Scout Gaming Group remains confident of its long-term business strategy and future commercial prospects after delivering growth to its investors.
Despite numerous COVID challenges interrupting its standard trading, the Nasdaq Nordic listed B2B fantasy sports supplier recorded full-year corporate revenues of SEK 47 million (€4.6m), up 85% on corresponding FY 2019’s SEK 26 million.
Revenue growth was supported by a strong close to end of year trading, as Scout’s B2B DFS network benefited from a fully re-scheduled football calendar with Q4 revenues increasing by 69% to SEK 17m (€1.7m).
Despite significant H1 headwinds, Scout stated that it was able to recover its network partner activity during the final months of 2020, recording a 135% increase in Q4 daily active customers of +2,500. It also cited strong take-up of players participating in its €1 million network fantasy football league.
Accounting for COVID-19 adjustments, Scout increased its total full-year operating expenses to SEK 93 million (€9m) – up 18% on FY2019’s SEK 79 million.
Scout’s increased expenditure was attributed to the DFS supplier expanding its commercial pipeline, securing a new tier-1 partnership with Greek online gambling group Kaizen Gaming and subsequently becoming the lead DFS supplier for Betano and Stoiximan brands.
Further 2020 improvements saw Scout narrow its underlying corporate loss to SEK 46 million, a reduction on 2019 accounts of SEK 53 million.
Nevertheless, closing its 2020 accounts, Scout absorbed an impairment charge of SEK 9 million, declaring full-year corporate losses SEK 54 million slightly above its 2019 results.
Looking to 2021, Scout continues to monitor COVID-19 developments across European jurisdictions but is confident of maintaining its network’s return to normalised trading.
“In a longer perspective, COVID-19 has resulted in a faster pace of digitalization in general and for companies operating in the entertainment sector in particular, which has benefited Scout Gaming,” said Scout Gaming CEO Andreas Ternström.
“We have updated our internal assessment of the potential size of the European fantasy sports market and currently estimate it to amount to between SEK 5.5-7bn at gross gaming revenue level, which means approximately 2-3% of the entire total online gaming market in Europe.”