Betsson AB (publ) (BETSB) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Welcome to Betsson Q4 Report 2024. [Operator Instructions]. Now I will hand the conference over to CEO, Pontus Lindwall; and CFO, Martin Ohman. Please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Betsson's earnings presentation for the fourth quarter and full year of 2024. I'm Pontus Lindwall, the President and CEO of Betsson. With me presenting today is also our CFO, Martin Ohman, who has a little bit of a cough. I'm very pleased to report yet another strong quarter for Betsson with continued high customer activity and record figures across the board. In the fourth quarter, group revenue increased by 22% and operating income or EBIT increased by 23% year-over-year. This means new all-time high levels for group revenue and EBIT at EUR 307 million and EUR 70 million. The EBIT margin increased to 22.9% in the quarter. New quarterly records were also set for customer deposits and gaming turnover as well as casino and sportsbook revenue. Customer deposits increased by 14% year-over-year. Casino turnover increased by 6% year-over-year and sportsbook turnover increased by 2% year-over-year. Casino revenue was up 17% year-over-year and sportsbook revenue was up 36% year-over-year, supported by a strong sportsbook margin at 9.8% for the quarter. Growth was broad-based with continued high activity in Latin America, Western Europe and in the CEECA region. Looking at the full year 2024. As we can see on this slide, new records were set for the group revenue and earnings as well as cash flow. For 2024, we passed EUR 1 billion in revenue for the first time and landed 17% higher than the previous year. At the same time, EBIT was up 22% year-over-year at EUR 257 million. The EBIT margin went up to over 23%, thanks to our scalable business model and continued cost control. EBITDA and operating cash flow were up 20% and 18% year-over-year, relatively also at all-time high. Net income and earnings per share only increased by 6% and 2%, respectively, as the group's corporate tax rate moved up during 2024 due to the application of the Pillar 2 rules. When we sum up 2024, we can conclude that it was the best year ever for Betsson, where we continue to strengthen our position as one of the global leaders in the gaming and betting industry. The year was characterized by high growth, strength and profitability and strategic investments in line with our long-term goals and our vision to offer the best gaming experience in the industry. Our investments in the Latin America and CEECA regions continue to be a key driver of the group's growth, and we have successfully built a strong position in several key markets using our expertise in online gaming and our proprietary technology platform and sportsbook. Our commitment to sports and marketing through strategic sponsorships has also played an important role in strengthening Betsson's brand and engaging our players globally. Geographic expansion, diversification and disciplined capital allocation remain key success factors for Betsson. We maintain a positive outlook going forward and see continued structural growth for the online gaming industry globally over the years to come driven by the migration from offline to online gaming. I'm proud to see that Betsson's involvement in sports continues. Football is by far the most popular sports among sports betting customers. Recently, we announced that the jersey sponsorship with the iconic club Boca Juniors in Argentina will be extended through 2028. Another popular sport for betting is tennis. And in October last year, Betsson was one of the main sponsors of the ATP 250 Nordic Open in the Royal Tennis Hall in Stockholm which was a great event with several top 10 ranked players taking part. Betsson continues investing in product and technology. Betsson's gaming sites are mainly operated on our proprietary platform, a so-called Player Account Management System, or PAM, which makes up the core of the offering and user experience. The platform manages payments, customer information and account management as well as the games. Our sportsbook is also operated on the in-house technology. Geographical expansion continues to be a key theme. And currently, the organization is preparing for a launch on the newly regulated market in Brazil. In Italy, several new suppliers of games were integrated and a new form of electronic identification was introduced during the quarter in order to create a smoother registration process for new customers. In Denmark, one of the biggest jackpots in the industry was integrated and launched during the quarter. This strengthens the casino offering for Betsson in Denmark. For the Sportsbook, the Bet Builder function was further developed during the quarter as new betting and combination possibilities were added as well as bonus functionality. Bet builders is a feature allowing players to set up their own bets from the same match in football and another of other sports. The feature allows players to customize their bets by choosing 2 or more selections within the same match and combining these into one single bet with higher odds. With the latest additions, Betsson can now offer one of the most attractive Bet Builder tools for football on the market. Sustainability is an integrated part of Betsson's business strategy since many years. Betsson holds a AAA rating by Morgan Stanley Capital International or MSCI ESG ratings after an upgrade in 2024. In the fourth quarter, TV campaign was launched in Argentina, together with players from Boca juniors. The TV commercial is promoting safe, legal and secure gaming practices in Argentina. Recently, some changes in the group management were announced, 2 new roles, operational CEO and operational CFO, will form part of the group's management going forward. Jesper Svensson and Kris Saliba both have a long background in the group in these roles. And now I will hand over to Martin for a closer look at the financials in the fourth quarter. Go ahead, Martin.

