SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Gambling.com Group has demonstrated its “capital-efficient business”, achieving all commercial and operating objectives for 2023.
Publishing its full-year 2023 accounts this afternoon, the Nasdaq media group confirmed its agreed $42.5m acquisition of FreeBets.com and related European and Canadian market assets from rival publisher XL Media Plc.
Prior to the deal announcement, Gambling.com concluded FY2023 trading, achieving peak revenues of $108m, up 42% on FY2022 comparatives of $76m. The revenue figure surpasses the firm’s elevated revenue target of over $100m.
Year-end trading saw Gambling.com declare ‘record-breaking’ Q4 results, generating $42m (Q4 2022: $21m) in corporate revenues and an adjusted EBITDA contribution of $10.5m (Q4: $6.8m).
Of significance, Q4 growth was elevated by its North American network achieving 103% sales growth to $20m, alongside the peak KPI of delivering more than 159,000 new depositing customers (NDCs) to partners.
Group CEO Charles Gillespie commented on the results: “Our fourth quarter extended our strong record of delivering high top-line growth and attractive margins.
“With consistent execution over the years, and especially over the past four years in North America, we have established one of the strongest and highest growth performance marketing businesses in the online gambling industry.”
The strong momentum to year-end trading saw Gambling.com hit its elevated earnings target for FY2023 EBITDA at $36m, up 53% on FY2022 results of $24m.
Year-end accounts detailed a total operating expenditure of $70m (FY2022: $59m), as the firm accounted for higher costs in Sales & Marketing ($35m), Technology Resources ($10m), and General Administrative Expenses ($24m).
Balancing its increased costs, Gambling.com underlined operational efficiencies which helped the company maintain a net income margin on year results of 17%, versus 2022’s margin of 3%.
As such, improved efficiencies saw Gambling.com declare operating profits of $21m – reflecting a tenfold jump on FY2022 profits of $1.9m. Of distinction, stellar Q4 trading contributed $8m in corporate profits.
Closing its year accounts, Gambling.com doubled its free cash flow to $16m, as balance sheets will be further strengthened by the group securing access to a $50m credit facility backed by Wells Fargo Bank.
For 2024, Gambling.com has set the year guidance of generating corporate revenues in the range of $129m to $133m, alongside an adjusted EBITDA of $44m to $48m.
Investors were notified that year targets will “not benefit from any new acquisitions, apart from approximately $10m in revenue and $5m in incremental Adjusted EBITDA related to the acquisition of Freebets.com and related assets”.
As disclosed this morning, Gambling.com will enlarge its media portfolio, gaining the assets of Freebets.com, WhichBingo.co.uk, Nettikasinot.com, and Vedonlyonti.com, alongside “smaller Europe and Canada properties”.
Gillespie concluded: “This acquisition will provide us with another big brand and assets that complement our existing website portfolio in a number of our key focus markets, enabling us to drive further growth which is both high margin and highly accretive.
“By operating these assets on our technology platform, we expect to unlock their full potential. We are confident that this latest acquisition will create incremental shareholder value in the same way we have done with previous acquisitions.”
