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 Supreme Court of Gibraltar has ruled against former Mansion Group CEO, Karel Manasco, in which his former employers accused him of the extortion of company accounts and the abuse of corporate duties.
As a result, Manasco was ordered to pay more than €2.5m to Mansion Group, which had been obtained illegally from the Gibraltar firm.
Manasco was found to have paid lucrative consultancy fees from Mansion Group to White Wizard Media (WWML), a company that Manion states provided ‘no service’ to the operator, as it described the relationship as ‘a sham’.
In total, there were 14 invoices from WWML to Mansion totalling €2,508,035.36 made between 10 August 2018 to 13 June 2019. Mansion is alleging that through these payments, Manasco funnelled money into offshore jurisdictions and benefited personally. The former CEO, however, disputes these claims.
It ran alongside a seperate case against Manasco in which the court also ruled in favour of Mansion Group regarding fees paid to a KM consultancy firm totalling £127,073.28.
The court stated that there wasn’t a sufficient explanation from Manasco over the payments.
It continues a longstanding legal tussle between the employer and executive after a decision from the Gibraltar courts in February last year froze £5m worth of Manasco’s assets.
This was made following allegations that Manasco had paid himself bonuses and personal payments that he shouldn’t have.
In October last year, Mansion Group confirmed the closure of its B2C operations, including its flagship brands Casino.com and MansionCasino.com.
At the start of 2023, Mansion Group announced its exit from the UK gambling market, choosing to withdraw its full online casino portfolio of Casino.com, MansionCasino.com and SlotsHeaven.com
The exit came off the back of the group terminating its flagship MansionBet sportsbook from the UK market in 2022.
Following a streamlining of its business, Mansion had stated that it would focus on “profitable markets where it currently operates”.
Founded in 2004, Mansion was launched as a deep-pocketed challenger sportsbook and online casino brand aiming to take market share from legacy competitors of William Hill, Ladbrokes, Betfred and Coral.
