Better Collective reports Q4 revenue rise as profits dip
Copenhagen-based affiliate sees full-year revenue increase by 54% as profits fall due to rising staff costs
Better Collective has reported a Q4 revenue increase of 30% to €12m, as full-year revenue also increased by 54% to €40.5m.
The Copenhagen-based affiliate experienced a 51% rise in Q4 EBITDA before special items to €5.4m while full-year EBITDA increased 47% to €16m, up from €11m in 2017.
Better Collective was however hit by an increase in costs for the year, rising from €16m in 2017 to €27.3m in 2018 as staff costs rocketed by 72% to €13m.
The higher operating costs made an impact on profits at the firm, with operating profit falling from €9.9m to €9.1m year-on-year.
Profit before tax also slipped from €9.8m to €8.5m, while net profit for the year was down from €7.4m to €5.4m.
Elsewhere, NDCs grew by 91% to more than 76,000 in Q4, up from 40,000 in 2017.
Better Collective CEO Jesper Søgaard said: “The strong growth in NDCs and other relevant KPIs, including player deposits and sports betting turnover, were significantly higher compared to revenue growth and continue the trend we have seen throughout the year.
“As most NDCs are on revenue-share based contracts, my expectation is that this will accelerate future growth,” he added.
Søgaard also pointed to the affiliate’s US prospects for the coming year and indicated that M&A might be a way to make inroads in the market.
“In Q4, further resources were allocated to the process of offering new products and adjusting current products to US needs.
“While we do not expect organic growth to do it alone, we believe that Better Collective has a unique offering in terms of technology and know-how in order to find attractive business in this new and potentially very big market.”