20% dip in EBITDA for Fortuna despite revenue growth

European bookmaker Fortuna Entertainment Group has reported a 25% increase in turnover so far in 2015, but this hasn’t prevented the firm from posting a near 20% decline in EBITDA over the same period.

In the first nine months of the year, total EBITDA amounted to 17.7m euro million, a 19.6% decline over the same period of last year, with sports betting down 21.7% year on year. The bookmaker suggested that it could also get worse. It said it expected a 25-30 percent drop in full year EBITDA, citing the abolition of an online handling fee that had boosted its business in Slovakia, as well as the impact of investments.

CEO Per Widerstrom understandably concentrated on the positives. He commented: “We are pleased to report on solid profitable growth for the first nine months of 2015 despite no big sport events such as World Cup 2014 as well as the abolishment of the online handling fee in Slovakia. Fortuna accepted total bets in the amount of 615.1m euro, which is 25.1% more than last year.

“Despite a continuous pressure on margins, total Gross Win went up by 8.1% to 105m euro. The main driver of our performance was expansion of internet and mobile sports betting in all Fortuna’s markets.”

The Gross Win from sports betting for the period was 98.9m euro, a 7.6% increase year on year. Of this figure, the Gross Win from online betting in the first nine months of 2015 increased to 60m euro million, a strong increase of 23.8% over the same period of 2014. The Gross Win from retail betting in the first nine months of 2015 amounted to 39m euro.