Online betting drives Fortuna's double-digit stakes growth
But firm reports 9.9% dip in profits due to local betting taxes and increased operating costs
Online betting helped drive Fortuna’s 23% year-on-year growth in Group stakes for the first nine months of the year, however profits took a near 10% drop due to higher betting tax rates in the Czech Republic and increased operating costs.
Total amounts staked for the first nine months of 2016 reached 756m (£673m), a rise the operator attributed “double-digit” growth in online betting in all countries the firm operates in.
The Group’s total amounts staked on sports betting reached 741.6m (£660.2m) in the first nine months of 2016, a 23% increase on the first three quarters of 2015.
The amounts staked on lottery betting in the first nine months of 2016 totalled 14.4m (£12.8m), a 2.6% YoY increase.
Online sports betting gross win increased by 25% to 75m (£66.8m) for the three quarters.
Sports betting EBITDA saw a 9.1% decline to 15.3m (£13.6m), while lottery EBITDA amounted to 600k (£500k), down 26% over the last year.
“The amounts staked grew double digits in all our key markets, primarily driven by the online betting growth and in particular mobile sports betting while retail grew single digit,” said Per Widerström (pictured), CEO of Fortuna Entertainment Group.
“Our operating profitability measured by EBITDA was impacted by the increase in the betting tax rate in the Czech Republic and by planned increase of operating costs to support future growth opportunities of the company,” concluded Widerström.
Earlier this year, the operator agreed a deal with Playtech to utilise the supplier’s omni-channel technology across its core markets.