Playtech, the FTSE 250 maker of gambling software, shed more than a fifth of its value on Thursday after issuing a profit warning.

The Isle of Man-headquartered company said in a trading update that it expects its full year profits will be 5 per cent below the bottom end of market expectations. Analysts had pinned Playtech’s 2017 pre tax income at £226.9m, according to FactSet data.

Thursday’s warning sent Playtech’s shares tumbling 21.5 per cent in recent trade to £7.71. They had hit a record high of £10.16 in June of this year, but after the fall, they have surrendered their 2017 price gains. Playtech said it has seen a “recent slowdown in certain parts of Asia due to recent changing market conditions.” It added:

“Whilst it had been expected that activity would return to normalised levels in a relatively short time frame, we are now not expecting any significant improvement in 2017.” The group, which was founded in 1999, also said that its contract with Sun Bingo, the Sun newspaper’s bingo websites, “remains challenging due to lengthier seasonality and the re-launch of the new Sun Bingo site”. The five-year pact with News UK was announced in 2015.