Score Media and Gaming Inc has cited a “stellar start” to the new fiscal year having posted financial results for the three months ended November 30, 2020 this week. Handle and media revenue were up, but EBITDA loss deepened year-on-year.
Year-on-year handle saw growth of 535% and media revenue for Q1 F2021 was $10.6m compared to $9.2m for the same period last year, a new all-time record for theScore for a single period.
Gaming handle was $55.8m and gross gaming revenue was ($0.3)m in Q1 F2021. When taking into account promotional costs and fair value adjustments on unsettled bets, this resulted in negative net gaming revenue of $2m.
EBITDA loss in Q1 F2021 was $9.3m versus EBITDA loss of $4.8m for the same period last year. The increase in EBITDA loss was, said the firm, primarily the result of additional expenses incurred in connection with the expansion of our gaming operations compared to the prior year.
Founder and CEO John Levy told investors: “Our new fiscal year is off to a stellar start, including our best-ever quarter for media revenue, exponential handle growth on theScore Bet, and yet another record period for our esports operations. We continue to deepen our market-leading media and betting integrations and achieved year-over-year handle growth of 535% on theScore Bet.
“While still in the early stages of this fast-growing industry, we are steadily strengthening our expanding footprint in the North American sports betting market. Now, following successful recent launches in Colorado and Indiana, we’re on track to launch in Iowa in the coming weeks, subject to regulatory approval.
“We’re also diligently preparing for the enormous opportunity in Canada ahead of the anticipated creation of a fully-legalized and regulated sports betting and igaming market in Ontario. theScore is Canada’s most popular mobile sports brand with millions of loyal media app users across the country and we are eager to deploy our cutting-edge technology and launch our best-in-class sportsbook experience to fans in our home territory.”
According to Levy theScore is uniquely positioned, both in the US and Canada, as the only truly integrated mobile media and gaming company. “Based on the continued development of theScore and the growth of the sports betting industry across North America, in our view it is timely to consider a listing on a US stock exchange,” he said. “We believe that access to the US capital markets would provide compelling benefits for theScore and our shareholders.”
Turning to audience metrics, the company recorded 3.9 million average monthly active users and 458 million average monthly user sessions on theScore app on iOS and Android during the period, equaling 116 average monthly-sessions-per-user.
Across theScore esports’ platforms, it achieved another new quarterly record, totaling 357 million video views in Q1 F2021, year-on-year growth of 355%. An additional 85,000 YouTube subscribers were added during the period, with total channel subscribers now exceeding 1.58 million. theScore esports’ TikTok account added approximately 354,000 new followers in Q1 F2021. Total account followers now exceed 1.1 million.
The firm’s social sports content across Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok achieved an average monthly reach of approximately 105 million. theScore’s TikTok account added approximately 573,000 new followers in Q1 F2021. Total account followers now exceed 2.8 million.