Mybet upgrades forecast after "better than expected" restructure

Mybet chief executive Sven Ivo Brinck says the firm is “on the right track” after it posting a 6% increase in Q3 revenues and announcing the completion of “better than expected” company restructure.

EBIT for the nine month period ended 30 September stood at €214,000, an improvement on the circa €4m loss in the corresponding period last year, as an increase in sports betting turnover helped boost revenues by 6% year-on-year.

The increase in revenues, added to proceeds from the sale of its Italian subsidiary mybet Italia, has led mybet to upgrade its full-year EBIT forecast to between €500,000 and €650,000 having previously estimated the firm would break even.

While the firm offered no breakdown for its online business, total sportsbook revenues increased 23% year-on-year to €30.1m and its nascent horseracing business climbed by almost a third to post revenues of €5m.

The growth helped offset a 6% reduction in online casino and poker revenues, which were down to €16.4m after mybet was forced to withdraw from several European markets that have since re-regulated.

Brinck said the firm had been able to increase revenues as planned after undergoing a restructure that had seen it divest several loss-making ventures, including its Spain and Italy-facing businesses Digidis and mybet Italia.

“This performance and the structural improvements show that mybet is on the right track. We will actively take up the challenges that we have identified for 2014 and beyond,” Brinck said.

Mybet also said it had received “significantly” more interest from third parties looking to enter into partnerships with the firm after it was granted one of 20 German sports betting licences from the Hesse Ministry of the Interior in September.

In September mybet announced a partnership with German national newspaper Bild to integrate online betting modules onto the publication’s online and mobile websites for the duration of the 2014/15 Bundesliga football season.