
Price Target End Date 31-Mar-14
52-week Range (p) 244 - 150
Mkt Cap (£ bn) 2.2
Shares O/S (mn) 907

J.P. Morgan does and seeks to do business with companies covered in its research reports. As a result, investors should be aware that
the firm may have a conflict of interest that could affect the objectivity of this report. Investors should consider this report as only a single
factor in making their investment decision.
140
160
180
200
220
240
p

Mar-12 Jun-12 Sep-12 Dec-12 Mar-13
Price Performance
LAD.L share price (p)
MSCI-Eu (rebased)

Before LAD’s deal with PTEC, our UW recommendation was based on
two key concerns. First, the need for LAD to improve its online marketing
execution in order to reverse (or even halt) its share losses in the UK
online gambling market. Second, the cost associated with doing so. We
believe that the deal has removed the first concern, and so upgrade our
recommendation to N from UW. In our view, marketing investment will
still be required to accelerate Digital EBITDA growth (as well as the
significant cash contributions due to PTEC if the EBITDA uplift targets
are met). Given this, and as LAD remains materially less exposed to the
online channel than closest peer William Hill (15% of FY13E group EBIT
vs. 46% for WMH), we believe that LAD is currently fairly valued at
12.4x CY14E PE. WMH remains our top pick of the UK gaming stocks.
 Meeting the EBITDA uplift targets will be a stretch. If EBITDA from
LAD’s Digital division were to meet the highest uplift target (for an
incremental £100m of EBITDA over the £46m achieved in FY12), this
would imply a 5 year EBITDA CAGR of 26%. We see this as a very
stretching target, particularly given that WMH's online EBITDA CAGR
over the 4 years of its JV with PTEC was 28%, with a significantly less
competitive market and without the headwind of the UK online point of
consumption tax due in FY15. If LAD were to reach this target, we
estimate that online would account for c.40% of group EBIT by FY17E.
 PTEC’s input will accelerate growth but there are challenges. We
expect PTEC’s considerable online marketing expertise to accelerate
LAD's Digital growth significantly. However, we are cautious about
whether LAD will be able to replicate the scale of the success of WMH’s
2008 JV with PTEC, as LAD is now materially behind WMH in terms of
UK online mkt share, and in WMH, Betfair and Paddy Power we believe
that LAD faces much more capable competitors than those faced by
WMH over the past 4 years

Playtech PT Raised to $9.71 at Deutsche Bank (PTEC)

March 11th, 2013 - 0 comments - Filed Under - by Jeff Wilder

Analysts at Deutsche Bank increased their price target on shares of Playtech (LON: PTEC) from $8.21 (550 GBX) to $9.71 (650 GBX) in a research report issued to clients and investors on Monday. The firm currently has a “buy” rating on the stock.

A number of other analysts have also recently weighed in on PTEC. Analysts at Panmure Gordon reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Playtech in a research note to investors on Friday, March 1st. They now have a $9.09 price target on the stock, down previously from $9.09. Analysts at Canaccord Genuity reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Playtech in a research note to investors on Friday, March 1st. They now have a $9.07 price target on the stock.

Playtech opened at 551.50 on Monday. Playtech has a 52-week low of GBX 322.25 and a 52-week high of GBX 581.00. The stock’s 50-day moving average is currently GBX 379.9. The company’s market cap is £1.595 billion.

Playtech Limited is an online gaming software supplier. The Company, along with its subsidiaries, develops unified software platforms for the online and land-based gambling industry, targeting online and land-based operators.

http://www.dailypolitical.com/finance/stock-market/playtech-pt-raised-to-9-71-at-deutsche-bank-ptec.htm

Playtech (LON: PTEC) had its buy rating reiterated by analysts at Daniel Stewart & Co. Daniel Stewart & Co currently has a $9.48 target price on the stock.

Playtech (LON: PTEC) had its buy rating reaffirmed by analysts at Panmure Gordon. They currently have a $9.36 price target on the stock.

Playtech set to spend Will Hill sale cash on special dividend
by James Titcomb
March 11, 2013, 4:47am

GAMBLING software company Playtech is ready to hand shareholders a special dividend of around £100m this week after a drawn-out sale of its stake in William Hill Online has left it with a sizeable cash pile.

