A 38 per cent increase in revenue from £1.24bn to £1.71bn last year helped 888 Holdings trim its losses as the firm continued to navigate a changing UK market.
Aligning with its international strategy, the firm also praised a shift from dot com markets as it seeks to ensure a path to profitability is formed within its key markets of UK, Italy, Spain, and Denmark.
However, gaming revenue of £1bn represents a significant dip for the firm, falling 11.2% year-over-year. This was largely driven by the company’s shift away from dot com markets more heavily weighted towards gaming.
When it comes to adjusted EBITDA, the 2023 margin was consistent with the 18-19% that it had prior indicated – a slight rise on the corresponding period from last year.
Looking ahead, the group also confirmed its rebranding to Evoke, in a bid to better align with ‘the strength of the group’s multi-brand operating model and its vision and mission to make life more interesting by delighting players with world-class betting and gaming experiences’.
It comes as the firm embarks on a ‘new strategic framework’, which it has emphasised it is adopting to establish a clear vision of what success looks like and the strategy to get there.
In line with its core market focus, the group also undertook a strategic review of the US B2C business in Q1 2024 as it looks to ‘consider all potential alternatives that can deliver value for the business, which will deliver significant cost savings’.
Per Widerström, group CEO, who was appointed back in October last year, emphasised that he believes 888 now holds all the ingredients for long-term success as it continues to evolve and adjust to market changes.
He stated: “It is incredibly exciting to announce our Value Creation Plan, our strategy for success, our new financial targets, and our new corporate identity. Today marks the beginning of an exciting new dawn for this business.
“Having joined the company in October 2023 my conviction in the significant opportunity for the Group is stronger than ever. We have acted with pace, decisiveness and urgency to build a clear strategy to deliver success. These actions include significantly strengthening our executive leadership team and developing a new strategic framework and Value Creation Plan.
“I firmly believe that the Group now has all the key ingredients for long-term success: leading positions in growing markets with high and rising barriers to entry; powerful proprietary technology; a top-class management team; and some of the strongest betting and gaming brands in the world.
“We are now clear on what success looks like, we have the team and capabilities to deliver, and I am confident that the execution of our plan will deliver a high return on equity from sustainable profitable growth, enhanced by deleveraging.”
At the heart of the operator’s focus is enhancing its strategy around operating leverage, as it looks to invest in capability build up – citing the importance of assets from AI and intelligent automation.
Key to Widerström’s plan for the firm to build back to profitability has been the formation of the Value Creation Plan, developed to support the new leadership as he inherited compliance shortcomings and a significant debt pile.
The firm has also elevated its focus on the European markets, which are viewed as its core areas, as it has explored the reduction of its US footprint amidst a strategic review in the market.
Widerström revealed earlier this month: “Since commencing my role as CEO I have been focused on ensuring the Group is set up to deliver strong value creation in the coming years. In the US, the intensity of competition and requirement for scale means huge investment is required to reach profitability.
“A series of record-breaking months for SI Casino has underscored the strength of the SI brand. However, despite these successes, we have concluded that achieving sufficient scale in the US market to generate positive returns within an accelerated time frame is unlikely.”
When it comes to strategy around marketing, the firm also emphasised a new approach. Marketing expenditure is being slightly reduced, in particular its advertising spend.
On a statutory basis, marketing decreased by 7.8% from £257.8m in 2022 to £237.6m driven by synergies as well as increased focus on higher return investments.
