Live Casino As Important Element Of NetEnt’s Successful Q1 2020

NetEnt has released its Interim Report for January-March 2020 revealing a 12% growth in total gaming revenues amounted to SEK 518 million (MYR 224 million) compared to the same period in 2019.

Besides the expansion to new regulated markets and full integration with Red Tiger, the Live Casino opportunity is named as one of the core elements that contributed to the company’s good start to the year.

Supported by a strong finish in March and a somewhat weaker Swedish krona, revenues for the first quarter reached impressive SEK 518 million with most of the growth delivered by the US and the UK markets as developments in Sweden and Norway continued to be negative. In the case of Sweden, the significantly lower gaming revenues are explained by the recent re-regulation of this local market.

EBITDA for Q1 2020…

…has amounted to SEK 229 million with a margin of 44.2%. The statistics show earnings were negatively affected by SEK 26 million of restructuring costs related to the integration with Red Tiger, which keeps performing above the Group’s expectations. In the course of the first quarter, the Swedish-based supplier continued to expand across new regulated markets with its award-winning games going live in Italy and Slovakia. At the same time, such large operators like Svenska Spel in Sweden and Sky in the UK also started to cater to their customers Red Tiger products.

Therese Hillman, Group CEO said:

“To further strengthen competitiveness and increase efficiency, we initiated a full integration with Red Tiger during the quarter. Red Tiger keeps performing above our expectations with its award-winning games and the expansion to new markets continues. Combined with a strong product pipeline, new regulated market entries and the Live Casino opportunity for NetEnt, this puts us in a good position to continue delivering profitable growth in 2020.”

As for Live Casino, which reached all-time highs in player number at the end of 2019, during the first three months of 2020 NetEnt has continued to strengthen this segment of the offering, increasing the number of tables in its Malta studio and upgrading the UI for mobile gaming.

In 2019, Net Entertainment put to the test some new functions and designs intended to enhance the Live Dealer sector and deliver truly player-focused experience. Apart from the aforementioned user interface updating, the company rebranded and modernized traditional Blackjack Common Draw (now called Blitz Blackjack), as well as launched a unique Auto-Roulette studio. The latter provides fans of roulette with a choice of 3 different wheels in one place: Classic Auto-Roulette, Rapid Auto-Roulette, and VIP Auto-Roulette.

Source: “Interim report January–March 2020“. NetEnt. April 22, 2020.