Kindred Q4 revenue hits £250m as EBITDA falls
Q4 revenue up 5% following strong mobile performance and 13% growth in Western European markets
Kindred Group has reported a 5% jump in Q4 revenue to an all-time high of £250.1m, after the operator experienced an all-time high in active customers for the period.
Active customer levels increased by 18% to more than 1.5 million while Q4 mobile revenues also rose by 11% to £185.8m for the fourth quarter.
EBITDA however was down 21% for Q4 at £58.5m as the firm increased marketing spend in Sweden’s re-regulated market.
Full-year revenue hit £907.6m, marking a rise of 21%, while full-year mobile revenues shot up by 23% to £662.7m, accounting for 74% of the operator’s total revenues.
Profit after tax for Q4 amounted to £39.3m, compared to £131.6m for the full year 2018.
The majority of Q4 revenue growth came from Kindred’s Western European markets (13%) as growth remained slow in the Nordics (-5%) despite Sweden opening up in January.
Kindred CEO Henrik Tjärnström said the early signs that were Sweden had grown in Q1 2019 in a number of KPIs, although not gross winnings revenue, but reiterated his belief in the market’s long-term potential.
Kindred said the group prepared for the opening of the Swedish market and grew the customer base through bonus offers and marketing investments already from the start of the 2018 World Cup.
“During the first six weeks of 2019, we awarded our Swedish customers with one additional bonus under the terms of the new licensing system, which resulted in new depositing customers up by 166% and active customers up by 97% over the last 90 days.
“As expected, we can now see the bonus expenditure tail off.”
Regulus Partners analyst Paul Leyland added: “Kindred’s regulating Sweden experience seems to be reinforcing the pattern of channelled activity, with early preparations and aggressive sign-on bonusing leading to a 97% growth in actives.
“As well as validating Kindred’s preparations and early operational responses to Swedish regulation (assuming returns on marketing remain robust), the response would suggest that Kindred’s brands are benefitting from their legacy scale as customers reduce long-tail .com exposure.”