European lottery operator SAZKA Group has reported a 6% per cent increase in gross gaming revenue to €2.2bn in 2020.

Excluding CASAG and Stoiximan, GGR decreased by 26% year-on-year due to the impact of COVID-19 in the second and fourth quarter. Profit after tax increased by 42% year-on-year to €134 million.

Robert Chvatal, SAZKA Group CEO, commented:“I am pleased to report that SAZKA Group has delivered a robust performance in a volatile year. Our Gross gaming revenue increased by 6% and our Adjusted EBITDA margin was a healthy 44%. If we look at the year by quarter, the first quarter of 2020 started very positively, with the strong momentum across our geographies and products which we saw in 2019 continuing into the new year.

Q2 was most impacted by COVID-19 with our lottery operations being impacted in Greece and Italy andcasinos being closed in Austria. However, our physical retail channel in the Czech Republic and for the lotteries in Austria was not extensively disrupted and our online channels performed very well. All of our businesses traded well in Q3 as lockdown measures were eased and online sales remained high. The swift return to normal trading in the markets and channels that were more affected by restrictions demonstrated resilient demand for our products and the agility of our teams.

Although we faced some restrictions in Q4, they had less impact on our businesses compared with the first lockdown as Italy remained open and functional and our online platforms benefited from some new product launches.