The company announced earlier this month it had sold its 29 per cent stake in the bookie’s online operation for £424m in cash, which is due to be paid at the end of April.

The deal followed a long valuation process, but Playtech is seen as having achieved an excellent end to discussions. The sale gives Playtech a substantial return on its original £170m investment in 2008.

Although much of the windfall is likely to be invested in acquisitions that will expand the company’s reach, analysts are expecting management to hand shareholders 25 per cent of the cash. “We expect Playtech to return the proceeds to shareholders in the form of special dividend,” Panmure Gordon analyst Simon French said. “The rest we anticipate will be invested in joint ventures and acquisitions, with an expected focus on the US.”

The reward will come as Playtech unveils record annual results, as the rise in online gambling, boosted by expansion in Spain and Italy, means more demand for the company’s software.

The FTSE 250 firm, which designs casino, poker and bingo programs for the likes of Bet365 and Paddy Power, is expected to report a 50 per cent rise in revenues to around €318m (£277m). Much of this growth has been driven by the outstanding success of William Hill Online, which Playtech will miss next year, but the firm has identified opportunities for expansion now that it no longer has the same relationship with William Hill.

One such opportunity could be with William Hill rival Ladbrokes, which has failed to convert its strong position on the high street to online dominance.

After repeated delays to the launch of its online facelift, Ladbrokes has launched a big digital push, which has included the €30m acquisition of exchange betting website Betdaq.

A Playtech spokesperson would not comment on strengthening relations with Ladbrokes, but said that the cash from the William Hill Online sale puts it in a good position to develop relations with “all major gaming groups”.


http://www.cityam.com/article/playtech-set-spend-will-hill-sale-cash-special-dividend

All looks well for PTEC see the figures mentioned here....

Davy Research
Ladbrokes plc
Gaming
Research Home Gaming Ladbrokes plc
Marketing deal with Playtech will fuel earnings growth; incremental cash conversion to be depressed until 2018

DAVY VIEW
Many industry observers will have seen this deal coming. Ladbrokes has concluded that an outsourced solution to online marketing and customer acquisition is its best route to future online growth. Playtech is seen as the standard-bearer for such expertise, with the success of the William Hill Online (WHO) venture providing powerful testimony to what it can bring to the table of a large, UK-based gaming operator.

As with the WHO venture before it, the structure of this deal potentially lends itself to very attractive returns for Playtech. We estimate that if Ladbrokes Digital generates annual EBITDA of £145.8m by 2017 (incremental EBITDA of £100m), then Playtech would walk away with a minimum cash return of £250m (when product fees are included). Depending on what multiple Ladbrokes plc is trading on at that point, the figure could be as high as £300m – not too shabby given the low level of new investment required by Playtech to service this deal.

To be fair to Ladbrokes, Digital EBITDA of £145.8m would represent a more than trebling of online profits over five years. The timing of this deal is also exemplary; just at the point where Ladbrokes' new website is ready to be rolled out, its new mobile platform is being developed and its risk management functions have been improved, it now has a powerful customer acquisition and retention capability.

A word of caution: our suspicion is that the market will focus on the potential EPS growth that this deal brings at the expense of the up-front cash costs of it between now and 2017. For example, it is difficult to see how short-term free cash flow will be enhanced should the first target be met. Should incremental EBITDA of £35m be made, we estimate that the cash outlay would equate to 2-2.5 times the cash inflows from the incremental earnings generated. Beyond 2017, cash-flow generation will be stronger but discounted cash-flows five years out are worth far less to Ladbrokes than the near-term payments to Playtech as targets are reached.

In truth, Ladbrokes probably had little choice but to do this type of deal at this point; after all, there are just 21 months until the industry goes over the UK gaming tax cliff. But make no mistake, the cash-flow implications of this deal are high. As such, our valuation of Ladbrokes remains largely unchanged.


More from Davy Research

Fantastic Results, beat concensous forecasts easily..

