Super Group records 3% decline in Q4 revenue as brand licence fees dip
Betway’s parent company champions rise in sports betting revenue and active customers as it lays out 2023 guidance
Super Group has posted a 3% year-on-year (YoY) dip in Q4 2022 revenue as the operator cited a slight downturn in its casino arm and a 65% drop in brand licence fees.
The parent company of Betway and multi-brand casino operator Spin recorded Q4 revenue of €329.1m (£290.2m) in 2022 compared to €341m in 2021.
Breaking the revenue down by vertical, sports betting revenue jumped 5% YoY to €113m driven by strong growth in Africa and Canada (excluding Ontario).
The firm also pointed to growth in Europe despite lower sports margins in November and December.
Conversely, online casino revenue slipped 1% YoY to €209m, with regulation transition of Ontario and a decline in APAC markets highlighted as the core reasons.
Online casino continues to represent the lion’s share of revenue for the company with 65% compared to sports betting’s 35%.
Geographically, the Americas remains Super Group’s largest region by revenue at 41%, although this was down from 50% in 2021.
Source: Super Group
Africa grew its share from 19% to 22%, while Europe’s share of the revenue jumped from 10% to 18% YoY.
The rest of the world segment fell from 21% to 19%.
Elsewhere, operational EBITDA decreased 39% YoY from €69.6m to €42.3m during Q4.
Super Group said a 24% rise in staff costs to €72m and a substantial marketing spend of €95m were the core reasons for the downturn in EBITDA.
Meanwhile, pre-tax profit fell from €62.6m in Q4 2021 to €38.3m in the latest quarter. More positively, monthly average customers for Q4 sat at 3.4 million compared to 2.9 million in 2021.
Looking at Super Group’s full-year 2022 performance, revenue dipped slightly from €1.32bn in 2021 to €1.29bn.
Operational EBITDA fell almost a third (31%) to €208.5m while pre-tax profit grew slightly from €225.9m to €233.7m.
As of 31 December 2022, Super Group had unrestricted cash of €255m.
Source: Super Group
Delivering its 2023 guidance, the New York-listed firm said it expects to record full-year revenue of €1.35bn, representing a 5% YoY increase.
Operational EBITDA is anticipated to jump to €220m with a corresponding 16% EBITDA margin.
Super Group said it expects marketing spend to be around 25% of net revenue and operating expenses should decrease by approximately €8m.
Neal Menashe, Super Group CEO, said: “We continue to efficiently invest in our brand, enhance our technology platform and benefit from our consistent cash generation. We feel we are well positioned to apply our well-tested strategies to the US markets and capitalise on what we see as a multi-year investment opportunity.”
Super Group’s share price was down 5.5% to $3.60 at the time of writing.