bigsalmon is baazov

ha... well played

bigsalmon: You do realize that you are coming off as a bit of a troll, right?

not troll, just a super obvious paid Amaya shill.

This is probably the 50th time you have said this. Kindly show the numbers backing up this statement. While the debt multiple is high, the cash flow does not show any type of concerns. Have you gone through their balance sheet and income statements? I have. I personally do not see any concerns and would be interested to hear your analysis backing up your repeated statement that they are headed towards insolvency.

Further, would Amaya be investing tens of millions in their other verticals if they were worrying about paying their debts? No, they would batten the hatches and hoard every dollar.

I don't really care how you see me. I'm trying to understand the viewpoints of others who have different perspectives.

Amaya couldn't pay me enough to pump them on message boards. My housekeeper probably makes more than most people at Amaya.

yeah, the guy didnt even tries to hide
preety funny

Note: Post more please buddy.

We wrote about it extensively in coverage for Eilers throughout 2015. What we cover on OPR is quite a bit different (mostly about the US regulated market) and is also for a different audience.

You say that as if missing on sports is somehow no big deal. But there were also significant content and platform misses on the casino side.

So they had two new products and missed significantly on both.

You're using phrases like "mass exodus" and "waves of resignations." This is my full original comment regarding turnover:

It's further worth noting that one of the departures was the acting CEO who had about 10 years of tenure at company. But in any case, my original comment is hardly inflammatory.

Yes. They refused to take a single question from us in 2015 on any call.

The US$ has not gone up significantly. Please show me what you're talking about.

I didn't label management a failure. I said I "share fundamental concerns about the general quality of management."

Given that they were unable - or unwilling - to provide reasonably accurate guidance or product roadmaps, I really don't think that's a controversial assessment.

Given the performance of the stock following the 3Q reporting, the market doesn't seem to think so either.

but that stock price man..... down 65%.

and all those communication blunders.

and stiffing SNEs was really bad form.

You're sick bro

lol OPReport on the crush

Ansky et. al.,

After this meeting and being presented with their data/findings, are you personally more inclined or disinclined to play poker on Pokerstars?

What I am getting at...with the evidence they presented, do you feel like you personally are as profitable as you thought you were in online poker(presently)? Is there anything that you now realize you were disillusioned to prior?

I didn't say it wasn't a big deal. I think it was looked at internally and externally as a botched launch, which is why they threw more resources at it last quarter.

I do disagree with you regarding the casino launch. Revenue went from 0 to 14% of gross without a single dime spent on marketing or customer acquisition. Yes, I think that they need to increase their casino offering, but that is hardly a revolutionary idea as they have said numerous times that they are planning on doing so and that 2016 will see a number of new products, a standalone app, and availability in other jurisdictions.

It is incredibly rare for a company to do so much in such little time and do it on schedule. I could probably write a book on delays and botched executions by Fortune 500 companies. Do I think they overpromised and underdelivered? Yes. They key question though is, will they learn from it?


Forgive my hyperbole.


That is interesting. Companies often try not to take questions from critical analysts, which I think is a disservice to their investors. I remember a Citigroup critic who was blackballed by Citi for 6 years from asking questions on their quarterly calls.

What I would do if I were you is put your questions in an article and mention that Amaya refuses to answer them. I think it would make interesting reading.


Seriously? The US$ has not gone up significantly???? Here are 3 of Amaya's largest markets outside the EU:

USD/CAD
http://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?fr...to=CAD&view=1Y

USD/BRL
http://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?fr...to=BRL&view=1Y

USD/RUB
http://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?fr...to=RUB&view=1Y



I think we can all read between the lines.

As an analyst, I think you can appreciate the fact that making an assessment on the quality of management based on a single quarter's stock performance is myopic at best and disingenuous at worst.

lord have mercy

His housekeeper comment has a nice DRenegs feel to it, the over the top arrogance is little man Dan to a tee.

QOTD Is big salmon,

Baz

Drenegs

Eric the p.r. genius

bigfish is just bigfish

FWIW, Ansky, Ike and Kanu all have played hands in the last 24h according to HSDB. Looks like Ike's screename has rolled back to philivey2694.

Sure, but the FX adjustments around AYAs numbers feel a bit more extreme than the usual adjustment. YMMV.

