Betsson AB
STO:BETS B
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Betsson AB
Earnings Call Analysis
Q3-2023 Analysis
Betsson AB
Betsson AB has demonstrated robust business performance with its interim report for Q3 2023, marking not only this quarter as the seventh consecutive quarter featuring growth in revenue and EBIT but also establishing new record highs. Significant year-over-year increases were observed in customer deposits and active customer base, fueling a 19% year-on-year revenue rise to EUR 238 million. This growth was organic, reaching an impressive 39%, and was driven by both B2C and B2B segments. However, it's worthwhile to note that for the B2B revenues, there was a quarter-over-quarter decrease of 14%, which management attributes to lower Sportsbook margins, a segment that weighs more on B2B revenues compared to B2C.
Betsson's geographical footprint and market diversification proved to be a cornerstone of its success, with substantial progress across most regions, excluding the Nordics which saw a 14% revenue drop. In contrast, Western Europe experienced a 57% surge, primarily from the newly integrated betFIRST revenue in Belgium. The CEECA region was particularly notable, contributing 41% of the group's total revenue, while augmented activity in Latin America brought about a 33% revenue hike there.
Reflecting on costs, the group reported increased personnel expenses, attributable to workforce expansion and investments in product and tech development. A stringent control on operational costs was evidenced by reduced marketing spend due to reselling of marketing assets in the Netherlands and regional marketing restrictions. As a result, Betsson achieved an EBIT of EUR 56 million, up by 46% year-on-year, with an EBIT margin expansion from 19.2% to 23.6%. Their profit-maintaining strategies are clear as they concurrently drove revenue while prudently managing expenses, showing organic EBIT growth of 129% to EUR 88 million.
Betsson prides itself on its solid balance sheet and liquidity position, with a net cash balance of EUR 66 million and an equity ratio of 62%. Their capital strategy includes M&A pursuits as part of their growth plan, favoring the acquisition to strengthen market presence and expand into new territories. The readiness of the balance sheet to support such activities speaks volumes of Betsson's financial health and its strategic foresight for long-term value creation.
The initial phase of Q4 2023 already hints at continued upward momentum, with average daily revenues standing 12% higher than the same period in the previous year. Even after accounting for organic adjustments and recent acquisitions, the data suggests a 37% increase in average daily revenues compared to the prior year's fourth quarter. Despite a dip in the Sportsbook margin, the company remains focused on delivering profitable growth and ensuring shareholder value increases as it moves forward.
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Welcome to the presentation of Betsson Q3 report. [Operator Instructions]
Now I will hand the conference over to CEO, Pontus Lindwall; and CFO, Martin Ohman. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Betsson's presentation of the Interim Report for the Third Quarter 2023. My name is Pontus Lindwall, and I'm the CEO of Betsson AB. With me today, I have our CFO, Martin Ohman.
To start with, here's the outline for today's presentation. First, I will give an update about the business. Then we will comment on some regulatory developments in markets that are relevant to Betsson.
Martin will then present the financials for the quarter in more detail. After that, I will provide a trading update for the start of the fourth quarter, and then we will finish off with the presentation with a summary. After the presentation, we will open up for questions from the audience.
So Betsson's third quarter 2023 was about continued high customer activity, strong financial development and further investments in product and new markets. [ New record numbers and the seventh ] quarter in a row with sequential growth in both revenue and earnings.
On this side, you can see some key numbers for the quarter, new quarterly records for group revenue and EBIT. Reported revenue increased by 19%, while EBIT was up 46% year-over-year. Active customers and deposits increased significantly during the quarter, and turnover was high for both Casino and sports betting.
Casino revenue was the highest ever in the quarter for Betsson, up 27% year-over-year. The Sportsbook margin was 7.3%, which was a full percentage point lower than in the third quarter last year. Consequently, the high Sportsbook turnover did not fully translate into a similar increase in Sportsbook revenue.
All in all, I'm very pleased to see record revenues and earnings figures for the group despite the lower Sportsbook margin.
Betsson's strategy is based on 4 key areas: existing markets, new markets, business to business and M&A. This slide highlights some recent commercial activities in our existing markets.
Betsson's first ever global ad campaign was launched at the end of the summer. The theme is, A bet makes a difference, and focuses on the excitement and entertainment that comes from placing a bet on sports or casino rather than the chances of winning. The campaign is part of the group's marketing strategy to achieve economies of scale and competitive advantages for the business through a strong global brand name.
The Betsson brand was introduced in Denmark, which strengthens the group's position on the Danish market, where NordicBet is already a well-established brand.
