Entertainment Laboratories has “from all aspects returned to normal” as the firm praises a calm navigation of the business through 2020’s challenges thus far in its latest trading update.
Major disruption impacted the firm through a temporary suspension of all gaming licenses in Latvia, this saw the closure of all online operations between April 8 and June 10 as well as retail from March 22 to June 10.
Furthermore, all retail operations across Lithuania were shutdown between the dates of March 18 and May 18. Enlabs operates thirty-one betting shops in the two countries.
Publishing the update ahead of its interim report on August 20, the company estimates that second quarter revenue will amount to €6m and that results in both net profit and EBITDA will finish in the region of €500,000.
Despite the challenge posed by the global sporting suspensions, Enlabs asserts confidence that via a variety of operational measures and cost reduction actions implemented a stronger performance on group level will be felt from the third quarter onwards.
“Enlabs customers have welcomed our return in Latvia with several daily records in activity proving that regulated local operators can always cater better for the customer demands,” explained George Ustinov, CEO of Enlabs.
“Enlabs team has been safe and is fully operational. It feels that we as a group have become stronger, more aligned and focused on execution. With the challenging Q2 behind us, we look forward to a rewarding second half of 2020.”
For the 21 days from restart in June, the online average daily NGR in Latvia was up ten per cent compared to the same figure for Q1 2020 and 21 per cent compared to 2019’s second quarter.
Combined Latvian and Lithuanian retail market daily average NGR during the last 21 days of June was down 3 per cent compared to the same figure for Q1 2020 and 19 per cent when contrasted to Q2 2019. Retail betting revenue amounted to four per cent of total Enlabs total revenue in Q1 2020.
For the first two weeks of July, Enlabs consolidated gaming revenue was on par with the same period a year ago, although with a 25 per cent lower gaming margin. Active customers are up 15 per cent year over year, while deposit amounts having risen 14 per cent.
