Mr Green commits to Euro expansion after 35% profit hike
Swedish operator continues to contest Austrian tax demands but calls country an "attractive market" for online casino
Online casino firm Mr Green said it remains committed to the Austrian egaming market despite an ongoing tax disputes in the country, after reporting an impressive 35% hike in third quarter profits.
The operator this morning reported EBITDA of SEK42.4m (£3.6m) for the three months ended 30 September, up more than a third on last year’s figure, as quarterly revenues jumped by 36% to SEK168.5m (£14.5m).
The performance took its total EBITDA for the first nine months of the year to SEK117.9m (£10m), a 41% increase on the figures recorded in the corresponding period last year.
And Mr Green’s group CEO Mikael Pawlo said the firm intends to continue its “strategically important” push away from its native Nordic markets and into regulated Western and Central European jurisdictions, with Austria cited as a particularly “attractive market”.
The news comes despite Mr Green contesting its obligation to pay tax in the country following a self-assessment that was conducted in line with Austrian tax legislation.
Laws in the country state online gaming is to be taxed at 40% of gross game win whether an operator is licensed in the country or not and Mr Green has said its accumulated tax liability could total around SEK100m.
Mr Green’s expansion into Western Europe has seen the operator reduce its reliance on Nordic markets with the percentage of revenues derived from the region down almost nine percentage points to 53.6% in Q3, with the rest of Europe up to 45.4%.
The operator also confirmed that it had applied for a licence to operate in the UK as part of its strategy to enter additional regulated markets.
Pawlo said the firm had achieved growth without significantly increasing its marketing spend with it kept at a “relatively low level” of 35% of game win.
The firm has however ramped up its investment in mobile and Pawlo said the investment would “continue to be substantial throughout 2014” after Mr Green saw the percentage of revenue derived from mobile devices increase in to more than 24%.
Mr Green launched a new casino app in August which integrated Facebook log-in functionality, allowing customers to log in to their gaming accounts using their Facebook credentials.