This is a small but good example of AYA number spin. Revenue from one product jumping to a percentage of the total is not a useful measurement. Why not just focus on the absolute revenue number?

They also spent plenty on casino marketing if you count bonuses, promotions, etc - i.e., direct marketing to players. That's another good example of AYA spin that I find sort of disconcerting.

I understood you to be asserting that AYA's revenues have increased significantly when measured in adjusted USD.

I do not contest that the dollar has appreciated significantly.

Right, but I am not putting anything between the lines.

I am just saying what I think, as precisely as possible. I have no reason to hint or imply. I chose the words I chose to indicate best as I could the precise level of concern I have.

If I thought the building was on fire, I'd say "run, the building is on fire," not "I believe there's a general concern about fires occurring in buildings of this type and age."

I mentioned the stock drop in Nov because it was primarily missed guidance which seemed to spark the precipitous drop. I referenced it simply to make the point that I'm apparently not the only person with concerns.

I made my assessment re: quality of management based primarily (but not exclusively) on the missed guidance and the product roadmaps, both of which stretched across ~6 quarters.

How much time would you give them as a shareholder?

Hi guys! It's been quite a while since my last visit, so much so that my old email address is dead and has been for many years, so let me restart the counter from zero.

First, thanks to the 3 guys who were in Montreal to represent us all. Never an easy task to sit down in front of suits.

My only point for this day, and it hould be enough, is that I used to work for a company named Gametronix. It was a startup based in Montreal, under its owner and CEO, a young guy named David Bazoov. THE David Baazov. I worked as a poker consultant for David for about 2 years as co-owner of Poker-Solution.com, another Montreal based (but much smaller company) poker oriented startup.

From the start, David was a genius, and an avid learner. He has very strong ties in the Montreal Jewish community and is using its connections very well, to say the least!

Gametronix was working on an electronic poker tables project when I came in. His product was impeccable, at a time when the industry thought this was the future of casino poker. Boy, were we wrong!!! But we did not know that at the time, and Gametronix was trying to impact the market, with not much success.

David's answer? Get some high profile players to go along with him, represent the brand. He chose 2 very well respected players at the time, made them part owners of a new company he would name Amaya ( in respect for the Avaya company) and hope their expertise and reputation would carry this new company to new heights.

The name of these two players? Howard Lederer and Chris Ferguson.

While I understand some posters may be afraid David's poker knowledge may be thin, this should comfort you: he has some good counselors

I will stop at this for my first "new" post. Again, thx to all 3 who joined the Amaya brass, trying to change the way they are currently dealing with poker players all around the wordl. Hopefully, eventually DN will join us in this fight!

If you know the total, and it is 14% of the total, isn't that a simple calculation? If there are some #'s that are missing or you're unsure about, you could contact their IR.

Bonuses and promos are obvious and known to everyone. It is zero external marketing costs that they had trumpeted. They also said this would change as they expect to advertise heavily for both the casino and sportsbook.


I have seen the highest quality companies (not saying Amaya belongs in that category) have massive short term stock drops because of something as silly as missing by a penny. I have also seen the opposite happen. I know it is cliched to invoke Buffett, but I do remember him disparaging people who think that short term stock prices mean anything.

I do agree with you that they dropped the ball by revising guidance, but again, it is not uncommon. They did come out recently and say that their earnings would be at the higher end of the revised guidance, which isn't too far off from the lower end of their original guidance.

On another note, it has been a pleasure chatting with you. I'll be signing off now and probably won't return for a few months, but I will follow your website. Best of luck.

Wait, what?

Ummmmmm, wat?

You know who else he hired after BlackFriday? Paul Leggett.

What seems crazy to me is the Amaya management thought they would be able to persuade Isaac Haxton that their bullshi t was good for the poker economy. From what I know/read about Ike he's the least likely person to accept their rake grab reasoning than anyone in the poker world. This meeting was clearly a PR exercise that anyone with a brain must have realised was going to end in disaster. What were Amaya thinking? I don't understand how they could be so stupid. Did they really think that Ansky and Ike were going to come back to twoplustwo and say actually all the recent changes are good for players? It's hard to comprehend what Amaya's reasoning was.

Are you the guy who has been making this same correction in the other threads? If so, please stop, because you're just making yourself look ignorant with this annoying and incorrect change.

The correct word here is "customers." It's not even close.

The company is publicly traded so you can check it out by yourself