Newgioco Group, a betting technology company providing regulated lottery and gaming products and services through licensed subsidiaries based in Europe, is pleased to report that strong first quarter transactional sales in the online sports bet channel resulted in a surge in market share from 28th position into the top 20 operators in Italy.

The Company continued its record non-GAAP betting turnover growth in the first quarter of 2018 to approximately $88.1 million from $52.7 million representing an increase of 67.15% over the first quarter of 2017. The online sales channel through our Multigioco subsidiary represented the largest year over year gain from $23.97 million to approximately $45.77 million or approximately 90.93%. Significantly, online sports bets grew to $6.56 million in Q1 2018, an increase of 63.72% over fourth quarter 2017 sales. The Company anticipates further acceleration in the online sports bet channel as recent acquisitions develop into key drivers of future revenue growth.

The Company also took steps to improve its balance sheet in the first quarter of 2018 by eliminating approximately $570,000 in debt and refinanced an additional $500,000 with more favorable terms. The Company expects to report in its first quarter 2018 results on or before May 15, 2018.

Alessandro Marcelli, Company President and Chief Operating Officer stated, “We are very pleased to see continued growth and strong positive trends in monthly sales as we scale across our core market in Italy. The Group will continue to invest additional resources in growing our sales channels and distributors to further expand and capture market share throughout Europe.” Luca Pasquini, our Chief Technology Officer also added, “We are also proud to be improving on our innovative ELYS betting platform and plan to introduce a new generation of machine learning and augmented analytics features incorporating our integrated NG PAY payment gateway in the second half of 2018.”

“We remain proactive towards merger and acquisition opportunities to move the Group further towards becoming a premier international leisure betting operator with a market leading software technology and full suite of diversified payment related services for both online and land-based betting retailers,” commented Company Chairman and CEO, Michele Ciavarella. “Looking forward, we are highly optimistic in new international markets, with South America and the USA becoming key growth engines for Newgioco in the future.”