European-focused gambling operator Unibet blamed a series of different costs for a 55 percent drop in net profit as gross winning revenue also disappointed. The firm’s net profit dropped to £3.4million (was expected to be £9.8m) with much of this due to a one-off Spanish tax payment of £2.6m in addition to higher operating costs and larger betting duties in some territories. A gross winnings revenue rise of just 16 percent to £43.8m further compounded their problems with CEO Henrik Tjärnström explaining that much of it was down to fluctuations in foreign exchange.
“Gross winnings revenues in the third quarter were impacted both by the late start of European football seasons and by the effect of translating results from European currencies into the stronger GBP compared to the third quarter 2011,” he said. “Compared with the third quarter 2011 this quarter is negatively influenced by FX movements on Unibet’s main currencies. If the average exchange rates for the third quarter 2011 were applied to this quarter, gross winnings revenue would be approximately GBP 46.8 million and underlying profit from operations would be approximately GBP 9.8 million.”
One part of the firm which isn’t affected by the same woes is the company’s Kambi Sports Solutions B2B solution that signed various deals with firms from as far afield as Asia and as nearby as Spain. Regarding that venture, Tjärnström stated: “It is also encouraging to see the continuing momentum in our Kambi B2B business, as more customers recognise the value of the proposition.”
For the current quarter, Unibet has seen daily gross winnings rise by 29 percent showing that Q3 could well be a momentary blip for the company.
Bet-at-home.com’s Jochen Dickinger has decided to stand down from his role as co-CEO of the BetClic Everest Group subsidiary. Dickinger co-founded the company 13 years ago with Franz Ömer and is leaving due to “personal and private reasons” according to an article on derStandard.at.
