LeoVegas Shows Resilience, Financial Results Q1, 2020 Intact
LeoVegas continues to show resilience in the online gambling vertical, having registered growth in operations for Q1, 2020. The company posted a 4% stronger revenue for the first three months of the year, reaching $96.55* million compared to $93.20 million in 2019.
While sports betting took a hit and led a 9% drop in the company’s revenue from the segment, LeoVegas managed to even the difference out by scooping up players from competitors over-reliant on the sports betting segment and the traditional land-based casino market, as per the company’s official statement:
At the same time, LeoVegas has likely taken market shares in casino mainly from the land-based industry as well as from competitors that are more sports book oriented.
LeoVegas Revenues Improve, Problem Gambling Nowhere in Sight
The company’s recent results have been boosted by the global lockdown which has forced the land-based segment and all sportsbooks around the globe to either shut down or bring their operations to a minimum.
At the same time, LeoVegas’ President and CEO, Gustaf Hagman, confirmed that while the company registered a spike in traffic, it had also stuck to its key tenets, ensuring the safety of consumers and promoting sustainable gaming practices.
LeoVegas stated the company’s player base had shown no signs of problem gambling over the period, and that the company was committed to developing a sustainable business model and continue as a proponent of “sound gaming industry.”
LeoVegas has decided to set clear ambitions, targets and measures for sustainability based on Environmental, Social and Governance factors. We have done this to show in a transparent, clear and concrete way what LeoVegas aims to achieve in building a sustainable company and advocating for a sound gaming industry.
Hagman noted that around 10% of LeoVegas’ work force was engaged with compliance and responsible gambling positions, giving the group an edge over the competition. Hagman paid attention to specific markets, including the United Kingdom, Germany, and the Nordics.
UK’s the Great Equalizer, Germany the Promised Land
Hagman praised the efforts that have gone in streamlining the company’s products in the United Kingdom. The company migrated 12 brands in the UK to LeoVegas’ proprietary technical platform.
According to him, this will allow LeoVegas to consolidate its position in the market and achieve further growth. Earlier this year, LeoVegas pulled Royal Panda, a brand it owns after acquiring it back in 2017, out of the UK market.
Commenting on the German market, Hagman said that LeoVegas was now awaiting the roll-out of a regulatory framework in 2021 that would lead to establishing a gambling market on a country level.
Hagman said he was sure that Germany would draw on the best practices from other regulated markets and achieve a high level of channelization. He acknowledged that the Nordics region had experienced turbulences, mostly because of disrupting the sports betting market.
Even then, the impact on Swedish revenue due to the COVID-19 outbreak was light to slightly negative, the company said in the official press release. Sweden as a whole has faced quite a few challenges recently. New regulatory challenges have prompted the majority of gambling companies in the country, including LeoVegas, to write an open letter to Swedish Social Security Minister Ardalan Shekarabi that they might consider leaving the market altogether.
Resilient Only So Long
Despite these difficulties, Hagman said that the company had a successful quarter in Sweden, growing its market share. LeoVegas would now seek to replicate the success of its GoGoCasino brand in Finland as well.
Earlier this week, LeoVegas launched a new brand, LiveCasino.com, operated by the same team behind GoGoCasino.
Hagman’s statement ended on a cautionary note. The executive explained that while LeoVegas had shown resilience, there was no way to tell what a prolonged crisis would do to the company’s revenue streams.
The longer the lockdown continues, however, the greater the risk for revenue would be, he concluded.
As an avid follower of sports and the newly recognized industry of esports, Heidi uses her expertise to help the team push out the best sports content. She is also continually learning more about the gambling industry in general and pushes out a variety of content.
