Amaya did a lot of complaining about the strong US Dollar that ate into earnings last quarter, but the real story has nothing to do with foreign exchange rates. It has to do with whether Amaya can leverage Pokerstars to grow its other verticals. The answer to that question will determine whether Amaya is simply an umbrella organization for a bunch of gaming assets, or really a force to maximize revenues for all its acquisitions. So far it isn’t a failure, but the signs do not leave me Pokerstarry eyed. (That was a good one, eh?)

First let’s get the dollar out of the way. Amaya complained that the rising dollar reduced its customers’ purchasing power by nearly 20%. That’s not exactly correct. It only reduced its customers’ power to purchase US dollar denominated goods. Since Amaya has its reports in US dollars, on paper it looks like it lost. The elephant in the room is that as soon as inflation heats up, and yes it is has taken a long time but eventually it will happen – the dollar will fall fast. All of Amaya’s paper losses at that point will reverse. Over the longer term this all evens out. In times of currency stress, it is a good idea to isolate and ignore that factor in order to see how a company is actually performing.

The drop in Amaya shares this month probably had little to do with traders concerned about currency fluctuations than it did with Amaya delaying major aspects of its sportsbook launch. Growing the other aspects of its gaming business is the raison d’être of Amaya acquiring Pokerstars in the first place. If it can’t get its Pokerstars players to move to its other offerings, then its leveraged buyouts will have been an exercise in benign asset collection for the fun of it.

The fact that they are delaying is probably prudent, because forcing a schedule when a product is not ready and then having it crash could be irreparable. Better to wait and take a smaller hit than release a product not ready for prime time. Amaya is hoping for a full launch by the middle of next year but did not fully commit to that timeframe.