Jackpotjoy positive of future outlook following LSE progress

The governance of online gambling operator Jackpotjoy Plc has stated that it is ‘encouraged’  by its H1 2017 results, having debuted on the London Stock Exchange last January following its corporate migration from the Toronto TSX.

Closing a busy H1 2017 (period ending 30 June), Jackpotjoy the world’s largest online bingo achieved group revenues of £147 million up 13% on 2016’s corresponding £129 million.

The company detailed strong KPI gains across its product and brand portfolio, with active customers reaching +240,000 mark and Jackpotjoy divisions recording improved player values.

However, higher operational costs combined with a number of financing expenses saw the new LSE firm declare period operating losses of £20 million.

Highlighting further metrics, Jackpotjoy detailed that its Gross-debt including earn-outs had been reduced from £514.8 million (at 31 December 2016) to £414.5 million.

Updating investors, Jackpotjoy governance stated that it expected continued robust growth across its multi-brand portfolio for the second half of 2017

Andrew McIver, Jackpotjoy Group Chief Executive Officer, commented on H1 2017 performance;

“The second quarter has been another good quarter of growth across the Group with revenue increasing 17%, including top-line growth of 18% at our leading UK bingo brand, Jackpotjoy. Group adjusted EBITDA also grew strongly at 28%. This solid performance across the Group in the first half of the year allows us to reconfirm our full-year 2017 outlook.

A key priority for the Group is to reduce our historic debt burden. The business is highly cash generative with cash conversion in Q2 of 99%, excluding one-off and exceptional items . Consequently, our adjusted net leverage4 reduced from 4.0x to 3.6x during the six months and gross debt reduced from £514.8 million to £414.5 million.

A major milestone in this debt reduction was achieved in June when we made the final earn-out payment of £94.2 million for the non-Spanish assets within the Jackpotjoy segment, using existing cash resources, with the total consideration representing excellent value for shareholders.”