Preliminary financial results released by Italian lottery and gaming outfit Lottomatica show revenues rising 3.4% to €3.076b, while earnings were up 6.3% to €1.03b. The company, which next year at this time will be completely rebranded using the name of its subsidiary GTECH, says capital expenditure fell 25% in 2012 to €256m. Once all the figures are added up, Lottomatica’s bank accounts should contain €2.546b, down 7.1% from the previous year, despite having achieved or exceeded all of its 2012 guidance targets.
Lottomatica says its Italian operations were “solid” despite a dodgy economy, higher VLT taxes, higher sports betting payouts and lower Lotto late number wagers. GTECH revenues are up thanks to the effect of those enormo lottery jackpots in the US, compensation for running the Illinois lottery (via the Northstar joint venture with Scientific Games) and higher international product sales. Spielo International enjoyed higher product sales in Canada and higher VLT market revenue. Lottomatica’s official results will be released on March 12.
Swedish state-owned operator Svenska Spel saw full-year 2012 profits rise 2.6% to SEK 5.138b (€609m) on a 1.3% rise in net revenue to 9.815b (€1.16b). The retail and online sports betting and lottery divisions saw operating profits rise slightly to SEK 3.82b on revenue of 6.615b. Profit from the Vegas VLT operations was down slightly at 861m on revenue of 2.014b, while Casino Cosmopol profit also fell to 475m on revenue of 1.186b. Svenska Spel CEO Lennart Käil blamed the downturn in these last two divisions on extensive marketing by unlicensed online operators offering similar products. Those pesky unlicensed operators also got the blame for Svenska Spel’s market share falling slightly to 49% in 2012. We imagine that if Käil were asked for his opinion on the causes of global warming, unlicensed online operators would get top billing.
Finnish national betting and lottery agency Veikkaus turned in profits of €501.2m in 2012 on revenue of €1.775b. Mobile now accounts for 50.1% of Veikkaus’ revenues, with mobile app website visits topping 100k per week. The number of registered players rose 6.9% to 1.463m. As in Sweden, Finland is also complaining that its three domestic monopolies – Veikkaus, slots operator RAY and horseracing’s Fintoto – have to compete with international companies, many of them based in Malta. Jouni Laiho, head of Finnish lotteries in the Police Administration, said there are 70-odd sites offering services in Finnish “but we don’t have an means to stop it because the procedure is legal in Malta.” Finland has blocked these companies from advertising since October 2010 but ‘that doesn’t mean that Finnish players have stopped to have access to foreign sites.”