Thanks, Pontus, and hello, everyone. Betsson continues to deliver stable revenue growth, and we can conclude the 12th consecutive quarter with EBIT growth. The EBIT margin is stable around 23% and has been so for the past 7 quarters, although the share of locally regulated revenue has increased from 36% in the beginning of 2023, to 60% in the fourth quarter in 2024. Managing to keep margins constant over time, although changing the revenue mix is a good testimony to the scalability in the Betsson business model. The fourth quarter was yet another record quarter with growth and a lot of all-time highs. The Q4 result is supported by year-over-year growth of 14% in deposits which is also the highest deposit levels ever for a single quarter and also all-time high in gross turnover with year-over-year growth of 6% and growth of 11% in active customers. The gross turnover in Sportsbook across all bets on gaming solution was almost EUR 1.71 billion, which is all-time high. Sportsbook margin was 9.8% which is higher than the 6.2% margin in the fourth quarter last year and above the 2-year rolling average margin of 7.8%. Sportsbook revenue increased by some 36% compared to last year and amounted to EUR 91 million, which is also a new all-time high. The casino turnover is the highest ever and increased by 6% year-on-year and Casino revenue increased by 17%, which is the highest casino revenue ever for an individual quarter. Casino revenue represented 69% of the group's total revenue in the quarter and Sportsbook on 30%. Reported revenue for the fourth quarter amounted to EUR 307 million, the highest revenue ever in a single quarter and an increase of 22% year-on-year and 49% organic growth. Growth is coming from both the B2C and the B2B business in the quarter, where the B2C business contributed with EUR 224 million in revenue, while some EUR 82 million came from the B2B operations corresponding to 27% of the total revenue for the group. Revenue from locally regulated markets increased by 58% compared to last year, and now constitute 60% of total revenue in the fourth quarter. Splitting revenue by region, we see growth compared to previous year in all regions, except for the Nordics, which is down compared to last year, a trend we have seen for some time now. The decline in the Nordic in this quarter of 14% compared to last year, primarily driven by lower activity in the Casino product. The Nordic region represented 13% of the group's total revenue in the fourth quarter. Revenue from Western Europe increased by 16% year-on-year or by EUR 11 million and is mainly driven by increased casino revenue. Revenue from Belgium increased compared with both the corresponding period last year and the previous quarter, mainly driven by the casino products. The Italian market is also contributing to the growth in the Western Europe region driven by strong underlying growth with new records for both deposits and turnover. The reported revenue is all-time high and the increase compared to last year is mainly driven by the casino product. The Sportsbook products reported increased activity and increase revenue, both compared with the corresponding period last year and the previous quarter, but is still comparably lower than the group's casino revenue in Italy. The Western Europe region represented 17% of total revenue in the quarter. Revenue from the CEECA region increased by EUR 25 million, representing an increase of 24% and reported all-time high in the quarter. Georgia, Lithuania, Croatia and Greece reported all-time high revenue in the fourth quarter mainly driven by the casino product. Estonia reported revenue in line with the corresponding period last year. The Sportsbook product reported growth, whilst the casino product reported lower activity. Latvia reported decreased revenue compared to last year, driven by lower activity in the casino product. The CEECA region represented 43% of group's total revenue. Revenue in Latin America region increased by EUR 25 million, which is a new all-time high, representing an increase of 47% compared to last year. Peru and Argentina reported growth both compared to the corresponding period last year and the previous quarter, mainly driven by the casino product. Colombia reported increased revenue compared to last year and also compared to previous quarter. The Latin America region represented 26% of the group's total revenue in the fourth quarter compared to 18% in the first quarter this year. The development in operating income in this picture is broken down and explained by the different line items in the P&L. Revenue has increased by some EUR 55 million. And following that, increased cost of services provided as well. The increase in cost of services provided is apart from revenue growth, mainly explained by higher gaming taxes following increased revenue from locally regulated markets. Gross profit increased by EUR 35 million compared to the same period last year, and amounts to [ EUR 200 million, ] which corresponds to a gross profit margin of 65.3% compared to 65.6% last year. Marketing spend increased by EUR 9 million compared to last year. Increased marketing spend is primarily explained by enhanced marketing efforts in Western Europe and Latin America. Personnel expenses increased by some EUR 6 million in the fourth quarter compared to last year due to some 300 additional employees following geographic expansion and acquisitions, yearly salary revisions, performance-related compensation and increased investments in product and technology development. Depreciation and amortization cost is more or less flat compared to last year. Other items include other external expenses, which has slightly increased, driven by sustained increased investments in technology and product development on the Sportsbook side. Other items also include capitalized development costs and other operating income and expenses, which are more or less in line with the previous year last year. Operating income amounts to EUR 70.2 million, which is all-time high and an increase of 23%. The EBIT margin was 22.9% compared to 22.6% last year and 23% in the previous quarter. Operating cash flow amounts to EUR 84.6 million compared to EUR 47.6 million in the same period last year. Operating cash flow is driven by increased operating income and slightly positively impacted by changes in working capital by some EUR 5 million. The positive effect from working capital comes from decreased accrued expenses. Cash flow from investing activities sums up to EUR 24.5 million and relates to investments in product and technology development and acquisition of sporting solutions and payment of gaming license in Brazil. Cash flow from financing activities impacted the cash flow by EUR 90 million, mainly explained by paid out dividend to shareholders and by repayment of the remaining bonds in the Series 2022, 2025. Betsson has, as end of December, a net cash position of EUR 140 million and an equity ratio of 63%. Now back to you, Pontus, to present this adjusted dividend distribution, the trading update and to summarize the fourth quarter and the full year 2024.

