Western Europe stars as Unibet profits rise 13%
Stockholm-listed operator records EBITDA of £18.5m in Q2 as strong growth in Western Europe sees GWR hit a new all-time high
Unibet’s this morning posted a 13% year-on-year increase in Q2 EBITDA following double-digit revenue growth in Western Europe and a resilient performance across all verticals.
When stripping out the contribution from sportsbook supplier Kambi, which Unibet spun off in May 2014, EBITDA for the three months ended 30 June 2015 was £18.5m, up from £16.3m during the same period in 2014, while gross winnings revenue (GWR) increased 6.5% year-on-year to a new high of £80.5m.
In constant currency GWR was up 21% year-on-year and EBITDA up 39% compared to Q2 2014, with growth coming from Western Europe which reported a revenue increase of 14% year-on-year.
The improved Q2 performance brought H1 GWR to £156.6m, 4% ahead of the £150.2m recorded at this stage last year.
Unibet CEO Henrik Tjärnström said he was pleased with the company’s performance during the quarter, particularly with no major sporting tournament to boost revenues.
“Strong growth in turnover across all products and our continued focus on operational efficiency has raised profitability, with a 13% increase in EBITDA in GBP and 39% in constant currency,” he said.
“The success of the marketing investments made in previous quarters, has also driven organic growth of more than 21% in gross winnings revenue in constant currencies, despite tough comparables from the successful World Cup in 2014,” Tjärnström added.
By vertical, sportsbook again grew strongly for the firm, up 9% year-on-year to £34.9m, while revenues from casino and games also increased from £37.5m to a new high of £40.6m.
Online poker was the fastest growing vertical for the Unibet business, up 12% year-on-year to £1.9m, and brought to an end a run of successive periods of decline for the product.
The growth is good news for the operator’s London-based poker team which took decision to launch a new standalone poker product after leaving Microgaming’s MPN Network in 2013 in favour of a casual player-focused client in partnership with Relax Gaming.
Last month Unibet announced a deal to acquire the digital business of Gibraltar-based operator Stan James for £19m as part of a move to expand its presence in the UK online gambling market.
Tjärnström said he was optimistic the acquisition, which does not include Stan James’ 90 betting shops, would make the operator a key player in the UK.
“In addition to the major investment made over the past two years to launch Unibet in the UK market, I am confident that the acquisition of Stan James Online will significantly accelerate our development and profitability in the world’s largest locally regulated market,” he said.
Unibet’s share price was SEK565 at the time of writing.