The Gambler #14: Evolution & Betsson results, Colombian unicorns and more
You are reading The Gambler, the weekly newsletter for professionals working in the online gambling industry with a selection of curated news on the main corporate developments in the industry, market data, and regulatory updates.
Headlines
Evolution 2020 Q2 results presentation:
Evolution Q2 results show an outstanding +50% revenue increase to 128,3 million euro (85,7 million in 2019 Q2) and an EBITDA of 81,1 million. A detailed comparative vs 2019 is shown in the official results publishing by Evolution
Evolution’s vision is to become the leading B2B provider in online casino. An acquisition of NetEnt means that we can accelerate the pace towards this vision. To add NetEnt’s leading slots to Evolution’s strong Live Casino offering will create a very strong market position significantly faster, especially in the USA, and together with clear synergies we believe this to be a strategic and highly attractive acquisition. A future Evolution with two verticals as the foundation will increase cash flow and reduce risk, while the growth potential increases. The bid process continues according to the previously announced time schedule
Martin Carlesund, CEO
Revenues and EBITDA keep also a steady growth:
Evolution results are also great news for leading shareholder Richard Livingstone, who will sell up to $658m of stock
Corporate landscape
BtoBet and MegaApuesta have signed a very relevant agreement with Rappi, the leading delivery app, and of the highest growing apps in Latam. Rappi is in the way to become the first “super-app” outside Asia, where Wechat became the de-facto app for numerous services like messages, delivery, games, video, and much more. Rappi is also the first Colombian unicorn (startup worth more than $1bln), I recommend the following link to understand the company, its scale, and future: Understanding Rappi, the Colombian Unicorn.
Betsson results show a 20% revenue increase (+40% in casino) in Q2. Very good performance for the Swedish operator that is compensating the lack of sports events with great casino performance.
Betsson also announced the acquisition of 70% of the Colombian operator Colbet. Betsson has been operating in some Latam countries and the operation makes sense considering also the recent acquisition of SuAposta in Brazil.
It’s been an active week in terms of M&A: Mozzart acquired Meridianbet in Colombia, who will be renamed to Mozzartbet. The terms and value of the operation have not been made public.
SG presented Q2 results with a revenue of $539 million, down from the $845 million reported in 2019 Q2.
S&P downgraded Codere rating and now considers that the company is in “virtual default”. Bad times for the Spanish company.
Market figures
H2 published its updated global market figures, showing an estimated GGR of $358bln for retail+online gambling. As usual, recommended read.
The Philippines is one of the traditional “online gaming paradises” for the industry, but it is suffering a lot due to the COVID-19 crisis
A new report by the American Gaming Association (AGA) shows that more and more users are moving to legal operators in the USA.
Average spending with illegal bookies fell 25% in legal sports betting states last year, while legal online and mobile betting spend increased 12%. Illegal offshore operators also saw a three percent increase in states with legal sports betting.
The most influential factors for bettors who had shifted from the illegal to legal market are confidence that bets will be paid out (25%), awareness of legal options (20%), and a desire to use a regulated book (19%).
Regulation
Rhode Island legislature greenlights online signup for sports betting: This means that now users will not need to physically go to casinos to register and they can complete the registration process fully at home.
Spain's strong advertising restrictions will be active starting in October. Jdigital, the Spanish online gambling association has sent to the European Commission his opinion on the planned advertising ban.
Recommended reads
More than 220.000 Monzo users have opted-in for the voluntary ban of gambling. This is the way to go for the industry (even if in this case it was not the industry itself but an independent bank). For sure we will see similar options for other banks in the short-term.
Since then, 222,993 customers have used the block, while only 8% have disabled it. This means an average of 2,314 people turned on the feature each month, while the number of new users availing of the feature in a month peaked at 17,474 August 2019.