SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Publishing its unaudited full-year results for 2015 (period ending 31 December), Eastern European gambling operator Fortuna Entertainment (Fortuna) has reported that Polish VAT charges have impacted company performance as Fortuna posted a flat adjusted EBITDA of €27 million (2014: €27.2 million).
Despite recording no EBITDA growth, Fortuna governance detailed positives as the company saw top-line revenue and gross win growth in its sports betting and lottery divisions (see performance chart below).
Outlining 2015 highlights, Fortuna governance noted that its online betting had increased gross win 26% to €84.7 million; the company detailed that growth had been driven by increased take-up of live betting markets on its mobile product.
However, following a tough comparative 2014 (featuring the FIFA 2014 World Cup) the operator could not sustain performance for its retail betting division which reported a 7% gross win decline of€54 million.
Fortuna closes a difficult 2015 operating period in which the company recorded several impacts to its operating margins in core markets of Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.
Per Widerstrom, CEO and Chairman of the Management Board of Fortuna Entertainment Group
We are pleased to report on strong profitable growth for the full year 2015 despite the absence of big sport events as well as the abolishment of the online handling fee in Slovakia. Fortuna accepted total bets in the amount of EUR 847.7 million, which is 26.1% more than last year.
Despite the continuous margin pressure, our strong performance in the third and the fourth quarters of 2015 impacted positively also our Gross Win that went up by 11.2% to EUR 147.4 million. The main driver of our performance was expansion of online sports betting and in particular mobile sports betting in all Fortuna´s markets, as well as our focus on operational excellence and solid margins,”
Fortuna Entertainment Unaudited 2015 Performance
