Gaming Innovation Group has expressed optimism in its future outlook following a transformational first quarter which has seen the firm heap further praise on its B2C divestment to Betsson.
The €33m deal included operator brands Rizk, Guts, Kaboo and Thrills, which continue operations on the GiG platform for an initial 30 months, as well as the company’s Spanish casino license with 63 employees also transferred as per the terms of the transaction.
Furthermore, GiG also commented on global disruption and economic uncertainty due to the covid-19 pandemic, commented that, given the uncertainties, the company will be unable to “provide a quantitative estimate of this impact”.
However, it asserts that a continued focus will be placed upon cost control, execution and global expansion with full-year guidance remaining as €70m-75m in revenue and EBITDA in the region of €14m-17m.
Richard Brown, GiG CEO, commented: “The first quarter of 2020 has been a transformational one for GiG. A first priority over the last quarters for the company was to address the balance sheet. In Q1 we signed an SPA with Betsson Group enabling us to successfully divest the B2C division of the business, which completed in April, which not only paved the way for multiple strategic upsides but also allowed us to strengthen the balance sheet and reduce the company’s debt position significantly.
“GiG now has a fully focused, end to end B2B organisation, where we are confident we can continue to deliver a leading product offering and excel in the igaming industry as a multifaceted B2B provider”.
With B2C as continued operations revenue dropped four per cent to €31.1m (2019: €32.4m) gross profit dipped 6.5 per cent to €24.3m (2019: €26m) and EBITDA fell 39 per cent from €4.1m to €2.5m.
Documenting its first quarter performance with B2C as discontinued operations, revenue fell 8.2 per cent from €11.2 to €12.2m, gross profit reached 10.8 per cent to €10.7m (2019: €12m) and EBITDA finished at €600,000 (2019: €2.3m).
“We are also seeing that we have started strongly into the second quarter and revenues in the platform services were 40 per cent ahead of the same period last year and 35 per cent over the average of Q1,” Brown added.
“Despite the uncertainty in global markets today, I see this as a strong position entering the quarter. Media services has so far mitigated losses from closure of sports events via organic growth in Q1 which we expect to continue to pay off through the year.
“GiG is now in a strong position strategically, operationally and with a much improved balance sheet to drive growth forward and we anticipate much of what we do now and have been doing over the previous quarters to show effect both in revenues and earnings.”
