Genius Sports reports solid growth and consistent momentum in Q1

Q1
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Official sports data provider Genius Sports Ltd has announced its financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2021, showing solid year-on-year growth across all key metrics.

Group revenue increased 51.9% year-on-year to $53.7m, driven by balanced growth across all major product groups, while on a constant currency basis, revenue increased $15.6m, or 40% versus Q1 2020.

Turning to betting technology, content and services revenue, the firm reported a year-on-year increase of 42.1% to $39m. Growth in business with existing customers was driven by price increases on contract renewals and renegotiations powered by Genius’ official data rights strategy, expansion of value-add services, and new service offerings. 

New customer acquisitions and increased customer utilization of Genius’ available event content was also one of the drivers of growth.

The company’s sports technology and services arm also noted growth, with revenue increasing 41.6% year-on-year to $5.4m, boosted by expanded services provided to existing sports league and federation customers across all tiers of sport.

There was an uplift, too, in Genius’ media technology, content and services where revenue increased 127% year-on-year to $9.4m, aided by the acquisition of new customers in the Americas and Europe primarily for programmatic advertising services.

As a result, group adjusted EBITDA rose to $9.3m from $1.8m, driven by revenue growth, strong operating leverage, and disciplined cost control. The company has now updated its full-year 2021 projections and expects to generate revenue of approximately $250m to $260m and adjusted EBITDA of approximately $10m to $20m.

Co-Founder and CEO Mark Locke told investors: “We delivered superb results in the first quarter of 2021, demonstrating our continued excellent momentum and solid execution of strategic commitments. There is a significant opportunity to utilize our leading portfolio of official sports data, supported by our unique technology, scale and growing network of industry partners. 

“Our strategy of powering the global sports data ecosystem has supported our growth in the quarter, and we’re confident in our ability to continuously improve our end-to-end solution and deliver on our increased guidance for the year.”