QUOTE FROM OSKAR MÜHLBACH, CEO
”The foundation laid out during 2019 proved to serve Raketech well during 2020. Not only did we manage to deliver four stable quarters in terms of revenue and margin, but we also added a series of commercial initiatives, strategic markets and rolled out new technical platforms. All in line with our strategy and previously communicated operational goals. 2020 finished strong for Raketech. Revenues amounted to EUR 8.5m representing a growth of 44.7% year over year, and up 15% from previous quarter. Organic growth was 15%, primarily driven by strong development outside of the Nordics with Japan leading the way.
FOURTH QUARTER 2020
- Revenues totalled EUR 8.5 million (EUR 5.8 million) representing an increase of 44.7%
- Organic growth amounted to 15.0% (-29.5%)
- NDCs (New Depositing Customers) amounted to 46,389 (28,002), representing an increase of 65.7%
- EBITDA amounted to EUR 3.6 million (EUR 1.6 million, adjusted EUR 2.0 million), corresponding to a margin of 43.1% (26.8%, adjusted 33.6%)
- Operating profit amounted to EUR 2.3 million (EUR -0.1 million, adjusted EUR 0.3 million), corresponding to a margin of 26.7% (-2.3%, adjusted 4.5%)
- Profit for the period amounted to EUR 2.1 million (EUR -0.3 million, adjusted EUR 0.1 million)
- Earnings per share amounted to EUR 0.05 (EUR -0.01)
FULL-YEAR 2020
- Revenues totalled EUR 29.4 million (EUR 23.9 million) representing an increase of 23.0%
- Organic growth amounted to 0.7% (-11.8%)
- NDCs (New Depositing Customers) amounted to 177,572 (108,365), representing an increase of 63.9%
- EBITDA amounted to EUR 12.0 million (EUR 10.6 million, adjusted EUR 11.0 million), corresponding to a margin of 40.9% (44.3%, adjusted 46.0%)
- Operating profit amounted to EUR 6.6 million (EUR 6.1 million, adjusted EUR 6.5 million), corresponding to a margin of 22.5% (25.4%, adjusted 27.1%)
- Profit for the period amounted to EUR 5.6 million (EUR 7.2 million, adjusted for non-operating income of EUR 2.3 million and exceptional costs, profit for the period was EUR 5.3 million)
- Earnings per share amounted to EUR 0.15 (EUR 0.19)
EVENTS DURING FOURTH QUARTER 2020
- On November 6, 2020 Raketech acquired the US based organic affiliation marketing assets americangambler.com. The agreed purchase price for American Gambler amounts to EUR 5 million and was settled using Raketech’s cash and proceeds from the divestment of the consumer finance assets.
- On November 6, 2020 Raketech announced that the company has divested its consumer finance assets to ROI Media UK, an unrelated third party, for a total consideration of EUR 4.2 million. with an upfront payment of EUR 3.4 million and a deferred consideration of EUR 0.8 million paid in three instalments over the upcoming 18 months.
SUBSEQUENT EVENTS AFTER THE END OF THE YEAR
- Revenues of EUR 2.7 million in January 2021
CEO OSKAR MÜHLBACH COMMENTS ON THE QUARTER
“It is satisfying to conclude that our efforts within automation, standardization and data analysis already have had such positive impact on the gap between revenue and costs, as we grow. This despite extraordinary volatile times during the year as well as increased efforts within development and expansion.
On an overall level we delivered yet another operationally strong quarter. NDCs, New Depositing Customers, amounted to more than 46.000, representing a growth of 65.7%. This was driven by a combination of strong development within our Network sales (Lead Republik) and traditional casino affiliation on our core markets.
We divested our Finance vertical to ensure laser sharp focus on core business during the quarter. Our investments into development and geographical expansion continued to be on an accelerated level and we launched a series of paid initiatives in the US showing promising results, in parallel with continuous efforts with the launch of TV-sportsguide.com on the same market. In addition, we also acquired AmericanGambler in the US to propel our growth on the US market even further. And on that note, we are now certified to operate in 10 states with the latest being Michigan and Virginia where we successfully rolled out early this year.
In general, our casino related assets experienced strong development, specifically during the first part of the quarter, complemented by sports related assets catching up and reaching levels of pre-Covid with regards to visitors and traffic. Due to the market uncertainty, we however still experience slight hesitance from operators to invest into long term brand building exposure and event advertisement, which normally makes up a large portion of the revenue originating from this segment. Therefore, despite strong underlying performance and traffic growth we are not yet back on pre-Covid levels within sports, with regards to revenues.
In December the most dominant search engine, Google, made one of its recurring core updates. On an overall level the effect on Raketech was, as from previous updates, neutral to positive on most assets. However worth pointing out this time is that one of our major Swedish casino assets, Casinofeber, was affected negatively which led to a slightly dampened end of December compared to the strong start. We have since then executed a series of mitigating and stabilizing actions, but the intake of new customers from Casinofeber is still on levels lower than before the update.
Long term we do not anticipate material effects on our overall business as we continue to experience positive effects on other assets on other markets. As an effect we expect the geographical footprint to be improved slightly with revenues from outside the Nordics making up a larger portion of total than previously.
Despite the fact that Q1 from a seasonality perspective, usually is a slower quarter than Q4 in terms of online gambling activity, traffic to our assets has continued to be high and January revenues amounted to EUR 2.7 million. Sports have in particular continued strong into January with the US market as a significant contributor. Furthermore, our efforts in Japan are continuing to show good results and revenues from this region is growing faster than other regions.
All in all, we can look back at a year in Raketech’s history where we despite Covid-19 successfully executed several operational initiatives of strategic importance. Confident by the strong Q4 results and our general achievements during 2020, we will continue our relentless efforts to widen our geographical footprint, our product offering and our asset portfolio. Raketech’s sound financial situation furthermore allows us to complement our organic growth strategy with continuous and potentially accelerated efforts within the area of M&A during 2021.
Link to report
The full year-end report is available on https://raketech.com/investors/
