Gambling.com Group, a provider of player acquisition services for the regulated global online gambling industry, has announced its financial results for the first quarter of 2022, reporting records in revenue and adjusted EBITDA in the period.
The best quarterly performance in the group’s history was driven by ‘exceptionally strong’ North American growth, as well as solid results in the UK and Ireland compared to the previous quarter.
Revenue for Q1 came in at $19.6m, a 70% increase year-over-year from Q1 2021’s $11.5m. An improvement occurred in large part due to a rise in North American revenue, which grew by 544% to $10.6m.
Although revenue grew exponentially, adjusted EBITDA for the quarter came in at $7.19m, just a 1% increase YoY (Q1 2021: $7.12m) while the adjusted EBITDA margin sat at 37% (Q1 2021: 62%).
Declaring a cost of sales of $1.2m, Gambling.com made a gross profit of $18.36m (Q1 2021: $11.52m) as expenses across sales and marketing (2022: $7.36m, 2021: $2.7m), technology (2022: $1.36m, 2021: $690,000), and general and administrative (2022: $4.83m, 2021: $2.77m) grew greatly compared to the previous year.
Operating profit for Q1 came in at $4.28m, down on the $5.21m reported during the same period in 2021.
The group, which owns and operates more than 50 websites in seven languages across 15 markets, also had 67,000 new depositing customers during the quarter thanks to new market launches in the states of New York and Louisiana.
“Our core business performed brilliantly in the quarter, driving record revenue and Adjusted EBITDA performance. This very strong underlying growth together with the acquisitions of RotoWire.com and BonusFinder.com, propelled Q1 2022 revenue 70% past our previous best quarter,” said Charles Gillespie, CEO and Co-Founder of Gambling.com Group.
During Q1, alongside the significant North American growth and new state market launches, Gambling.com also closed the acquisitions of RotoWire.com and BonusFinder.com.
The group also stated it had a strong start to its media partnership with McClatchy and, after quarter end, it also had a successful new launch in the Canadian province of Ontario.
Gillespie added: “Our current primary strategic objective is to rapidly grow our business in the US market, which is exactly what we did in the quarter – while also delivering high margins despite the continuous investments in the business to position us for further US growth.
“We continue to believe that the affiliate model offers American and international online gambling operators the most effective and reliable way to spend their marketing budgets, and we look forward to another record year for the group.”
Looking ahead, Gambling.com noted it estimates total revenue will be in the range of $71m to $76m, while adjusted EBITDA will be in the range of $22m to $27m.
Elias Mark, CFO of Gambling.com Group, stated: “We saw our accelerated investments in the business during the second half of 2021 start to pay off, and grew revenue 70% to deliver the best quarterly performance in the Group’s history.
“The record performance was driven by exceptionally strong growth in North America, particularly in New York, and very solid results in the UK and Ireland measured against our previous best quarter.
“Strong underlying organic growth is complemented by our recent acquisitions, which were all performing in line with, or better than, our initial expectations. We continue to expect another record year for the Group and reiterate our full-year guidance.”
