Montreal-based gaming company Amaya, which owns the PokerStars brand, has reported record high revenues for the 12-month period to December 31, 2016, seeing total turnover climb 7.8 per cent year on year to US$1.16bn.

Record revenues at i-gaming giant Amaya

Profit (adjusted EBITDA) was up 14.1 per cent year on year, to $524m in 2016, while net earnings on continuing operations were $135.6m - a dramatic improvement on the $20m loss posted in 2015.

“2016 was a record year of revenues for Amaya," said CEO Rafi Ashkenazi in a statement.

“Our proactive changes to the poker ecosystem and customer-acquisition initiatives continue to reverse certain negative trends and we are starting to see organic growth in that business, our casino offering exceeded expectations as we introduced limited marketing campaigns and focused on our cross-sell efforts, and we continued to build and develop our sportsbook.

"The strong performance of our business has helped us to reduce our currency risk, lower our interest expense and accelerate the payment of the remaining amounts owed on our deferred payment obligation, all of which will allow us to continue pursuing our four strategic priorities.”

The upward trend was replicated in Q4, 2016, with total revenue up 5.9 per cent year on year, to $310.4m, and earnings (adjusted EBITDA) up 17.8 per cent to $147.6m.

“We expect to continue our 2016 momentum and execute on our strategy in 2017,” said Ashkenazi.