I'm proud to see that Betsson's involvement in sports continues together with clubs fans and customers. Our collaboration with the popular Italian Serie A Club Roma, was recently extended.
Next slide, please. Betsson's geographical expansion continues, and several new milestones were passed during the quarter when it comes to new markets.
In Serbia, a license was granted, and an online casino offering was launched on the locally regulated market. In France, the local license to sports betting was obtained, and go-live is expected to happen in the fourth quarter. France is an important gaming market in Europe with great long-term potential for online gaming, and this is the first step for Betsson to be able to offer French players the first-class experience in sports betting.
As I mentioned, M&A and B2B are also 2 key pillars for Betsson's strategy. In the third quarter, the acquisition of betFIRST in Belgium was completed and consolidated into the Betsson Group. After the end of the quarter, a license for online casino, a so-called category A+ license, was obtained in Belgium within the scope of the partnership with Groupe Partouche. The aim is to launch the new casino offering under the brand betFIRST. We are excited about the growth plans for Belgium going into next year.
The addition of Belgium has contributed to a higher share of revenue from locally regulated markets, and this figure was 45% in the third quarter, a big step up from a year ago.
On the B2B side, the Betsson's Sportsbook solutions was launched with the B2C operator Bethard in September.
Betsson continues to focus on investing in product and technology to ensure that the customer offering remains competitive and that the technology platform is scalable for continued global expansion.
Work to migrate Betsson's brands to the cloud continued during the quarter as well as the development of more native apps. The casino offering was strengthened through the launch of several games with a focus on new types of content for Latin America. The sports betting offering also continued to expand with the addition of new events as well as new betting options.
Also, the Sportsbook platform of KickerTech, acquired in 2022 was integrated into Betsson's in-house gaming platform, Techsson during the quarter.
And now a short regulatory update. Regarding Peru. On October 13, the local regulator published a decree to implement online gambling and sports betting regulations. And the new regulated market in Peru now looks to set to go live towards February, March next year.
In Brazil, the Chamber of Deputies adopted the bill to regulate sports betting and online casino games in September. The bill requires the Senate approval to become law, and the Senate has until November 11 to consider the bill.
In Sweden, as part of the budget proposal 2024, the government announced that it plans to raise the gambling taxes from the current 18% on GGR to 22% from July 2024.
In Chile, in September, the Supreme Court delivered a judgment in favor of a public lottery operator, where one of the local telecom providers was ordered to block the websites of 12 online gambling operators, including Betsson. In contrast, the Supreme Court denied a similar appeal of the same public operator last year. Even though the judgment is applicable only to the specific telecom provider, the government is using the judgment to try to apply market-wide blocking of foreign online gambling sites.
Likewise, the Ministry of Justice ordered the Football Association, ANFP, at the beginning of September to terminate its contracts with online gambling operators within 30 days.
And now, I will hand over to Martin for a closer look at the financials.
Great. Thanks, Pontus. I will go into some more details of the financials for the third quarter, which again was a good quarter, and the seventh consecutive quarter with revenue and EBIT growth, and the best quarter ever in Betsson's history. This is in terms of revenue, casino revenue and operating profit, which all shows all-time highs in the quarter.
The result is underpinned by year-over-year growth of 31% in deposits and an increase in active customer by 17% year-on-year. Active customers are also increasing quarter-on-quarter.
Reported revenue for the third quarter amounted to EUR 238 million, an increase of 19% year-on-year and organic growth of 39%.
Both the B2B and the B2C business contributed to the growth with EUR 182 million in revenue coming from B2C and EUR 56 million coming from B2B. Casino turnover increased by 32% year-on-year and showed the second highest turnover ever.
Casino revenue was EUR 172 million, an increase of 27% year-on-year, which is all-time high.
The gross turnover in Sportsbook across all Betsson's gaming solutions was more than EUR 1.3 billion, which is an increase of 24% compared to the third quarter last year.
Corporate margin was 7.3%, which is lower than the 8.3% margin in the third quarter last year and also lower than the 3-year rolling average margin of 7.7%. Although the lower margin, the Sportsbook revenue increased by 2% compared to the same period last year and amounted to EUR 63 million.
Sportsbook revenue represented 27% of the group's total revenue in the quarter, and casino's [ on ] 72%.
Breaking down revenue by region, we see growth in all major regions, except the Nordics, where we see a decrease of 14%. Sweden reported decreased revenue coming from the decreased activity in both the Sportsbook and the Casino products. Denmark reported increased revenue driven by growth in both the Sportsbook and the Casino products.
