Q&A: Cherry CEO Fredrik Burvall
The newly appointed chief executive of Cherry discusses his plans for the company
Fredrik Burvall was appointed as CEO of Cherry last month, replacing Emil Sunvisson who stepped down in December. While serving in the role on an acting basis, Burvall oversaw a 49% hike in year-on-year revenues for Q1, and his first job will be to build upon that strong growth.
eGaming Review caught up with Cherry’s new CEO to find out what the operator has planned for the rest of 2015.
What is the main focus for the coming months?
Our goal is to grow faster than the market and achieve profitability as quickly as possible. We are well on the road to doing that and these are very exciting times for Cherry. Our online business continues to show excellent growth and we’ve invested in some young, dynamic companies that have the potential to add significant volumes to our bottom line.
How is Cherry placed to capitalise on consolidation in the casino vertical?
We made the decision a few years ago to build our own platform and that is a major advantage for us. It is a top class platform and gives us agility and flexibility as new products can be easily integrated. We also have a strong brand and heritage that means we can stand out from the crowd, while the fact that we are listed makes us interesting for other companies that are looking to sell their businesses.
Are you currently looking at acquisitions?
We have achieved strong organic growth with online gaming growing by 49% in the first quarter and this now makes up 63% of the group’s revenues. However, we are always keeping an eye out for potential acquisitions. We’ve been very happy with how the Game Lounge [affiliate] partnership has been going and I’m not going to rule out us making further acquisitions this year.
Is there any update on the now overdue sportsbook?
We are hoping to launch the sportsbook in the next couple of months. SBTech are getting everything in place and it will be targeted at the Scandinavian and European markets. We’ll be offering more than 18,000 betting events each month on mobile, tablet and desktop.
Is diversification into other channels part of the long-term strategy?
Our heritage is very much in the casino vertical and this continues to be our core focus. But we have invested in lotteries, affiliates and game development, so we are certainly not averse to branching out from our foundations. It makes sense to add a sportsbook to our platform as we don’t want our customers going to other sites if they can’t get what they want with us.
You’ve spent heavily on marketing recently, are you beginning to reap the rewards from this?
We have seen strong customer numbers and our general growth is much quicker than the market, so I’m confident we have the correct strategy in place. The cost of acquiring customers is going up all the time, so there’s a constant battle to try to get them cheaper. That was a major reason for us investing in Game Lounge and we’ve already seen a number of positive areas, both for current Cherry brands and our new white label SveaCasino.com. Our new offerings at EuroLotto.com will also attract new customers going forward and over time we expect the marketing spend to go down in relation to revenue.
Which new markets are of most interest?
We are a European business and there are a number of markets within the continent that are appealing for us. The German market is particularly interesting at the moment and we will be looking to increase our presence there during the remainder of the year.
How is the relationship with Yggdrasil helping Cherry?
Yggdrasil’s growth has been very strong over the past 18 months and there is potential for even more over the next 18 months. They are a hungry, young company and the content they provide to Cherry’s brands, and other operators, is world class. Cherry and some other operators also work closely with Yggdrasil to provide feedback on new features and games. We’ve been particularly impressed with Joker Millions, Yggdrasil’s first progressive jackpot, which has proved very popular at Cherry’s sites. As they sign more operators and grow their games portfolio revenues will increase further and we’re excited about them as a company.