Unibet aims for top five UK sportsbook position
CEO believes major UK market share is possible as mobile "explosion" boosts H1 profits
Unibet is aiming for a top five position in the UK sportsbook market, according to its CEO Henrik Tjärnström, as “explosive” mobile growth helped boost H1 profits by 7% to £29.1m.
“We believe our brand will appeal to the UK and we can become top five in sportsbook,” Tjärnström said following the presentation of the company’s Q2 financial results.
“We aim for a top three position in every market that we’re in. A top five position in sportsbetting is absolutely possible,” he added. “It is more for the long term and we see the UK being a key market for the longer term as well.”
Unibet previously announced it was to embark on a big UK sportsbook push to be fully managed by its B2B subsidiary Kambi Sports Solutions which recently signed a deal with 888. Despite entering the UK market relatively late, Tjärnström believes initial progress has already been positive following a major TV advertising campaign.
“We launched in the end of May and we started to do things in connection with the Lions Tour and the Ashes,” Tjärnström told eGaming Review. “We’ve seen very positive signs starting with customer intake and activity, and the logical trend is that it will lead into growth in top line.”
Unibet released its latest quarterly figures this morning and posted a 19% year-on-year rise in GWR to £54.1m, compared to £45.3 in the same period last year. EBITDA for the second quarter also rose to £12m, up from £11.8 in Q2 2012.
Mobile revenues continued to grow accounting for 19% of the operator’s GWR, compared to 8% in Q2 2012 and Tjärnström told eGR that strong mobile growth is expected in the future.
“The channel’s growing far quicker than the web channel and is predicted to grow, albeit not at these levels. Desktop and laptop usage has already peaked and mobile and tablets are exploding,” he said. “We have a very competitive offering both in casino and in sports[betting] now.”
The company’s sportsbook revenue also grew 19% year-on-year despite no major football championship over the quarter and the ‘other’ products vertical including casino and poker also increased 20% despite a 23% fall in poker revenues.
The Nordic region continued to account for the operator’s main revenues with 53% of GGR compared to 32% in Western Europe.