LeoVegas announces Q3 financial results with 40% EBITDA growth

Business News

LeoVegas has reported a revenue increase of 12% to EUR 88.2 m (78.6). EBITDA increased over 40% and amounted to EUR 12.7 m (9.0), corresponding to an EBITDA margin of 14.4% (11.4%). The number of returning depositing customers was 199,023 (177,637), an increase of 12%.

Gustaf Hagman, President and CEO said we continued to show progress during the third quarter in a difficult-to-navigate environment and generated double-digit growth in both sales and operating profit. Greater regulatory complexity in several of our main markets has given rise to certain short-term challenges but is also raising the barriers to succeed in the sector which benefit established companies.

LeoVegas today has a much more even distribution of revenue across several markets and brands where half of our revenue is derived from locally regulated markets, which contributes to greater stability and lower business risk. Meanwhile, we continue our efforts to execute our strategy of innovation, expansion and profitability.

Revenue during the third quarter amounted to EUR 88.2 m (78.6), representing organic growth of 13%. Growth was favourable during the period in most of our markets, including Sweden where we are gaining market shares, but also in key markets such as Finland, Denmark and Italy. The UK is profitable at Group level but remains challenging, where Royal Panda in particular had poorer performance during the quarter.

Excluding the UK, the Group’s organic growth was 27%. In total we invested less than planned in marketing during the quarter, which is coupled to our data-driven and ROI-based marketing model. We chose to not apply for a licence in Switzerland, where we stopped accepting business on 1 July based on commercial rationale. Meanwhile in Germany we are facing challenges related to the elimination of a key payment solution, which is affecting both our revenue and new customer acquisition during the quarter.

EBITDA for the third quarter totalled EUR 12.7 m (9.0), corresponding to an EBITDA margin of 14.4% (11.4%). We grew EBITDA by more than 40% during the quarter despite a higher burden from gambling taxes and greater regulatory complexity compared with previous years. Our focus on efficiency and cost control continues to generate the desired results. As a concrete example of our efficiency enhancement, our staffing has remained essentially unchanged for the past year despite greater business complexity, adding more markets and more brands, while we continue to generate good underlying growth. We continue to renegotiate our supplier agreements in gaming, payments, marketing and technology. Through scalability and efficiency we are creating scope to invest in growth combined with improved profitability.

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