Thank you, Martin. The strong cash flows of our business and the solid balance sheet allows us to continue paying out attractive dividends to our shareholders and at the same time invest in future growth. For 2024, the Board has proposed a 17% increase in the total dividend to EUR 0.757 per share consisting of EUR 0.657 per share as ordinary dividend and EUR 0.10 per share as a special dividend. The proposed total dividend for 2024 amounts to EUR 104.4 million. The dividend will be paid out in Swedish kroner in 2 parts in June and in October. Now let's look at how the first quarter of this year has started. The average daily revenue in the first quarter of 2025 up to until and including the 31st of January, has been 19.9% higher than the average daily revenue of the entire first quarter of 2024. During the measurement period in the first quarter '25, the Sportsbook margin has been higher than the historical average. Now let's briefly summarize the highlights in the fourth quarter of 2024. The high customer activity continued during the quarter and was supported by a high Sportsbook margin, which led to record KPIs across the board. We delivered new quarterly all-time highs in revenue, EBIT gaming turnover and revenue in both casino and the Sportsbook. This was the 12th quarter in a row with sequential growth in the EBIT. The business continues to generate strong cash flow and we have a robust balance sheet, supporting attractive shareholder cash returns and investments for future growth. We continue on new paths and act as pioneers in everything we do and look forward to continuing our growth journey in 2025. January has started well, as mentioned before. Geographic expansion and diversification remain keywords for us and we have a full pipeline of activities to support continued growth. Thanks, everyone, for listening in to this presentation. And now it's time for Q&A. We welcome your questions.

[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Oscar Ronnkvist from ABG Sundal Collier.

So I have 3 at the moment. Just the first one, I would like to spend a little bit of time on Page 6 and Page 11 in your report. So what it looks like, it's that you are -- you have ambitions to discontinue some of the point of supply markets you have in the B2C operations, including Norway, and also on Page 11, you said that you stopped accepting customers in Norway in December. So I just wanted to hear, first, I mean, sort of the impact on potential in December impacted Q4? And also going forward, how you sort of plan to mitigate any impacts from this? And if you are able to serve this market through a B2B license instead?

Okay. Yes. It's -- what you say is our ambition that for our B2C operations, we strive towards the markets that goes for local regulation. And there are some markets that has shown no signs to go towards local regulation, and we are planning on leaving these markets and some of them we have already left. Of course, that has a little bit of financial impact, but then we can rest very safely on our diversity of markets. And as you can see in the first quarter, it has not had a big impact on our performance.

All right. And can you share anything on Norway of approximately how much percentage of revenue has stemmed from that market? So we sort of know about the underlying business.

No, we don't share those figures. We have not done it before, and we can't introduce that now. So we can't do that.

Okay. Next one just on Brazil.

I think I can add to that one. I think we have commented over the time that not only in Norway, but the Nordics as such, has played a less important role to us and has had a relatively less effect on our P&L in general.

