Veikkaus records 12.7% dip in EBITDA as Covid-19 and RG measures bite
Finnish monopoly operator notes difficulties but pledges to push ahead with mandatory identification across verticals
Veikkaus has posted a 12.7% downturn in EBITDA for full-year 2021 as the Finnish monopoly operator grappled with the impact of Covid-19.
The operator recorded an EBITDA of €1.1bn (£909m) in 2021, citing both the closure of its retail operations due to Covid-19 and its revamped responsibility strategy as core reasons for the dip.
Veikkaus noted its sports betting business returned to pre-pandemic levels, with EBITDA from the division jumped 8.6% to €149m.
However, the closure of retail had a severe impact on the operator’s slot machines branch, which posted a 52.2% slide in EBITDA to €143m.
Veikkaus noted that the decline in gaming EBITDA was also related to the implementation of mandatory identification checks and loss limits across slots.
These sustainability measures had a “major impact” according to the firm, with the group losing around €500m in 2021.
Despite the downturns, Veikkaus said it would continue to push ahead with its responsible gaming drive and promised to introduce mandatory identification on coupon games in 2022 and on scratch cards in 2023.
Elsewhere, the group recorded a flat profit of €680m for full-year 2021, while the operator said its “direct economic return to society” in tax amounted to €768.8m.
Veikkaus also saw its share of the total Finnish gaming market slip in 2021, down 5% to 74%.
Regina Sippel, Veikkaus CFO, said: “The year 2021 was commercially challenging. Due to the [Covid-19] epidemic, Veikkaus’ slot machines and private gaming venues were closed for about four months at the beginning of the year and some of the personnel were laid off.”
Elsewhere, Veikkaus revealed that problem gambling in Finland had reached its lowest level since 2017.
Citing a study commissioned by the Economic Survey, 1.8% of the 5,000 respondents were classified as problem gamblers, equating to around 75,000 Finns.
Susanna Saikkonen, Veikkaus director of responsibility, said: “The responsibility measures we take seem to have had a reducing effect on gambling problems.
“In the future, however, we will see in more detail how much of an impact the [Covid-19] epidemic has had on the decline in the incidence of gambling problems and how permanent the change may be,” she added.
Last year, Veikkaus handed out almost 200 employee redundancies as part of a restructuring process that will also see 14 of its venues close in 2022.