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.”
The Swedish gambling authority, Spelinspektionen, has stated that licensed gambling companies in the country reported an uptick of over 6% year-over-year in turnover during the second quarter of 2024.
According to data from Spelinspektionen, turnover – players’ stakes minus paid winnings – stood at SEK 6.9bn (€602.5m) at the end of Q2 for licensed operators, up 6.4% in comparison to the same period last year (Q2 2023: SEK 6.7bn).
Looking at how the overall figure splits between verticals, the authority noted that commercial online gambling generated SEK 4.6bn in turnover, a 9.2% improvement YoY (2023: SEK 4.2bn).
State lottery and slot games produced a turnover of SEK 1.3bn, down slightly when compared to the same quarter the previous year (2023: SEK 1.4bn). State casino games (Casino Cosmopol) fell by 73.8% YoY to SEK 33m (2023: SEK 126m).
The decline in state casino games turnover comes as Spelinspektionen underlined the potential widespread impact of Casino Cosmopol’s closure last month, noting that while it did not object to the closure, the concerns of the Swedish Police regarding certain land-based consumers becoming exposed to illegal gambling were highlighted.
Elsewhere regarding Q2 turnover, gaming for public purposes/national lotteries dipped slightly to SEK 893m (2023: SEK 896m), while community games/hall bingo stayed flat at SEK 52m. Land-based commercial gambling (restaurant, casino) rose slightly to SEK 56m (2023: SEK 53m).
Spelinspektionen added that Spelpaus, the country’s self-exclusion service, had 112,000 people registered at the end of the quarter, up 1.7% in comparison to the previous quarter.
