Gambling.com asserts that it remains “in a very strong financial position after the IPO last quarter,” with September closing out the best month in company history following a slow period of summer trading.
With the firm commenting that “our third quarter results came in a bit above our expectations,” revenue during the period increased 37 per cent to $10.1m (2020: $7.4m).
This, says the group, was driven by improved monetisation of new depositing customers attributed to tech improvements and changes in product and market mix. NDCs decreased four per cent to 27,000 from 28,000 in the prior year.
On a geographical basis, the UK and Ireland took the lion’s share via a four per cent uptick to $4.48m (2020: $4.31m), ahead of the group’s ‘other Europe segment’ which grew 134 per cent to $2.71m (2020: $1.16m), and North America’s $2.27m, up 110 per cento to $1m. The rest of the world dropped 23 per cent to $652m (2020: $852m).
By product type, casino revenue increased 25 per cent to $7.96m (2020: $6.35m), with sports rising 142 per cent to $2m (2020: $858,000), and ‘other’ dropping 58 per cent to $82,000 (2020: $194,000).
Adjusted EBITDA decreased 14 per cent to $3.5m (2020: $4m) due to increased operating expenses partly offset by increased revenue, with operating profit down 31 per cent to $2.4m (2020: $3.5m) driven primarily by the aforementioned decrease in adjusted EBITDA. Net income in the third quarter totaled $4.7m (2020: $2.3m).
“Our financial performance in the third quarter remained strong as we grew revenue by 37 per cent compared to the prior year and, despite the third quarter being the seasonally slowest quarter of the year, delivered an adjusted EBITDA margin of 34 per cent,” said Charles Gillespie, CEO and co-founder of Gambling.com Group.
“Importantly, after the quiet summer months of July and August, we delivered all-time-high revenue in September. With the launch of Arizona and the kickoff of the NFL season, we saw a significant uplift in US revenue in September and our US performance exceeded our internal expectations.
“Entering the quarter with good momentum we are encouraged by the start to our seasonally stronger fourth quarter. We remain highly focused on prudently growing the company through both sustained organic growth and future accretive acquisitions which we continue to actively pursue”
For the year-to-date, revenue grew 80.8 per cent to $32m (2020: $17.71m), with operating profit increasing 59.2 per cent to $10.76m (2020: $6.76m).
Elias Mark, CFO of Gambling.com Group, added on the group’s future outlook: “Our third quarter results came in a bit above our expectations and after slow summer trading our financial performance accelerated in September to close out the quarter with the best month in the company’s history.
“Our adjusted EBITDA margin of 34 per cent in the quarter was healthy despite a seasonally slow quarter and investments in scaling the organisation for organic growth initiatives and operating as a public company.
“This is consistent with our prior guidance that our near-term margins may deviate from our average 40 per cent target as we invest in our organic growth plan and pursue our M&A strategy.
“For the full year, we are reiterating our expectation to achieve both above 40 per cent year-on-year organic revenue growth and approximately 40 per cent adjusted EBITDA margin.
“We remain in a very strong financial position after the IPO last quarter which offers us significant optionality going forward to execute our growth plan and each of our capital allocation priorities.”