Raketech has published its financial results for the first quarter of 2022, reporting all-time high revenues driven by strong performances in the US market.
Reflecting on Q1, CEO Oskar Mühlbach noted that revenues in the US were so good, that they were “neck on neck with Sweden” as the company’s largest market.
For the quarter, Raketech has reported revenues of $13.4m, a 53% growth year-over-year (Q1 2021: $8.8m), but a slight decline compared to the previous quarter.
Per region, the US saw the biggest growth YoY at 379.9%, as revenues for Q1 hit $2.5m (Q1 2021: $0.5m). Meanwhile, the Nordics only managed a 0.1% change YoY, hitting revenues of $5.7m (Q1 2021: $5.7m).
Per vertical, Sports revenues amounted to $4.5m, 34.2% of total revenue for the quarter and a 207.9% change YoY (Q1 2021: $1.5m), while Casino revenues came to $8.8m, a 21.8% change YoY (Q1 2021: $7.2m). Organic growth amounted to 6.8% (Q1 2021: 5.4%).
EBITDA amounted to $5.4m (Q1 2021: $3.4m), corresponding to a margin of 40.1% (38.7%), while earnings per share after dilution amounted to $0.05 (Q1 2021: $0.03).
Mühlbach commented: “The first quarter of 2022 was yet another revenue record for Raketech Group, much thanks to our recent ATS acquisition that contributed with substantial and important US revenues. Which, during the quarter was neck on neck with Sweden as Raketech’s largest market, showcasing a growth of 380% in absolute terms year over year.”
The CEO noted that Raketech acquisitions targeting markets such as the US continued to show growth, but headwinds were also seen during the quarter, particularly in Finland due to recently imposed regulations on gambling advertisement.
Casinofeber, the firm’s largest asset, saw a decline during Q1 as well, but this was offset by its other Swedish assets growing ‘confidently’. Overall, it was a ‘stable quarter’.
“In the US we are continuing to build and invest in mechanisms to add affiliation to non-affiliation assets, and I am glad to conclude that we already have approximately 10% of PicksandParlays revenues coming from affiliation,” stated Mühlbach.
“We look forward to continuing to invest in this area and expect the affiliation share to increase over time as we improve the mechanisms and transfer the learnings to all other assets in the US.”
Looking ahead, Mühlbach noted that Raketech saw a slightly lower revenue in April compared to previous months due to a slowdown within its US betting tips and its subscription offerings, but this was expected as an effect of a low season in the region.
Thanks to stable operating expenses in the US as well, margins for the market are expected to fall in Q2, but increase again during peak season later on in the year. However, the company’s full-year projections for 2022 are unchanged.
“We are still aiming at a top-line revenue in the span of €50m-€55m ($52.7m-$58m) and an EBITDA margin between 40% and 44%,” the CEO said.
“We believe that it is likely that we land in the higher end of this interval with regards to revenue and in the lower end with regards to EBITDA margin. H2 is traditionally a stronger period and with the World Cup in Football in November we have no reasons to believe otherwise this year.
“Finally, I want to emphasize that I am very happy with the position we are in. We have a solid footprint on most important growth markets in the world, the transformation from offline to online within igaming is quicker than ever, affiliation as a marketing solution is more relevant than ever and we have a great global portfolio of assets and a solid organization in place in the most important growth market in the world, the US.
“All this, in combination with the launch of Affiliation Cloud, basically making our proprietary technology available for external affiliates, Raketech is in pole position, and I am very much looking forward to the future,” Mühlbach concluded.