All right. Perfect. Next one, just on Brazil. So if you could share some thoughts and saw a little bit of an interview as well with stringent marketing, you talked about this before, but on Brazil, so how do you see the early signs in Brazil and what your plans are on the marketing spend to maybe try to navigating the competitive landscape, if you like?

Yes. It's true what you say that it -- we foresee a competitive landscape. We want to enter that market in a slow fashion and analyze and learn. We don't want to risk any part of our P&L and our profitability by going all in, in that market. So we will do a slow start during the year here in Brazil.

Perfect. The final one maybe for Martin, but just the -- on the cost side, you saw costs coming up quite much, especially compared to Q3. If you could just talk about any sort of nonrecurring impacts as I don't know your sales growth was exceptionally good in Q4 maybe drove some additional bonuses and so on, on personnel costs. Can you talk about any sort of one-off impact on what we should extrapolate into 2025?

I will start on that one and then leave over to Martin. We had some increased cost on the marketing side, that's an investment, and that's -- we are a growth company, and we want to continue to invest in growing the company. And at the same time, we invest a lot in product development by our organization. So that's why personnel costs goes up as well. But I think we can see from the quarter reported that we still have costs under control, and we operate at a very attractive EBIT margin. Martin, you can add on to that.

Just -- maybe just adding, I think what you referred to Oscar is that we saw some additional marketing spend that is kind of driving up the cost in this quarter. And as we have commented before, when we see good opportunities, we kind of invest more in marketing as well. And in this quarter, we saw some good opportunities and took the chance to invest.

Perfect. And the personnel cost, I think, also were up EUR 6 million quarter-over-quarter. If there's any sort of nonrecurring impacts in that? Or is that a new sort of run rate as a good base for 2025?

I mean, as I mentioned, we have added some 300 additional employees from acquisition and expansions, so that is, of course, contributing. But it's also normally that in the fourth quarter, you do provisions for, as you said, for bonuses, et cetera, et cetera. So there might be some costs, a little bit higher than what you would see in the normal quarter going forward, yes.

The next question comes from Georg Attling.

Pontus and martin, I have a couple of questions. So starting off with the Nordics, especially on the casino side, down 18% sequentially. Is this isolated to Norway, you would say, or any weakness in other Nordic markets?

I would say, of course, Norway has an impact there, and it's been for that -- it's been like that for many quarters. But in general, the Nordics is not our main market where we put our highest efforts because we see better growth rates and better returns in other markets. So that goes a little bit across the line actually.

Okay. And also to clarify on the registered customers, which are down 5% sequentially. Is this also due to stopping to accept customers in Norway? Or is there any other markets that you can point out that drive this decline in the registered customers?

It's not only Norway. It's several markets where we -- which we have packaged and stopped accepting so that has an impact on the registered customers.

And we have also communicated that we have kind of pulled out a few markets such as Kenya and Colorado. So that is also impacting.

Yes. And with the comments about Norway now is this marking a little bit of a pivot to more regulated markets and accelerating that shift? Or should we not read too much into what you're doing in Norway?

No, you shouldn't look too much at that because we stick to our long-term view. We have a belief that most markets, if not everybody will regulate sooner or later. And there are a few outliers, which doesn't go in the same way as other markets in the world. And these markets doesn't fit in with our operations. So it's nothing new. It's just that we have decided to move on from some markets where we don't see any path to regulation.

Okay. Just 2 more questions on the marketing, 18.5% of B2C revenues a step up, as you mentioned in the call previously from Q3, is 18.5% a level that we should expect going into '25 as well? Or could you just point us in the direction up or down marketing of B2C revenues?

Yes, I think I can say that our marketing spend is a little bit like the Sportsbook margin. It evens out over time. And we will have some opportunities, which we had in the fourth quarter, we tend to spend some more but there is no shift going forward in -- on a high level in spending more marketing. So without mentioning exactly what figure we're going to stay at because that I don't even know myself. But there is no big shift in marketing in relation to revenues going forward.

Okay. Just a final question on the trading update. Sportsbook margin in Q4 was obviously exceptionally high. And you mentioned in the trading update, it was higher than usual as well. But is it at Q4 levels or just a tiny bit above the historical average on a longer horizon?