During the third quarter, as Pontus mentioned, the Betsson brand was also launched in Denmark in addition to the NordicBet brand. The Nordic region represented 19% of the group's total revenue in the quarter.
Revenue from Western Europe increased by 57% year-on-year and sums up to EUR 39 million. The main reason for the increase is the addition of betFIRST revenue from the Belgian market as from beginning of July. The performance of betFIRST in the third quarter is in accordance with expectations.
The Italian market is continuing to perform well and reported all-time high again in deposits and showed revenue growth compared to the same period last year.
Revenue from the German market is following the same trend as in the past quarters and years and continued decline for Betsson.
The Western Europe region represented 16% of total revenue in the quarter.
The CEECA region increased by 23% year-on-year, driven by strong underlying activity in revenue growth in Casino. The Sportsbook activity was strong compared to the same period last year, but the Sportsbook margin was significantly lower, which impacted Sportsbook revenue in the quarter.
Croatia and Greece showed continued positive trends in activity and reported all-time high revenue. This is mainly driven by the Casino product.
Georgia reported growth compared to the corresponding period last year, also driven by the Casino product.
The Baltics continued to develop well, and Estonia and Latvia reported growth in revenue, explained by the Casino product.
Lithuania reported decreased revenue compared to the previous year, explained by lower Sportsbook margin.
The CEECA region represented 41% of the group's total revenue.
Reported revenue in the Latin America region amounted to EUR 52 million, representing an increase of 33% compared to the same period last year.
Argentina and Colombia reported growth both year-on-year and compared to the previous quarter. The growth in Argentina is mainly driven by the Casino product, whilst both the Casino and the Sportsbook product drive the Colombian growth in the quarter.
Revenue from Peru decreased due to lower activity in the Casino product and a lower Sportsbook margin.
The Latin America region represented 22% of the group's total revenue in the third quarter.
Revenue from the Rest of World decreased by 7% and is mainly driven by lower Sportsbook margin in Nigeria compared with the corresponding period last year, and lower activity in the Canadian operations.
Revenue from locally regulated markets increased by 48% compared to last year, and now constitutes 45% of total revenue.
Focus on the composition and development of EBIT year-on-year, we see that revenue has increased by some EUR 37 million. And following that, also cost of services provided. Gross profit increased by EUR 23 million compared to the same period last year, and amounts to EUR 157 million, which corresponds to a gross profit margin of 65.9% compared to 66.8% last year.
Changes in cost of sales and in gross profit margin is mainly explained by higher gaming taxes following increased revenue from locally regulated markets.
Marketing spend was lower than both last year and previous quarter. Marketing restrictions in Finland and some other countries in combination with the resell of prepaid marketing assets in the Netherlands, as a result of the group's decision to withdraw the license application in the country, explains the lower marketing spend in the quarter.
Personnel expenses increased by EUR 4 million in the third quarter compared to the same period last year due to some 130 more employees, yearly salary revisions, performance-related compensations, geographic expansion and increased investments in product and technology development.
Depreciation and amortization increased by EUR 2.7 million, explained by increased depreciation following the acquisition of KickerTech Malta Ltd. and betFIRST that was acquired in the fourth quarter 2022 and in July 2023, respectively.
Other costs increased by EUR 6 million, where half of the increase is explained by unrealized currency effects mainly on intercompany balances, and the remaining increase is driven by increased investment in product and technology development.
EBIT amounts to EUR 56 million, which is all-time high and an increase of 46%. EBIT margin is 23.6% compared to 19.2% last year, and the increase is explained by increased revenue, and at the same time maintained operating costs when excluding unrealized currency effects.
Organically, EBIT increased by 129% to EUR 88 million.
Turning towards the cash flow and financial position. We can conclude that operating cash flow amounts to EUR 45 million. Operating cash flow is driven by operating income of EUR 51 million and change in working capital.
Negative impact from working capital of EUR 16.7 million is explained by increased payment provider balances, increased accounts receivable, and the addition of the betFIRST operations.
Cash flow from investing activities amounted to EUR 119 million, where EUR 109 million related to the acquisition of betFIRST, and some EUR 10 million relates to the tech investments in the form of capitalized development costs.
Cash flow from financing activities impacted the cash flow by EUR 71 million and is mainly explained by 2 things, apart from leasing costs. Firstly, we have issued a new senior unsecured bond of EUR 75 million under the framework of EUR 250 million, with a floating interest rate of EURIBOR 3 months plus 460 basis points, and the bond has a final maturity date in September 2026.
Secondly, loans of EUR 2.5 million are being granted to associated companies to fuel their growth. Betsson has, as of end of September, a net cash position of EUR 66 million and an equity ratio of 62%.