Trading update

Playtech has made a strong start to 2013, with average daily revenues for the first 11 weeks of 2013 up over 15% on Q1 2012 and up 5% on Q4 2012


http://www.investegate.co.uk/playtech-limited--ptec-/rns/full-year-results/201303140700299831Z

Playtech beats earnings forecasts after strong 201214 Mar 2013 - 07:26

LONDON, March 14 (Reuters) - Britain's Playtech beat earnings estimates in 2012 as it strengthened its position as the market leader in gambling software, and said it was confident for 2013. The company said adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) were 186.7 million euros ($241.7 million) in the year to end-Dec., compared to 124.9 million the year previous. That compared to market forecasts of 169.1 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S estimates. Playtech, which moved from the junior AIM market to the midcap index of the main market last year, said it had made a strong start to 2013, with average daily revenues up over 15 percent in the first 11 weeks compared to last year. The company sold its stake in its venture with number one British bookmaker William Hill for 424 million pounds earlier this month, and less than two weeks later signed a deal to help the number two Ladbrokes develop its online offering. ($1 = 0.7722 euros) (Reporting by Rosalba O'Brien, Editing by Brenda Goh) ((rosalba.obrien@thomsonreuters.com)(+44 20 7542 3431)(Reuters Messaging: rosalba.obrien.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) Keywords:

RESEARCH ALERT-Playtech: Canaccord Genuity raises target price14 Mar 2013 - 09:06

March 14 (Reuters) - Playtech Ltd : * Canaccord Genuity raises target price to 750p from 604p; rating buy For a summary of rating actions and price target changes on European companies: Reuters Eikon users, click on [RCH/EUROPE] Reuters 3000Xtra users, double-click [RCH/EUROPE] Reuters Station users, click .1580 ((nyc.equities.newsroom@reuters.com); (Reuters Messaging: saqib.ahmed.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net) ((Bangalore Newsroom +91 80 4135 5800; within U.S. +1 646 223 8780))

Investec Playtech Ltd 14/03/2013
Retains
Hold Hold 0 400.00 600.00 575.00 200 0

Panmure Gordon Playtech Ltd 14/03/2013
Reiterates
Buy Buy 0 627.00 627.00 575.00 0 2

14 Mar Playtech Ltd PTEC Canaccord Genuity Buy 591.00 575.00 604.00 750.00 Reiterates

SP TARGET 750p.

15 Mar Playtech Ltd PTEC Deutsche Bank Buy 0.00 613.00 650.00 680.00 Reiterates

650p SP Target price.

Playtech Price Target Raised to $11.20 at Canaccord Genuity (PTEC)
Posted by Wayne Rhoads on Mar 15th, 2013 // No Comments

Research analysts at Canaccord Genuity raised their target price on shares of Playtech (LON: PTEC) from $9.02 (604 GBX) to $11.20 (750 GBX) in a report released on Thursday. The firm currently has a “buy” rating on the stock.
Playtech (LON: PTEC) opened at 613.00 on Thursday. Playtech has a 52-week low of GBX 322.25 and a 52-week high of GBX 581.00. The stock’s 50-day moving average is currently GBX 379.9. The company’s market cap is £1.773 billion.
Other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Analysts at Investec Securities raised their price target on shares of Playtech from $5.97 to $8.96 in a research note to investors on Thursday. They now have a “hold” rating on the stock. Separately, analysts at Panmure Gordon reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Playtech in a research note to investors on Monday. They now have a $9.36 price target on the stock. Finally, analysts at Daniel Stewart & Co reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Playtech in a research note to investors on Monday. They now have a $9.48 price target on the stock.
Playtech Limited is an online gaming software supplier. The Company, along with its subsidiaries, develops unified software platforms for the online and land-based gambling industry, targeting online and land-based operators.

http://zolmax.com/playtech-price-target-raised-to-11-20-at-canaccord-genuity-ptec/2949062/

Gone long again, update on thursday.

BRIEF-Playtech says Q1 gross income rose 16 pct25 Apr 2013 - 07:01

April 25 (Reuters) - Playtech * Q1 gross income rose 16 pct to 102.5 million euros * Exploring "strategic alternatives" after sale of William Hill Online stake. * Committed to paying interim dividend at or above level declared last year. (Writing by Keith Weir, 44 20 7542 8022) ((keith.weir@thomsonreuters.com; 020 7542 8022; Reuters Messaging: keith.weir.reuters.com@reuters.net)) Keywords: PLAYTECH Q1/