SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Gaming Innovation Group (GiG) has reported a positive start to its 2021 trading, achieving growth targets across all verticals, highlighting the performance of its platform business overcoming regulatory hurdles.
Normalised group revenue increased to €15.4 million, a 44% uptake on the 2020 trading figure of €10.7 million, whilst EBITDA rose by 674% from €600,000 to €4.6 million, with the normalised margin rising by 29.6%.
Despite encountering headwinds in the form of German regulatory implementation during the first quarter, which had an ‘impact on short term revenues,’ as well as ‘low contribution from the white label business,’ the group reported further progress with regards to its platform divisions.
The group attributed competition of the technical infrastructure and a focus on SaaS operations as a key driver of its platform success, outlining a quarter-on-quarter growth of 6%.
Overall, normalised revenue for Platform Services accounted for €5.2 million, an increase of 19% on Q1 2020 earnings of €3.8 million, whilst a positive quarterly EBITDA of €0.3 million was also observed, a significant improvement on the – €1.6 million recorded 12 months earlier.
Several new agreements were highlighted as driving platform growth, with 14 signed in 2020 and three in Q1 2021 – a long-term deal with PlayStar NJ drove GiG’s expansion in New Jersey’s online casino sector in February, followed by a deal based on a revenue share model with a ‘an established German facing operator’ in March.
This April, GiG signed secured an arrangement with a ‘third iGaming operator’, powering ‘a new online casino with the same ownership as an existing partner’, although a platform agreement with a second European media group was terminated due to ‘changes in strategy’ in the partner’s commercial approach.
Group CEO Richard Brown attributed GiG’s media investment as a second key driver of its successful start to 2021, having increased revenues by 23% year-on-year to an all-time high of €10 million, a quarterly rise of 12%, whilst EBITDA stood at €4.6 million.
Meanwhile, First Time Depositors (FTD) also ended at an all-time high of 43,712, a year-on-year increase of 56% and a quarterly uptake of 31%. The group anticipates further improvements with regards to player in-take, driving ‘further revenue growth growing forward’.
“The business and the team continue to work exceptionally hard to continue to deliver, and with a relentless dedication to improve the business, striving towards its future potential,” Brown remarked.
“We have a media business that is again starting to deliver exciting growth prospects and a global iGaming platform business that is beginning to scale forward. A strong start to the year, but this continues to be just the foundations of what is possible to achieve with this business over the coming years and what we as a group are targeting long term.”
