GiG’s Media division drives annual Q1 revenue growth of 64%
GiG Media reaches all-time high revenue of €10m amid 56% year-on-year uptick in FTDs to 43,712
Gaming Innovation Group (GiG) has reported an annual revenue rise of 64% to €18.3m for Q1 2021, dropping to €15.4m on a normalised basis.
EBITDA for the first quarter rose 674% to €4.6m as the normalised EBITDA margin climbed to 29.6%, up from just 5.5% in the prior corresponding period.
Q1 Platform Services revenue increased by 19% to €5.2m and returned to profit with quarterly EBITDA of €0.3m after making a loss last year.
Media Services revenue, including GiG’s affiliate division, hit an all-time high revenue of €10m amid a year-on-year rise of 23% while EBITDA for the segment stood at €4.6m.
Revenue in Media Services was driven by a 56% annual increase in FTDs to 43,712, which were also up 31% quarter-on-quarter as the firm entered new territories.
The Malta-based supplier’s Sports Betting Services division was still loss making at -€0.4m, although this was a vast improvement on Q1 2020 (-€1.7m) having reduced opex by 75% year-on-year.
After the reporting period and into April, GiG said normalised annual revenue had risen 35%.
GiG CEO Richard Brown said: “The company has executed on our first phases as B2B only plans with success in 2020, and we start 2021 with strong growth, delivering a markedly improved and positive EBIT of €1.3m for the quarter, another milestone along the way to achieving our financial targets and working towards bringing further shareholder value.
“The business and the team continue to work exceptionally hard to continue to deliver, and with a relentless dedication to improve the business, striving towards its future potential.
“A strong start to the year, but this continues to be just the foundations of what is possible to achieve with this business over the coming years and what we as a group are targeting long term,” he added.
Elsewhere, GiG has recruited ABG Sundal Collier and Pareto Securities to initiate refinancing of a €39.1m bond that matures in June 2022, with a new bond issue set to take place in Q2 or Q3.
GiG’s share price increased by more than 6% in early trading on the Oslo Stock Exchange.