Casino steps up as Raketech scores 24% Q3 revenue rise
Malta-based affiliate wary of Swedish headwinds and stuttering sports segment as it moves into Q4
Raketech has recorded a 23.9% year-on-year (YoY) rise in Q3 revenue to €7.4m with the affiliate leaning heavily on its casino income.
The Malta-headquartered firm noted that casino accounted for 85.5% of total Q3 revenue, up 18.2% from the same period in 2019.
Sports betting – interrupted earlier in the year by Covid-19 – made up just 11.1% of Raketech’s Q3 revenue, down from 27.5% in 2019.
Raketech also recorded flat EBITDA and profit for the three-month period, with EBITDA rising just €0.2m to €2.9m and profit remaining stable at €1.2m.
The affiliate has also seen its revenue streams diversify, with less revenue coming from the Nordics than in 2019.
Revenue from the Nordics accounted for 80.4% of Q3 revenue, down 10% YoY, while revenue from other markets rose to 19.6% from 9.6%.
Elsewhere, the affiliate noted a sharp 95.4% rise in new depositing customers (NDCs) from 26,782 in Q3 2019 to 52,344 in Q3 2020.
The positive Q3 results mean that Raketech has seen its revenue for the first nine months of 2020 rise 15.9% YoY to €20.9m.
However, EBITDA and profit for the period fell YoY to €8.4m (€9m) and €3.5m (€7.5m) respectively.
Raketech CEO Oskar Mühlbach said the positive results were further buoyed by the group’s recent M&A efforts – including the purchase of US-facing affiliate site American Gambler for €5m.
Mühlbach said: “Our operational performance is strong and stable, and our geographical footprint is wider than ever with more than 25% of revenues expected to originate from outside the Nordics by the end of this year.
“Besides the lowered dependency on the Nordics and Sweden in particular, with the American Gambler acquisition, Raketech also now has a solid footprint in the US and our commercial offering has been broadened to include much more than what normally is regarded as traditional affiliation,” he added.
Mühlbach did point towards some potential negative downturns moving forward, with the lack of sports revenue and the extension of Swedish deposit and bonus limits souring the mood.
He said: “Sports traffic is continuously increasing, even though we have not yet been able to perfectly correlate this into revenues in the same proportion. We believe that the Covid-19 situation is the main reason for this but exactly how it will play out and how it will affect our industry in the short term is difficult to predict with certainty.
“Furthermore, with regards to the Covid-19 situation, the Swedish government proposed that the temporary regulations are to be prolonged another half year. So far, we have managed to navigate through the volatility and uncertainty with good results but have yet to analyse potential consequences from the new proposal before making any definite conclusions,” he added.