The Stars Group in 2019: Understanding the Russian Disruption The Stars Group in 2019: Understanding the Russian Disruption
Key Takeaways
  • 16% of revenue in the international segment came from five disrupted markets.
  • Russia likely represents at least half that figure.
  • New payment blocking in the country has affected operating conditions.
  • Efforts to mitigate have so far failed to stop revenue declines.

The Stars Group announced its first quarter financial results earlier this month, and there are good reasons to be positive: Key new marketing deals, new market opportunities, increased product enhancements, and business synergies are all genuine concrete deliverables for 2019.

But the earnings call was instead bogged down in problems of the present. Categorized as “disrupted” for the first time, a small but still important set of markets were hampered by difficult operating conditions throughout the quarter. Of five highlighted, Russia is the largest and most problematic.

“While it is disappointing that our customers in these markets are not able to enjoy our products as seamlessly as before, we are working to ensure the disruption is minimized,” said TSG CEO Rafi Ashkenazi in prepared remarks during the conference call.

“One of the benefits of our diversification is that these disrupted markets are less than 10% of our enlarged business overall,” Ashkenazi added.