GiG has praised a year of growth as it continues to build on acquisitions as a period of ‘transformation’ enabled the firm to achieve record revenue for its rebranded standalone media business Gentoo Media.
Addressing investors, Group CEO Richard Carter emphasised that the firm has had major success within its strategic enablers.
In a 14th consecutive year of record revenue, Q2 revealed that Gentoo Media generated €30m of revenue, up 39% from 2023 comparatives of €22m.
Carter also detailed that he believes operation execution will continue to gain traction and recurring revenue growth will continue to elevate amidst a sea of successful enablers for the company.
One of these is the SweepX social casino platform, which according to Carter has had a major impact on the firm’s total addressable market and will begin to gain revenue in the second half of the year.
Success of the firm and the growth of the group was significantly enriched by their M&A strategy as completed AskGamblers and KaFe Rocks deals provided an uplift for the group.
This trend is set to continue for the group as it benefits from Titan SEO and the heritage online gambling player community CasinoMeister in the second half of the year.
The group updated investors that it is taking a meticulous approach when it comes to domains and new acquisitions, as it ensures it enters new markets in the most effective possible way.
The group’s dependency on ‘exotic markets’ continues to decline as well, as it bolsters growth in North America and Europe. In terms of the CasinoMeister brand, the group emphasised that the opportunity was simply too good to pass up.
There is a real belief that within the next few years, the casinomeister brand will become one of the group’s flagship brands.
GiG Chairman Mikael Riese Harstad, also provided an outlook on the state of the sweepstake market as he revealed that having signed up one of the largest land based casino operators to its SweepX platform, the group also revealed that there is a significant appetite from remote operators to be involved in the digital sweepstake space.
Harstad emphasised that the company hopes to take advantage of the ‘big opportunity’ within the sweepstake market, as it isn’t an opportunity exclusive to the US, believing that sweepstake opportunities will open up in other regions.
Harstad continued on the group’s performance: “It is with this confidence that I am happy to announce the finalisation of our strategic split into two separate listed entities: Gentoo Media (formerly GiG Media) and GiG Platform. This split is now set to be completed by the end of September 2024.”
“I am fully confident that both companies will flourish as independent entities, each continuing to lead and innovate within their respective areas of focus.”
Overall GiG’s divested Platform & Sportsbook business registered a 21% decline in revenues to €7.3m (Q2 2023: €9m).
Revenue declines were anticipated as the divested Platform & Sportsbook business has changed its auditing structure under IFRS rules.
Harstad concluded: “The second quarter of 2024 has truly been one of significant achievement and strategic progress. As we move forward with the final steps of our strategic split, Petter Nylander, Chairman of Platform & Sportsbook, and I are confident that both Gentoo Media and Platform & Sportsbook will continue to grow, innovate, and deliver value to our shareholders like never before.”
“Despite the many changes in external market conditions and internal organisation, GiG has always remained steadfast in its commitment to its core values.
“At the heart of our company lies a deep passion for igaming—we live and breathe the excitement, strategy, and dynamics of this ever-evolving industry. While others may chase trends, we have always trusted that our deep expertise, state-of-the-art technical infrastructure and data-driven approach will yield long-term success.”
Entain has posted a brief trading update for the second half of 2024, noting that UK&I Online returned to year-over-year growth “earlier than expected”.
The H2 trading update has been published by the company ahead of the investor meetings scheduled to take place this week.
Following on from its H1 financials in August, where interim CEO and Chair Designate Stella David stated that the results provided “clear evidence” that its operational performance is working, Entain has now stated that it continues to make “strong progress” as its focused execution is “bearing fruit” across its operational performances.
The company reported that online net gaming revenue growth so far in H2 is currently ahead of its expectations, while International and CEE regions “continue to perform well” and retail performance across regions “remains in line with expectations”.
As for the previously mentioned UK&I Online returning to YoY growth “earlier than expected”, Entain accredited this to “accelerated recovery across gaming and sports, with sports NGR benefiting from both stronger volumes and margins”.
The FTSE100 company also confirmed that Gavin Isaacs began his new role as Chief Executive Officer on 2 September, as well as further progress being made for its joint-venture BetMGM in the US with MGM Resorts International.
Isaacs was announced as Entain’s next CEO back in July, replacing David who will step into the role of Chair of the company at the end of September, as current Chair Barry Gibson will be retiring.
As for progress in the US, the company noted that ahead of the NFL season, BetMGM launched enhanced parlay and player prop offerings powered by Angstrom’s differentiated market pricing capabilities, in addition to streamlined live betting and bet slip features.
The BetMGM sports betting app also rolled out its Single Account Single Wallet, which offers Nevada bettors seamless, nationwide connectivity through a single, digital wallet.
Entain noted that it will be providing further details on the company’s trading performance and its outlook for the year in its third quarter update on 17 October 2024.
