Live dealer online casino specialist Evolution Gaming has delivered an impressive performance in its first ever earnings report as a publicly traded company.
Evolution says revenue in the first three months of 2015 came to €15.4m, a 43% year-on-year improvement. Evolution, which began listing shares on Stockholm’s NASDAQ First North Premier market in March, says the quarter was marred by €4m in non-recurring expenses involved with the initial public offering. As such, Q1 earnings per share fell 50% to €0.04 and profit fell one-third to €1.4m. Absent those IPO bills, earnings would have nearly doubled to €6.2m.
Evolution CEO Jens von Bahr said the quarterly revenue was a company record thanks to good growth in the company’s existing customer portfolio and increased mobile usage. One-fifth of Q1 revenue was derived via mobile devices.
Discounting those pesky IPO costs, margins increased 11 points to 40%, easily topping Evolution’s 35% target. Von Bahr said the conditions for live casino operations “have never been so good as they are today” and bode well for Evolution’s future.
The quarter also saw PokerStars launch a dedicated live dealer environment from Evolution’s studios in Latvia and Malta. Stars’ Spanish-facing site already offered live roulette from Evolution’s studio at Gran Casino in Murcia and the new combined installation is Evolution’s largest to date. Stars was also the first Evolution licensee to launch the new Immersive Lite customizable game derivative, a variation on Evolution’s Immersive Roulette.
Meanwhile, Evolution plans to launch its new Belgian live casino studio – the company’s fifth overall facility – in the Pink Ballroom at Casino de Spa at the end of Q2 2015. In January, the Belgian Gaming Commission issued a notice saying all live dealer studios had to be based within Belgium’s borders by the end of H1.
Five Belgian-licensed operators have already signed up to enjoy Evolution’s live roulette and blackjack – bwin.be, Unibet.be, 777.b3, Circus.be and Starcasino.be. In addition, Belgium’s principle class B provider Gaming1 will stream Auto Slingshot Roulette from the new studio. Evolution says licensees will be given the option of creating exclusive dedicated environments in order to further differentiate their Belgian product.
