The mybet Group has reached group revenues of 45.0 million Euro and an EBIT (incl. effect sale of pferdewetten.de AG) of 1.0 million Euro in the financial year 2016. Thereby the company has achieved the revenue and earnings forecast, which had been lowered during the course of year.

Online business declines, retail business positive and B2B business stable

The Group’s revenue declined during the financial year 2016 by 16.2 percent to 45.0 million Euro (previous year: 53.7 million Euro). In the segment Sports Betting the year 2016 yielded a decline in revenue of 10.7 percent to 28.4 million Euro (previous year: 31.8 million Euro) especially because of the delayed start of the new platform. This reduction was related solely to the sales channel online, while in the business with land-based betting shops (retail) growth was achieved. The segment Casino produced revenues of 14.4 million Euro, representing a decline of 27.3 percent (previous year: 19.9 million Euro). The new segment B2B reached a stable development and contributed to the Group’s revenues with 2.2 million Euro (previous year: 2.1 million Euro).

The earnings before interest and taxes without one-off effects (EBIT) of the mybet Group amounted to

-5.8 million Euro, thus improving strongly compared to the previous year (previous year: -10.8 million Euro). However, previous year’s EBIT had been dominated by special write-downs. But in the year 2016 several cost positions not directly related to the revenue development could be reduced, too, influecing the operative earnings in a positive way.

The profit for the period of mybet Group of the year 2016 also improved strongly against the previous year with 1.2 million Euro (-8.0 million Euro). The main reason for this positive development was the income from the sale of pferdewetten.de AG and C4U-Malta Ltd. in the course oft he strategic focusing on the activities in sports betting and casino with additional B2B services.

Platform introduction and authority decisions inhibit development in 2016

The development in the year 2016 was mainly burdened by the re-scheduling of the introduction of the new IT platform for the online sports betting and casino offering, which now took place on 21 March 2017. Therefore the originally planned positive impulse from the new platform for the operational performance in 2016 could not be triggered. Correspondingly, the liquid funds were reduced continuously by the operative business and the investments into the development of the platform during the course of the year.

As an additional aggravation, several decisions by authorities put strong limits to the financial resources of the mybet Group during the year: The Maltese authorities needed an unexpected long time for the approval of the sale of the group company C4U, in Germany a tax claim of 1.7 million Euro, which is questionable from the point of view of mybet, had to be deposited at the tax office until the case is clarified and in Greece claims from the regulatory authority never been brought up before lead to heavy obstructions for the operational activity in this market. This limited the financial leeway of mybet Group during the whole year and made the financing measure known as Westlotto interim financing necessary.

In contrast, the strategic focusing of the mybet Group on the sports betting and casino business with additional related B2B services could be completed during 2016 successfully and according to the plans. The activities in the fields of horse betting and payment services have been ended with the sale of the related group companies pferdewetten.de AG and C4U-Malta Ltd. The poker business was ended in summer 2016 as well.

 New strategy programme Attract.Engage.Retain.

After the completion of the strategy programme HERA the management now follows a new strategy programme for the years 2017 and 2018 called Attract. Engage. Retain. The programme shall influence key drivers of the value added: By enhancing the product offer and the user-friendliness and also increasing marketing investments, it is set out to convince (Attract) new and existing customers as well as partners, reinforce the use of the products (Engage) and gain the loyalty of the customers that have been attracted (Retain). In detail, the programme includes the market entry in new regions, the introduction of new applications (Apps), the expansion of the betting shop network, the introduction of further new functionalities on the product platform as well as, in the year 2018, a further raising of marketing investments.

Forecast 2017

The forecast for the year 2017 of the mybet Group anticipates revenues between 44.5 and 47 million Euro with an EBIT between -3.2 and -2.7 million Euro. These targets shall be reached despite the still very limited financial leeway and a first quarter of 2017, in which the online business still was mainly driven by the old platform.

In addition the activities in Greece, especially in the casino business, are still handicapped by the currently existing obstructions. “For the running financial year we do not forecast a leap in growth, although we feel very confident with the abilities of our new platform, which started in March 2017.

This is so as the primary target must be stopping the negative trend in revenues while parallely reducing the negative cashflows from operations step by step. This is the realistic interim step before entering the growth phase after the reorientation of the mybet Group, for the mybet Group being now in a future-proof position”, says Markus Peuler, CEO of mybet Holding SE. Therefore, the forecast states a stable development also with regard to the financial situation, expressed in a group liquidity position between 0.3 and 1.0 million Euro by the end of the year 2017.