Finance Archives - Page 8 of 12

Scout shareholders to vote on 90% share dilution next month

Scout Gaming Group shareholders will vote next month on a share issue that would dilute existing holdings in the business by 90%.

Fantasy provider Scout announced that it would conduct a share issue in order to save the business in June, after it identified a SEK17m ($1.7m/£1.4m/€1.6m) commitment in its finances which it said it was previously unaware of.

The commitment will impact cash flow for third quarter of this year and have a negative effect on profit and loss in the quarter of around SEK5.5m.

As a result of the new cost, Scout leadership took drastic action to save the business, including laying off 68 employees, between its offices in Bergen in Norway and Lviv in Ukraine.

As well as the layoffs, Scout said it would issue 202.7 million new shares, diluting existing shares by 90%.

The board has now revealed more details of the share issue. Each shareholder will be offered the opportunity to buy nine more shares in the business, at SEK0.50 per share.

Scout said that the iss..

July 27, 2022

XLMedia’s new focus on US betting pays off as H1 EBITDA exceeds $10m

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A renewed – and acquisition-powered – focus on US sports betting helped drive XLMedia’s revenue up 39.2% to $44.5m, while earnings grew beyond $10m.

Since the prior year’s results, XLMedia changed the structure of the divisions within the business, as part of a wider restructuring effort.

Rather than a single sports betting vertical, the business split revenue related to betting into US sports and European sports. It was the US sports division that generated the vast majority of XLMedia’s revenue, with $30.2m, which was more than five times the total recorded in H1 of the previous year.

Much of this came from recent acquisitions such as Sports Betting Dime and Saturday Football Inc.

“The opening of new regulated markets and the signing of new media partnership agreements has allowed the US Sports business to capitalise on the full US sports calendar, in particular the Super Bowl, and deliver strong growth in H1 2022,” the XL board said.

The European Sports division, meanwhile, br..

July 21, 2022

LatAm now Betsson’s largest market amid European decline in Q2

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Betsson disclosed revenue of €186.3m (£158.9m/$189.5m) from its second quarter results, which saw Latin America become its largest market – while revenue in western Europe fell by almost 40%..

Pontus Lindwall, CEO at Betsson [pictured above] said the business saw progress in most areas throughout the quarter, and spoke highly of its sportsbook progress.

“Betsson’s second quarter featured continued good growth with all-time high revenue and further investments to support our expansion,” said Lindwall. “The group’s organic growth was 13%, mainly driven by Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia, where we see long-term growth potential as these markets still have a low share of online gaming.”

“The sportsbook business showed a strong development in the quarter – gross turnover increased by 20% and the margin was 8.3% (8.5%) – leading to all-time high revenue.”

Latin America is now Betsson’s largest market. In Q2, it accumulated revenue of €45.7m, up significantly by..

July 20, 2022

STS revenue declines despite higher stakes in Q2

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STS – Poland’s largest bookmaker – reported a drop in net gaming revenue despite an increase in wagers in Q2.

In Q2, wagers were up 1.0% year-on-year to PLN1.11bn, despite Q2 of 2021 including the rescheduled Euro 2020. However, net gaming revenue – which includes gambling taxes as well as winnings – declined by 16.6% to PLN138m.

The business had 375,000 active users during the quarter, down from 417,000 in the same period of 2021. In addition, it reported 92,000 new registrations, down 22.7%, and 66,000 first-time depostors, down 19.2%.

Looking at the first half of 2022, net gaming revenue came to PLN296m, very slightly up from the same period of 2022.

The increase came as total wagers with the operator dipped sightly to PLN2.19bn.

“In the first half of this year, we achieved very good operating results,” STS chief executive Mateusz Juroszek said. “We have slightly improved NGR – the value of amounts staked by the customers, less the winnings paid and gambling and lottery tax – c..

July 14, 2022

May was second-best month ever for US commercial gaming

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The American Gaming Association (AGA) has reported that US commercial gaming revenue came to $5.03bn (£4.25bn/€5.02bn) in May, the second highest month in industry history.

This was a rise of 7.9% from May 2021, in the earlier stages of recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Slots continued to generate the most gross gaming revenue (GGR) overall, at $2.94bn, down just 0.1% year-on-year.

GGR from table games amounted to $873.9m, a rise of 10.5% year-on-year, while sports betting revenue came to $487.5m- up significantly by 78.2%.

Online gaming revenue also grew, by 30.9% to $406.4m.

For the year to date, total GGR is $24.39bn, up 20.6% from the same period in 2021.

Slots revenue for the year so far increased by 11% to $14.08bn and table games revenue grew by 38.2% to $4.05bn.

Sports betting revenue for the year to date jumped by 73.5% to $2.64bn. Online gaming GGR also grew significantly to $2.03bn, up by 45.6%.