And by that, I hand over to you, Pontus again, to present the trading update for the start of the fourth quarter.
Thank you, Martin. Now let's have a brief look at how the fourth quarter of 2023 has started.
The average daily revenue up until including the 20th of October was 12% higher than the average daily revenue of the full fourth quarter in 2022. During this period, the Sportsbook margin has been significantly lower than the average historical margin.
Organically, adjusting for acquisitions and currency changes, the average daily revenue during the start of fourth quarter has been 37% higher than the average daily revenue of the full fourth quarter last year.
Next. So finally, here's a short summary of the third quarter 2023. Betsson reported all-time high levels for revenue and EBIT in the third quarter. This was the seventh quarter in a row with sequential growth in revenue and earnings.
Underlying customer activity was high with solid increases in active customers and deposits. Casino was the key growth driver in terms of product with new record revenue reported for the product category.
Geographically, the revenue increase was broad-based with strong growth across CEECA, Latin America and Western Europe.
Betsson scalable business model continued to support stronger profitability on the back of the higher revenue. Our business continues to generate strong cash flows, and we ended the quarter with a strong balance sheet and a significant net cash position.
Looking ahead, we maintain our focus on profitable growth and sustainable value creation for our shareholders. The fourth quarter has started well, with average daily revenues up 12% compared to the average daily revenues for the full fourth quarter of last year despite a low Sportsbook margin.
Thank you, everyone, for listening to the presentation. So now, we can move over to Q&A.
[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Georg Attling from Pareto Securities.
Congrats on another strong quarter. I just have a couple of questions, starting with the B2B revenues down 14% sequentially. If you could just help us break down the contributors to that lower quarterly revenue over Q2.
I think it's mainly due to the fact that the Sportsbook margin has been lower. And we are more heavy on the Sportsbook side on the B2B revenues than on our B2C offerings. So that's a natural explanation.
As we mentioned in the presentation, the underlying activity has been really strong. So this is nothing that we are at all worried about.
Okay. That's helpful. And on my second question, on the marketing outlook, of course, coming down quite sharply year-over-year, you had the marketing spend. How should we look after Q4 and next year, is this sort of a new base to grow from? Or is this a uniquely low quarter?
Yes, this is a quarter with lower marketing spend, mainly as Martin described, due to the fact that we could resell some of the assets that we have already acquired previously.
But if you look at our results on a more longer term, I think we can say that we are pretty consistent in how much -- what part of the revenues that we put into marketing. So there are no new platforms or new ways of handling our marketing going forward.
Okay. And can you quantify the sort of the impact from that resell of marketing in Netherlands?
No, we can't quantify it more than that. It's just a comment that it had an impact on the marketing spend in this quarter.
Okay. And on -- just on the capital allocation side, as you said, a very, very strong balance sheet and also a very low valuation on the stock. But you have been more pursuing M&A in the last couple of quarters. Could you just discuss sort of the buyback versus M&A here going forward, given the overcapitalization you have?
Yes, as you all know, M&A is a part of our growth strategy. We tend to look at different opportunities all the time. And that is the same now as ever. And we believe that we will continue to do M&A to build our scale and to maybe add on to markets that we have, or open up new markets where we are not as present today.
So the main thing here is that we are really happy about the way our balance sheet looks and it gives us a big freedom to look at possibilities.
That makes sense. And just a final question on betFIRST. You now say that you have all the sort of the regulatory things in place to launch the Casino offering. Could you provide a timeline of such a launch?
We cannot provide a detailed timeline, but it will happen in the not too far distance. We believe that it will happen in the first part of the next year. And that will be a very welcome addition to our offering. We have a very strong brand in the market. And for the first time now, we will have a full-blown offering as well. So that -- we look forward to that a lot.
The next question comes from Martin Arnell from DNB Markets.
So my first question is on the -- let's talk about the trading statement. It looks really strong, given the fact that the sports margin was low here in the period. What is driving this? Is it new markets? Or can you elaborate a little bit more?
I see. I think what you see in the third quarter, we have a strong development on the main markets where we are active on the larger markets, and that has continued this strong activity into the fourth quarter. And as you sure know, you're interested in sports yourself, there has been quite a lot of favorites, winning and a lot of goals, which is quite good entertainment, but not as good for the Sportsbook margin. But the activity is there. So we are very optimistic about the fourth quarter.
So it's mainly like activity driven, the trading statement that's so strong. Okay. And it's broad-based. It's both Europe and LatAm?
Yes, it is.
Okay. And speaking of LatAm. How do you view the outlook? For example, Brazil is really interesting to talk about. What does your team think when discussing Brazil?
