February football winners hurt Kambi Q1 2017 margins

Issuing a market update, the governance of Stockholm Nasdaq-listed Kambi Group Plc has detailed that its Q1 2017 operating margin has been impacted by a ‘high number of player-friendly outcomes’ in European football leagues.

Kambi governance points to the 26 February as its nightmare day, when eleven highly backed favourites won their respective football matches. The platform provider further informs that as a large part of betting is carried out through accumulators, this had a severe impact on the Sportsbook margin.

Kambi expects to record a sportsbook margin of 5.9% for Q1 2017, which is significantly lower than expected.

As a result, Kambi’s revenue for the first quarter is expected to be €14.2 million. Costs for the quarter are expected to be in the range of €12.8 – 13.0 million, which the firm states is in-line with the trend seen in the last few quarters. The margin impact will likely  lead to EBIT being in the range of €1.2 – 1.4 million.

The company will not change its overall guidance for full-year 2017 despite its turbulent start. Kambi governance states that it is confident in its corporate strategy and business model to overcome the results downturn.

The firm will seek to publish its Q1 2017 results on 26 April. As yet, it is unknown as to whether further betting stakeholders have been impacted by negative football results this February.