Live dealer online casino technology outfit Evolution Gaming saw its revenue rise by more than one-half in 2016 as customers demanded greater choice from online gambling operators.
Figures released Thursday show Evolution’s revenue rising 53% to €34.3m in the three months ending December 31, while earnings rose 39% to €13m and profit gained over 30% to €9m.
For the year as a whole, revenue was up 51% to €115.5m, earnings rose 44% to €44.6m and profit soared 58.5% to €31.7m. Evolution’s phenomenal growth was reflected in its payroll, which grew from 1,922 warm bodies at the end of 2015 to 3,402 as of December 31, 2016.
Evolution CEO Martin Carlesund celebrated a very successful year, which happened to mark the company’s tenth anniversary. The year saw Evolution launch new dedicated live dealer environments for a number of clients, including 888 Holdings, Virgin Games and GVC’s Bwin brand, and opened the Romanian regulated market’s first live casino.
Carlesund said mobile continued to be a primary engine of growth. Mobile penetration rose from 28% in Q4 2015 to 46% in the most recent quarter, and Carlesund said the mobile figure was “above 50% among our largest customers.”
Looking ahead to 2017, Carlesund said the company would continue to focus on regulated markets, land-based solutions and product innovation. The latter category includes the recently launched Dream Catcher, “the world’s first game in the Live Lucky Wheel category.”
Evolution’s chief product officer Todd Haushalter said the motivation behind Dream Catcher – which was built exclusively for Evolution by TCSJohn Huxley – was operators requesting new ways to cross-sell customers into other verticals.
Haushalter said the game was “intentionally simple and friendly to play … almost like a game show that you can play along with at home.” Evolution believes the new game will help expand the live casino audience to players who have previously expressed little interest in table games.
2017 will also see Evolution make its long awaited transition to Nasdaq Stockholm in the second quarter.
