ATG®’s net gaming revenue for the period January–September was four billion kroner, an increase of 2 percent and the highest ever for the group.

We are in the plus over the entire period, but the third quarter has been tougher especially for the horse game. The increased gaming tax also affects the result as it has increased our costs by SEK 55 million, says Lotta Nilsson Viitala, CFO at ATG. The net gaming revenue includes ATG®’s three gaming areas: horse, sports and casino in both Sweden and Denmark.

The horse game, increased by 1 percent compared to the same period, January–September, last year. The sports game had growth of 2 percent and the casino increased by 10 percent.
Isolated to the third quarter, horse betting decreased by 6 percent.

We see several reasons for that in Q3. Partly competition from major championships such as the men’s EC in football and the summer Olympics. Partly one less Saturday with our biggest game V75®, which also had a weaker trend during the period, says Lotta Nilsson Viitala.

The group’s total revenue amounted to 4.5 billion, an increase of 2 percent.The number of active customers was approximately 1.4 million. To clarify gambling responsibility work, ATG reports the proportion of green customers and proportion of green turnover based on self-tests and actual gambling behaviour. 210,000 Swedish customers have done the self-test. Of these, 89 percent are green in their gambling and the share of green turnover is 82 percent.

Both figures have improved during the year, which is pleasing. Costs and operating profit
The group’s costs including gambling tax (which was raised from 18 to 22 percent on July 1) were 3.3 billion. Costs have increased by SEK 103 million or 3 percent.

Of that increase, as I said, the increase in gambling tax accounts for 55 million, which also affects the operating margin negatively, says Lotta Nilsson Viitala.

ATG’s operating profit was SEK 1.2 billion, which is the same as last year. The operating margin is 27 percent and has decreased from 28 percent.

Another way to see how things are actually going for ATG is to look at the parent company’s results before transactions with the owners, Svensk Travsport and Svensk Galopp, which were just under 1.7 billion or 37 percent of total revenues.