That's a good question, which I cannot answer. No, I can't answer more specific than we write in the report, obviously. So concluding from the report, it's higher than our long-term rolling average and more than that, I can't say. And in general, we believe that the Sportsbook margin in general, will go back to the rolling average, and that's where we want to be. So let's see.

Yes. Just a follow-up on that, on the wording in that trading update. If I recall correctly, if there is a very, very strong sports margin, you would be more explicit than in saying that effect? Is that right? So if it was close to 10%, the wording would have been different?

I can't answer that specifically. I think you can read that sentence over and over again, and you can draw your conclusions. But for obvious reasons, I can't comment more on it here. So there is no more questions?

Next question comes from Martin Arnell from DNB Markets.

Okay. Now there are questions.

So I want to ask you on the B2B Sportsbook potential for new customers. And also if you can comment if you've added customers during 2024?

Yes. We have added customers during 2024. I mean that's part of the business strategy to grow the B2B side as well as the B2C side.

Any potential customers that you can mention that you have added? Are there any big sized customers, which markets, et cetera?

No, there are no such big customers that we have decided to go out and comment on individual customers or regions where they operate. So no, more like many small customers.

And is that the strategy you have in B2B to look for small customers? Or are you going for big ones as well here?

I don't think we exclude anything actually, but the way it has turned out is that we have worked with more smaller customers.

And what is the main sort of obstacles when you go for bigger contracts? That would be interesting to hear.

Yes. I think some of the bigger operators, they have their own Sportsbook. They see no reason to take on our Sportsbook. It's rather that smaller operators that don't have the financial strength to have their own Sportsbook. They want to run a professional and proved Sportsbook and therefore, they become customers of ours.

And the competitive pressure, how do you feel about that?

It's very competitive. And -- but of course, our product is standing out well in that competition. It's a very strong offering that we have. But Fortunately, we are mainly a B2C company with a B2B arm, and we don't need to rest on the B2B side to grow the company. But we are positive, and we hope we will get more clients on the Sportsbook going forward.

And when you look at the industry trends here earlier this year, I guess you attended ICE in Barcelona. What were your impressions there? And what are you most excited about when it comes to product perspective going forward?

Yes. What you can say from that exhibition ICE in Barcelona is that it's a very competitive industry, very innovative. There's lots of new things going on, a lot of belief in this industry for the future. It has huge growth potential still, and that's why we see so much investments still going into this industry. And we can conclude that our Sportsbook is very competitive and our offering, which we utilize on the B2C offering as well is strong. But yes, we are in a growing industry, and that's with structural growth, and that's reflected in that trade show.

And a final question. When you look at -- you had this special dividend proposal -- but how -- what's been the discussion, Pontus in the Board here, you have the potential for buybacks as well? And why was this a special dividend instead?

The Board decided to propose the special dividend. We have a very strong cash position in the company. As you can see, it's not -- we don't hand out the full cash box to our shareholders because we have the M&A part of our strategy, which we are working on, and we will definitely continue to make M&A as part of our growth going forward. But it's also a sign from a strong company in a competitive business to be able to have this good cash flow and to give that extra dividend to the shareholders. It feels great to do that. And it doesn't exclude share buybacks and things like that going forward. But for the time being, we decided to do this extra dividend.

Our next question comes from Oscar Ronnkvist from ABG Sundal Collier.

Just had one follow-up regarding the Sportsbook margin, which obviously is quite high in Q4. And I believe that many others in the industry have talked about structurally increasing Sportsbook margins because of higher share of Bet Builder which you also talk a little bit about in the report. So just trying to get a sense on -- I mean, I think that you've always been a little bit lower on the Sportsbook margin, at least some peers. So what's your strategy with an increasing share of Bet Builder? Would that be to still offer the same or sort of more competitive prices rather than go for a structurally higher Sportsbook margin?

Yes. So in line with our ambition to have the best customer experience, it's definitely so that we are not aiming to have a very, very high sportsbook margin because that would not be a good customer experience for the end user going forward. We want to develop our offering and make it broader and deeper and the Bet Builder is one part of that. But in the long run, I'm convinced that we definitely don't strive to have a higher Sportsbook margin. And the ones who would potentially do that, they will squeeze themselves out of the market through competition, I believe.

There are no more questions coming through the phone lines at this time. So I hand the conference back to the speakers for any written questions and closing comments. Please go ahead.

Do we have any questions? I don't think so. Okay. Thanks, everybody, for listening in to our quarterly report and thanks for all the questions, and we look forward to see you for the next presentation. Bye-bye.