Yes. Of course, Brazil is a huge market. We are not as big as we want to be in that market for the time being, but it's a part of LatAm where we're going to put more focus, and we have huge expectations for that market in the future.
Are you signing partnership deals? Or -- I remember you did that quite a while ago. But if it's happening, the commercial work that you're doing? Are you doing stuff there or?
Yes, we are doing stuff there. We can't go into details on what we are doing. And -- but as you have seen from other markets in LatAm, we tend to be quite successful in signing partnerships and creating good traction for our marketing efforts.
And the performance in LatAm, is it still mainly -- the growth, the incremental revenue, is it still mainly Peru that is behind it?
It's not. There are other markets where we put a lot of efforts now that are growing. And as usually, we are already a bit boring, but we don't go into market details market by market. But we do initiatives in several markets that has developed well in LatAm.
Yes. I noted you did a lot of things in Argentina in this quarter, for example. But okay.
The next question comes from Alice Beer from ABG Sundal Collier.
I'm standing in for Oscar today. I'm just wondering if you could shed some lights on the -- what do you think about the casino timing in Belgium?
Sorry, could you repeat the question? The casinos in?
The casino timing in Belgium. Are you happy where that starts or?
Casino timing, do you mean, what Pontus just mentioned about us receiving the A+ license or?
Yes, if you could expand a bit on that.
Yes. That part of the offering is not yet live. According to our plans, we will be live during the first half next year. And then we will see the outcome of that. But for sure, the team is doing a great work on the product. And it means that once we launch, we will have a more complete offering. So we have great expectations for that.
The next question comes from Martin Arnell from DNB Markets.
I just wanted to ask a follow-up on this discussion about M&A versus buybacks. And I mean you have a track record of acquisitions. But -- and it's going to be interesting to see this last one in Belgium. But the multiple on that one was higher than your own. So in that perspective, this discussion about buybacks versus M&A is quite interesting to discuss. Do you understand that?
Yes. We understand your point there. And obviously, we understand the mechanics in the KPIs you mentioned as well.
But then you have the strategic rationale about being on 1 European market, which was a white spot for us.
That's helpful. And what would you -- I mean, what do you think in the Board discussions buybacks must still be an option on the table here given the strong balance sheet, despite the fact that you did this acquisition.
It's an option, of course, But on a higher level, I would like to mention that the investment that we do are really long-term and we are on a very long journey as a global company to become more or less fully global. And I think that builds great value for the shareholders over time. And we are happy that we can, whilst building this platform to become bigger and bigger, we are still very profitable when doing that. So we think we are going in the right direction. You see that we have great profits today, and give great dividends. The strategy is that we discuss in the Board is how can we become even bigger and give bigger dividends in the future. And that is what we are investing for right now. That will pay off in 5 years, 10 years.
[Operator Instructions] There are no more question on the teleconference at this time. So I hand the conference back to the speakers for any written questions from the webcast or closing comments.
We have a couple of questions from the web audience. To start off, maybe it's for you, Martin. I'll give you the
[ risk of ] that we'll have to pay 15% tax from 2024 in line with new EU legislation.
I mean, that is the part of what the Pillar 2 stipulates for companies with over certain sites. So yes, we will be impacted by that, and that will most likely increase our tax that we pay. Exactly how much that will impact us is a bit unclear today. There are different things that is going on that can impact the exact amount of tax that would be paid going forward. So for now, we can't be more exact than saying that it will increase our tax burden, yes.
Another question here is about -- can you comment on the progress with the B2B in the U.S.?
Yes. We have our B2B offering in the U.S. still with the Betsson Sportsbook. And we're also a part owner of Strive Gaming, which is a TAM provider in the U.S. market. We haven't signed any contracts apart from one, which we have already mentioned for the Sportsbook. But the Strive business is doing well, and they have a good pipeline. So it's moving ahead slowly in the U.S.
There is another question about M&A, and in what part of the world are you mainly looking for M&A opportunities?
I can answer that one. We are looking almost everywhere, I was about to say. But we have a strategy of which regions we are putting more efforts into, of course. And these are the regions where we put a little bit stronger efforts also on the M&A side.
So it's easier to say where we don't put our efforts. In the Nordics, we are less active than in Europe and LatAm. So we have plenty of opportunities in rather big geographies to look at.
There are no more questions from the web.
Okay. So no more questions from the web. No more questions on the phone, it seems.
So thanks to all of you for listening in, and we'll get back to work. And we look forward to see you in 3 months' time and then discuss the fourth quarter. Thank you for listening. Bye.