ZEAL Group, the world’s leading lottery innovator, today announced strong results for the first nine months of 2018.

Billings for the Group grew 5% to EUR 212.4 million year-on-year (2017: EUR 201.7 million), and by 8% for the third quarter versus 2017. This was driven in the quarter by higher average jackpots in core products compared to the previous year, and strong performance in Instant Win Games and US lotteries.

The increased billings, fewer exceptional prize payouts and a focus on higher margin products during the quarter resulted in a 17% improvement in Total Operating Performance to EUR 114.1 million (2017: EUR 97.6 million).

With costs flat for the period, the Group delivered a significant uplift in Earnings Before Interest and Taxes (EBIT) for the period to EUR 29.1 million (2017: EUR 12.5 million), with the third quarter’s EUR 12.7 million EBIT outperforming expectations.

On a normalised basis – which highlights the Group’s underlying performance – revenues were up 8% and EBIT up 26% year-on-year.

ZEAL delivered a record number of new registered customers for the Group and its partners at a significantly lower cost per acquisition. The 418,000 acquired represent an uplift of 54% year-on-year (2017: 272,000). Average Billings Per User in the lottery betting segment were broadly maintained at EUR 56.58 (2017: EUR 57.00).

Jonas Mattsson, Chief Financial Officer, ZEAL Group said: “ZEAL has delivered a strong set of results for the first 9 months of this year. Our record number of new customers, the favourable jackpot environment and continued growth in traditionally non-core products have all combined to deliver promising topline growth, a good underlying performance, and very strong EBIT. These results reflect the continued high demand for our products and set us up well for the final quarter of the year.”