Czech online gaming operator Fortuna Entertainment announced steady gains in the first three quarters of 2014, posting gains of 21.1% in core profit, largely attributed to its growing online gambling business.
The company’s EBITDA in the first nine months of the year reached €22 million ($27.54 million). Sports betting EBITDA accounted for almost all of it with at €21.9 million ($27.14 million), 18.7% better year on year. The rest came from its lottery business, which posted gains of €84,000 ($104,000), a reversal from the company losing €300,000 ($372,000) in the first nine months of 2013.
In the first nine months of 2014, Fortuna reported a total gross win of €97.2 million ($120.5 million), 16.6% better year on year. The company also posted a total gross win of €91.9 million ($114 million) from sports betting, an increase of 17.8% year on year. Of that number, online betting accounted for €48.4 million ($60 million), 34% better over the same period a year ago. Likewise, the company’s gross win from retail betting improved 3.8% year on year to €43.5 million ($54 million).
“The main driver of our performance was expansion of Internet and mobile sports betting mainly in the Czech Republic where we recorded 35% growth in accepted bets,” Fortuna CEO Radim Haluza said in a statement.
One aspect of its operations where it posted a small decline was its lottery business. In the first nine months of 2014, Fortuna’s gross win from its lottery business only fetched €5.2 million ($6.4 million), 0.7 percent worse year on year.
Cherry narrows losses with strong Q3 2014
Over in Sweden, casino operator Cherry AB announced that it had increased corporate revenues to SEK90 million ($12 million), an improvement of 29% to its year on year numbers.
Cherry CEO Emil Sunvisson attributed the improved performance to growth in the company’s strong online gaming revenue, which rose 33% to SEK46.6 million ($6.27 million), representing 55% of the company’s total revenue in the third quarter of 2014.
Active players also grew 33% in the period, as did player deposits, which increased 55% year on year.
The company’s strong performance in Q3 2014 helped in narrowing its losses to SEK14 million ($1.88 million), a drop of 11% compared to its 2013 figure. More importantly, it’s giving Cherry AB reason to believe that it could target profits in the last quarter of the year.
“The third quarter continued strong growth in sales, and new records set across all business areas,” Sunvisson said.
“Cherry continues to grow within online gaming through our long-term commitment to build strong brands and improve the user experience on our gaming sites. We are particularly pleased for our players that we have had an unusually high number of lucky big winners during the third quarter.”
