Sazka announces strong third quarter

Finance News

European lottery operator SAZKA Group has reported a 14% per cent increase in gross gaming revenue to €876.2 million for the tird quarter.

EBITDA increased by 40% year-on-year to €285.1 million. Free cash flow was €644.8 million.GGR increased by 26% year-on-year to €1,781.1 million.

Sales through the online channel have continued to perform well, supported by the significant growth in the group’s online userbase and improvements to the online product offering and user interfaces in the last several quarters.

Robert Chvatal, SAZKA Group CEO, commented:“I am delighted to report that SAZKA Group delivered yet another strong performance in Q3. Our GGR increased by 14% year on year and our Adjusted EBITDA increased by 40% with a margin of 53%, an 8 percent point improvement year on year.As a result, both our GGR and our EBITDA reached record levels in the quarter, significantly above pre-COVID levels.The third quarter was the first quarter in 2021 when all our businesses operated without material COVID-19 related restrictions.

Our physical retail businesses in Greece and Cyprus and casinos in Austria and internationally, which were adversely impacted by restrictions in H1, demonstrated a very rapid recovery, in line with our expectations.I am especially pleased about a significant improvement in profitability levels in our Austrian business following the successful execution of our restructuring program, which is expected to deliver annual savings of €45 million.While governments have introduced some new restrictions after the end of the period, these are much more limited than in previous periods and have in the case of Austria already been relaxed again.

We remain optimistic about the outlook for Q4, supported by strong trading in most of our businesses and in the online channel.We have also continued our solid progress on our strategic objectives, including rapid expansion of our online business, digitalisation of physical retail, and submission of our proposal to operate the fourth UK National Lottery concession.

Overall, I am very pleased with SAZKA Group’s continuing strong performance in Q3 2021 and I look forward with confidence and excitement to a great fourth quarter and 2022 as our strong trading momentum persists and we continue to make progress on our strategic objectives.”

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