EBITDA for B2B increased by 63%, from €2.5m to €4.1m, constituting 67.7% of the total, while the EBITDA margin went down to 18.5% compared to 22.8%, previously.

Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) amounted to €5.1m, showing a slight change from the previous €5.2m and earnings after taxes dropped to €4.2m from €5.3m.

Earnings per share after tax dropped to €0.09 from the base period’s €0.11, while the number of first-time depositors (FTDs) increased by 23.6% to €99,900, compared to the previous €80.800.

“B2B continued to boost overall company growth for the second quarter to more than 30% compared to [the same quarter in] 2018. During the second quarter, we announced a significant transaction and entered several exciting partnerships [e.g. with Vipps and NEG], followed by major launches over the past weeks,” said Tsachi Maimon, CEO of Aspire Global.

“Revenues for the past 12 months are now approaching €130m with an EBITDA amounting to €25m. The acquisition of Pariplay group will accelerate growth additionally and strengthen our B2B arm through external game sales, in line with our M&A [mergers and acquisitions] strategy,” Mr Maimon added. 

Strong performance in H1, too

The revenues increased by 53.1% to €66.6m, compared to the €43.1m of the same period of the previous year. B2B revenues went up by 76.5% to €39m, constituting 59.1% of total revenues, in comparison with the previous €22.1m.

Moreover, EBITDA increased by 44% to €12.1m (previously €8.5m) while EBITDA for B2B increased by 91% to €8.3m, constituting 68.2% of total EBITDA, from the base periods’ €4.3m.

The EBITDA margin, which was 19.6%, went down to 18.4% and the EBIT increased to €10.3m from the previous €7.6m.  

Earnings after tax grew from €7.5m to €9.1m while earnings per share after tax increased to €0.18 from base periods’ €0.15m and FTDs grew to €219,100 (46%) from €150,100. 

Closing busy H1

Board members were re-elected during the annual general meeting (AGM) 2019 held on 14 May. The board members — Aharon Aran, Carl Klingberg (Chairman), Fredrik Burvall, Tsachi Maimon and Barak Matalon — will stay in place until the AGM 2020, with the aim of resolving a distribution of around SEK1.25 (approximately €0.12) per share.

Furthermore, the Swedish administrative court extended Aspire Global’s Swedish iGaming to 2021 on 26 July. 

Aspire Global welcomed the proposed acquisition of the leading game aggregator platform Pariplay for approximately €13.1m in cash on 28 June, in order to accelerate the growth of its B2B arm. The group notes that transaction is to be closed during the third quarter with a positive effect on the company’s EBITDA for 2020.

“In July, we announced the upcoming acquisition of B2B company Pariplay for €13.1 million, the exciting and strategically important outcome of our M&A strategy aiming at accelerating B2B growth through external game sales. Integrating Pariplay grants us control of yet another crucial part of the iGaming value chain. Moreover, Pariplay holds an iGaming license for New Jersey, which could act as the spearhead of our future efforts to enter the US market. We are looking forward to finalising the deal and we expect to consolidate the group in our financials during the third quarter,” said Mr Maimon. 

“We are currently launching additional initiatives within our long-term sustainability work, with a focus on four key areas: responsible gaming, corporate governance, compliance and reporting. A sustainability committee was recently implemented to set the strategy, oversee the process and support various functions. We will be implementing a number of initiatives over the coming months and the first separate sustainability report will be produced in 2020, based on GRI [Global Reporting Initiative],” Mr Maimon added. 

The post Aspire Global’s Q2 revenues gain 32.1% as B2B fuels growth first appeared on The Malta Business Weekly.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) was €15.1m, compared to €15m of Q2 2018, corresponding to an EBITDA margin of 16% which was 17.2% during the same period of the previous year.

“We reiterate our ambitious financial targets to achieve €600m in revenue and EBITDA of €100m by 2021. We want to clarify that the targets are based primarily on organic growth, but also include revenue from potential future acquisitions,” said Gustaf Hagman, CEO of LeoVegas group.

The number of depositing customers increased by 8%, from 309,961 to 334,961 and the number of returning depositing custmers also grew by 12%, from 175,500 to 196,203, compared to Q2 2018. Earnings per share were €0.07 before and after dilution, with no change reported.

‘Balanced’ revenue mix

“Compared to a year ago, LeoVegas has a more balanced geographic revenue mix. This means that we are not as sensitive to challenges that may arise in a specific market, which in turn means that we have lower business risk in the Group,” said Mr Hagman. 

“This work is helping to create necessary economies of scale and is countering the effect of that we are paying more gambling taxes. As previously communicated, our marketing investments also decreased compared with the first quarter of the year,” Mr Hagman added. “A contributing factor to this is more restrained marketing in Sweden during the quarter. In addition, the postponement of a few campaigns from the second to the third quarter has affected costs and contributed to operating profit, which will have a reverse effect during the third quarter.”

Furthermore, LeoVegas obtained a gaming licence in Spain and two weeks after the company launched its business in Spain, according to the press release sent to BM.

“This shows the strength and speed of LeoVegas and further demonstrates that our experience from regulated markets benefits us. Spain is a step in our continued expansion, and we have also recently carried out launches in other Spanish-speaking countries, such as Chile and Peru, as well as in Brazil,” continued Mr Hagman.

Moreover, Sweden has now been a regulated market for more than six months, and the development is beginning to indicate what kind of market the group will have over the long term. Leovegas also launched GoGoCasino and Pixel.bet.

“The investments made in 2018 and efficiency improvement work carried out thus far in 2019 are beginning to generate returns in the form of greater scalability of operations,” concluded Mr Hagman. 

The post LeoVegas sees organic revenue growing 8% in Q2 first appeared on The Malta Business Weekly.