The AGA also noted that March, April and May have been the three mos..

June 20, 2022

Italy stems flow of year-to-year drops in igaming GGR

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Italian igaming revenue rose year-on-year in April for the first time since November 2021. However, this figure was down month-on-month.

Italy’s igaming market revenue declined slightly month-on-month, at €292.2m in April compared to March’s €302.4m. This meant that revenue was up year-on-year for the first time in six months, after revenue came to €288.1m in April 2021.

This decline has been mostly driven by a 6.7% fall in online sports betting, with revenue now sitting at €118.9m: its lowest level since October 2021. This was still above the €103.6m recorded in April 2021, however.

Though online casino revenue remained stable, there were some interesting movements between operators within the market.

The biggest four online casino operators by GGR all lost ground to their competitors, Sisal and Snai being the worst affected as they drop to 8.5% and 8.3% market shares respectively, while Pokerstars’ share declined to 8.8% and Lottomatica 7.3%.

In contrast, on the online sports b..

June 20, 2022

Michigan online operators report $160.9m gross revenue in May

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In Michigan, online operators have reported combined $160.9m total gross receipts in May, a 1.4% decline from April.

The total combined gross receipts can be divided into $127.4 million from online casino sources and $33.5 million for sport betting. While the online casino segment decline 3.8% from April, sports betting revenue increased by 9.1% increase.

This pattern can also be seen in the adjusted gross revenue, which takes into account free bets. The combined adjusted revenue total was $137.2 million for May; with $114.7 million from online gaming and $22.5 million from sports betting. While internet gaming declined by 3.9%, sports betting rose by almost 35%.

Comparing to May 2021, internet gaming revenue was up by 28.8% – with sports betting rising 127.4%. One factor in the size of the sector’s increase is the ending of most Covid-era restrictions, which affected the sporting calendar in 2020-2021.

The total sports betting handle, that is the total amount that has been bet, w..

June 17, 2022

Low betting margins continue to hinder Spanish industry in Q1

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Gambling revenue in Spain was down year-on-year again in Q1 of 2022, due to continued anaemic sports betting margins.

According to data from regulator the Dirección General de Ordenación del Juego (DGOJ), gross gaming revenue was down by 14.8% to €204.4m. However this marked a 16.3% quarter-on-quarter increase.

Revenue fell despite an increase in stakes, which grew 5.3% year-on-year to €7.41bn, a new record high. Deposits, meanwhile, grew by 4.3% year-on-year – or 7.1% quarter-on quarter – to €769.8m.
A similar trend emerged in 2021, when revenue was down despite a significant increase in stakes.

Breaking down revenue by vertical, sports betting revenue continued to be low at €65.2m, a 40.9% fall from Q1 2021, but up 49.1% from Q4 of that year.

Sports betting stakes remained high at €3.06bn, up 10.6% year-on-year, as it had done in H2 2021. This suggests a sports betting margin of just 2.1%. Margins were low across all sports, but lowest in horse racing at 1.4%.

House-banked casi..

June 15, 2022

Acies Investments leads $4m Tally Technology funding round

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Fan engagement platform Tally Technology has announced the closing of an oversubscribed $4.0m (£3.3m/€3.8m) series seed funding round led by Acies Investments, the venture fund led by former MGM CEO Jim Murren.

Founded in 2018, Tally develops free-to-play prediction game for brands, professional sports teams, leagues and media platforms, while it also gathers data on users’ gaming, wagering, brand preferences, consumer spending and other insights.

Tally currently works with a number of leading sports teams including National Football League franchises Los Angeles Rams, Green Bay Packers, Buffalo Bills, as well as National Basketball teams the Los Angeles Lakers and Atlanta Hawks.

Acies Investments has previously committed funds to the sports betting, sports technology, igaming and esports industries

With the closing of the series seed investment, Tally said it will use the funds continue to invest in its data platform, expand its operations and build a wider variety of game types.
..

May 27, 2022

Kenya Finance Committee throws out government’s tax hike plan

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The Finance and National Planning Committee of Kenya’s National Assembly published its updated version of the country’s Finance Bill, following a period of public input on the Treasury’s version of the bill.

In the committee’s version of the bill, the excise tax on betting stakes would remain at 7.5%, while no new tax would be brought in for gambling advertising.

Both of these were amendments from the Treasury’s version of the bill, which proposed a 20% excise tax on betting stakes, plus a 15% tax on gambling advertising spend.

The committee argued that this was not wise, however, as the current 7.5% rate has been in place for less than one year, so there has not been enough time to judge if it has been a success.

“The committee observed that excise duty on gaming activities had been increased in the Finance Act, 2021 and there is therefore need to give the sector time before taxes are increased,” the committee said. “The committee therefore recommends that the amendment be deleted..

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