SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Kambi’s latest commercial performance report has painted a strong start to the year, with elevated commercial expectations for Euro 2024.
Net cash was at €46m compared to the €61.2m in Q1 2023. According to David Kenyon, CFO at Kambi, this balance sheet is enough to give customers assurances that Kambi “is here for the long haul”.
Kenyon also suggested the net cash position could allow Kambi to initiate a higher number of buybacks, which the next annual general meeting on 21 May will seek a fresh mandate for.
Kambi has already conducted two successful buyback programmes, where share repurchasing was initiated to increase the company’s capital structure flexibility.
Revenues for the first quarter amounted to €43.2m (Q12023: €44m), while cash flow excluding working capital and M&A slightly increased to €5.4m (€3.2m).
During a live steam announcing the Q1 update, CEO Kristian Nylén commented that there has been no material impact to revenue following Napoleon Games’ withdrawal from the Kambi platform, despite the turnover from this deal being unaccounted for in Q1.
Another development saw Penn Entertainment extending its retail partnership with Kambi until 2026. This will in turn protect Kambi’s revenue while Penn migrates to a new proprietary sportsbook solution.
The focus on partnerships also saw the signing of a sportsbook deal with LiveScore last year, which began to show success in 2024. The recent launches in both Nigeria and the Netherlands helped solidify Kambi’s position in those markets. Feedback from LiveScore so far has been “very good”, Nylén said, with both projects ‘running smoothly’.
In addition, Nylén also promised an “imminent” UK launch with LiveScore ahead of Euro 2024, with a similar rollout with Svenska Spel currently in the pipeline.
Q1 success for Kambi was also achieved with its AI-powered trading division Tzeract, which secured its first commercial partnership with kwiff. Tzeract’s Bet Builder offering is planned to go live on kwiff’s platform once again in time for Euro 2024.
Nylén asserted that Kambi has ensured Tzeract is in a good position not only to bring in new external odds feeds but to also supply customers with ‘easily’ delivered in-house odds, which are “greatly benefited by data based on a global network”.
Efforts are being put into developing Kambi’s modular services as a whole, with the CEO highlighting that ‘good progress’ has been made in Q1 in terms of raising the interest in them, and that Kambi is ready to set these services up for bigger commercialisation.
The esports vertical is also continuing to grow. Nylén confirmed that esoccer has so far been “quite an important source” for both Kambi and its partners. Leadership also projects that, with 8000 events being done on a monthly basis, Kambi’s esports odds platform Abios will grow more throughout 2024. The platform will also roll out a ebasketball offering later this year, Nylén confirmed.
Elsewhere, EBIT operating profit for Q1 2024 remained stable at €4.4m (€4.5m) at a margin of 10.2% (10.3%). EBITA on acquired intangible assets was €5.8m (€5.8m) at a margin of 13.3% (13.1%).
Nylén further commented that ‘it is not impossible’ for financial targets until 2027 to be achieved either through organic growth or M&A.
“Organic growth is definitely the main road for us, but we have always been looking opportunistically at M&A. 2027 is quite far out. I wouldn’t rule it out if we find a suitable partner,” the CEO said.
The overview concluded with Nylén expressing that Kambi ‘has changed its profile when it comes to dependency on larger customers’, and that while its offering is tailored as a premium service for tier 1 operators, the company is also prepared to look at signing smaller clients as well.
