Supplier News
Estonia – Baltic markets help boost Olympic by 17.8 per cent
By Phil - 26 October 2016
Estonian-born operator Olympic Entertainment continued its bounce back with consolidated sales revenues for the first nine months of 2016 amounting to €142.1m, up 17.8 per cent or €21.4m year on year.
Gaming revenues accounted for 92.6 per cent of this total.
The Group’s consolidated EBITDA for 9 months of 2016 amounted to €44.2m, a growth of 51.4 per cent from €29.2m a year before. The Group’s consolidated operating profit increased €4.5m or 19.3 per cent to €27.7m.
Casinos in the group’s historical base in the Baltics led the way with revenues in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania up 23.7 per cent, 18.7 per cent and 14.7 per cent respectively.
The period saw approval from the Estonian Competition Authority, on 16 February, to complete the acquisition of Estonian casino operator AS MC Kasiinod, taking the group’s total number of casinos in Estonia to 24.
The Estonian subsidiaries of Group, Olympic Casino Eesti AS and the casino operating company AS MC Kasiinod which was acquired in winter of 2016, concluded a merger agreement on 21 March 2016. The merger was finalised in May 2016 and during the course of the merger AS MC Kasiinod merged with Olympic Casino Eesti AS.
Olympic now runs 990 slot machines, 36 electronic roulette terminals, 24 gaming tables and 22 poker tournament tables in Estonia. The start of June saw Olympic open a new flagship hotel and entertainment complex in Tallinn at a cost of over €45m in the building that accommodates the Baltic’s first Hilton hotel.
In Latvia it operates 57 Olympic casinos with 1,497 slot machines, 8 electronic roulette terminals, 19 gaming tables and 9 poker tournament tables whilst in Lithuania it has18 Olympic casinos with 534 slot machines, 8 electronic roulette terminals, 58 gaming tables and 2 poker tournament tables and 32 betting shops.
Sales revenues were down in Poland by 25.2 per cent reaching €13.5. The company’s flagship Polish casino was closed on 23 September 2016 due to the expiration of location specific activity license. Operating loss was caused by the impairment of goodwill and assets due to freezing active operations. Olympic said though that it ‘remains interested in continuing its operations in the Polish market and plans to participate in the upcoming public tenders for the licenses.’
In Slovakia, where the company has eight Olympic casinos with 292 slot machines, 42 electronic roulette terminals, 44 gaming tables and 21 poker tournament tables, sales were up 8.1 per cent to €12.7m.
Having seen sales of just €0.2m in Belarus, Olympic decided to exit the Belarus gaming market due to the macroeconomic situation and poor prospects to increase profitability in Belarus.
In Italy, where the group operates 15 VLT slot casinos with 539 slot machines, revenues were up by 18.4 per cent reaching €18.8m.
The company’s new casino in Malta generated €8.4m. It houses 285 slot machines, 18 electronic roulette terminals, 19 gaming tables and 10 poker tournament tables.
