Operator News

Czech – UK National Lottery helps boost Allwyn’s results by 98 per cent

By Phil - 5 December 2023

Allwyn International has announced its preliminary unaudited financial results for the three and nine months ended 30 September 2023 with revenue of €2,007m in Q3, up 98 per cent year-on-year, with the growth driven by recent acquisitions.

Excluding these, consolidated Total Revenue of €1,006m for Q3, was down one per cent year-on-year.

The company of course completed the acquisitions of Camelot UK, the current operator of the UK National Lottery, and of Allwyn LS Group (formerly referred to as Camelot LS Group), the current operator of the Illinois Lottery under a private management agreement.

Robert Chvatal, Allwyn CEO, commented: “I am pleased to report that Allwyn delivered another quarter of solid financial performance and strategic progress, notwithstanding headwinds from customer-friendly sports results (which impacted the sports betting sector in general) as well as less favourable jackpot cycles.

“Total Revenue increased by 98 per cent year-on-year in Q3 2023, reflecting a steady performance in our existing geographies in addition to the significant contribution from the Camelot Acquisitions that we completed in the first quarter.”

“The steady performance in our existing geographies was underpinned by continued progress in digital, where we see the benefits of our ongoing focus on product development and the customer proposition. Alongside this, we continue to successfully roll out of a number of important game innovations, including new launches in the exciting annuity category in Austria, the Czech Republic, and Greece and Cyprus. In doing so, we remain focused on our responsibilities to all our stakeholders, including our relentless focus on safe play.”

“We continued to deliver solid margins and free cash flow generation, with only a limited impact of inflation on our cost base, reflecting our favourable cost structure, with our largest cost categories being directly linked to revenue, and our focus on cost and capital efficiency.”

“Reflecting the strong free cash flow generation of our business model, in our Greece and Cyprus segment OPAP announced a €150m share buyback programme during the quarter. We do not plan to tender shares and therefore expect our economic interest in OPAP to increase marginally as the buyback is carried out, consistent with our inorganic growth strategy. In parallel, OPAP has announced that it will not be continuing its scrip dividend programme. We will therefore be receiving all future dividends from OPAP in cash.”

Overall, despite the sector headwinds in the quarter, I am very pleased with Allwyn’s continued progress and believe we are well placed to end 2023 successfully, and for the next chapters of our growth story.”