Interactive

Sweden – Record revenues again at Evolution

By Phil - 1 September 2015

Second quarter revenue at Swedish-born, live dealer specialist Evolution Gaming surged by 55 per cent to €17.9m with EBITDA growing by 89 per cent to €7.7m, corresponding to a margin of 43 per cent.
Mobile growth was in excess of 250 per cent year-on-year.

Jens von Bahr, CEO said: “Evolution’s strong performance continues and we again noted record revenues and earnings for the most recent quarter. We are seeing very strong growth in the market driven by increasing engagement by operators and more end users who discover live casino, particularly using mobile devices. In the second quarter, 24 per cent of the operators’ gaming revenues via the Evolution platform were generated by mobile devices compared to 11 per cent last year. In absolute numbers the increase was more than 250 per cent, still without cannibalizing other platforms.”

One of the most important events in the quarter was the agreement with Casino de Spa in Belgium, where Evolution have built a local studio in accordance with the country’s new gaming regulations.

“We currently have six customers who via land-based casinos hold online casino licences from the Belgian Gaming Commission, giving us a virtual monopoly position in the market,” Mr. von Bahr explained. “In addition, we have a large number of customers who hold licenses to operate online gaming arcades. As at our other on-premise studios, gaming is conducted locally, while software, support and surveillance are handled through Riga. The Belgian presence is well in line with our growth strategy of being the first Live Casino provider in regulated markets. By means of the studio, we have established significant entry barriers for competitors and, in terms of revenue, Belgium is expected to become our largest regulated market after the UK.”

Evolution believes that qualitative gaming content is also key to its continued growth with a deal with Games Marketing set to spur development. “During the quarter, we secured the rights to additional table games and side bets from Games Marketing’s proprietary product portfolio,” Mr. von Bahr added. “The games are provided with certain preferential rights and further strengthen our leading product offering. Several of our customers have already decided to launch the new games to their end users, and we expect to go live with the first one in November.”

The company has signed agreement with Genting Alderney, the online division of world leading casino operator Genting Group, providing excellent potential to capitalise on the trend whereby land-based casinos with strong brands are strengthening their online presence. It is also continuing its drive in product innovation and, during the quarter, recruited Todd Haushalter as its new Chief Product Officer.

“This is a prestigious recruitment in the global casino industry,” Mr. von Bahr said. “He will be a member of the management team for our operational entity in Malta, which, in recent months, has also been reinforced with several other influential individuals, including CEO Martin Carlesund. For the third quarter we can also note that the historical seasonality with lower activity during the summer months is no longer to be seen. Evolution has a strong tailwind and the conditions to continue strengthening our leading position in Live Casino are exceptionally good. Going forward, we will continue to focus fully on further distancing ourselves from our competitors in terms of critical factors such as product range, operational excellence and regulated markets.”