Betsson AB (publ) (BETSB) Q4 FY2025 Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Welcome to Betsson Q4 Report 2025. [Operator Instructions] Now I will hand the conference over to CEO, Pontus Lindwall; and CFO, Martin Ohman. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning, and welcome to Betsson's presentation of the fourth quarter of 2025. I'm Pontus Lindwall, the President and CEO of Betsson. With me and presenting today is also our CFO, Martin Ohman. In Q4, we saw continued good customer activity with an increased number of active players compared to the same period last year. Revenue amounted to EUR 304 million, and operating income was EUR 53 million in the quarter. The EBIT margin was 17.5% for the period. Casino revenue was up 3% year-over-year, while Sportsbook revenue was down 9%. The Sportsbook revenue was negatively impacted by a lower Sportsbook margin in the quarter. We ended the year with a strong net cash position of EUR 158 million. Regionally, Western Europe and Latin America continued to show revenue growth while revenue from Nordic region and CEECA declined. Revenue from our B2C operations continued to increase, thanks to successful product and marketing investments, while revenue from our B2B business was lower than the comparison period last year. The decline in the B2B was mainly due to one-off Betsson's customers having lower activity than in the corresponding period in the previous year. The share of revenue from locally regulated markets continued to increase and reached an all-time high of 68%, which consequently drove higher gaming taxes. We continue to invest in the product and technology organization to strengthen the customer experience and our long-term competitiveness, which led to higher personnel costs. Lower B2B revenue, higher gaming taxes and increased personnel costs had a negative impact on profitability and operating income during the quarter. Despite the lower profitability, Betsson stands strong operationally with a competitive product offering, increasing brand awareness and technology at the forefront. Now let's have a quick look at the figures for the full year 2025. Group revenue was at an all-time high of EUR 1.197 billion, up 8% year-over-year. EBITDA, EBIT, net income and earnings per share were 1% lower year-over-year. The EBIT margin for the year was 21.1%. Our strong financial position provides us with good conditions to invest in long-term profitable growth and to deliver returns to our shareholders. During the quarter, the Board of Directors initiated a share buyback program corresponding to EUR 40 million and an ordinary dividend of EUR 0.66 per share has been proposed for 2025. Betsson's engagement in sport continued in the fourth quarter with several new sponsorships, for example, the basketball club Peristeri, the Football Club Iraklis and Volleyball Club Panionios, all in Greece. Also Betsson became the local official sponsor of the Volleyball League in Peru. Betsson was also quite active with CSR and PR campaigns in Italy and Greece, together with our local partner clubs in those countries, supporting the causes of nonviolence against women and anti-bulling go above and beyond the pure campaign efforts and potential returns. It also feels like the right thing to do. Betsson's tech platform, the Player Account Management System makes up the core of the customers' offering and user experience. The platform manages customer payments, customer data as well as the games offered to the players. During the quarter, the introduction of the new front-end framework continued, which has been built for increased flexibility and performance and which strengthens the user experience by enabling faster and more efficient rollout of new features and updates going forward. Within the Sportsbook, the user interface was further strengthened, while the BetBuilder feature was expanded with more betting opportunities and early win payouts in football continue to be implemented. Further, a number of new suppliers of slots, casino games were launched in various markets during the quarter. Now I will hand over to Martin for a closer look at the financials in the fourth quarter.

Thanks, Pontus, and hello, everyone. The fourth quarter was a quarter with maintained revenue but decreased EBIT year-on-year. In today's presentation, we will give you more details about the reported numbers. But before we go into the financial numbers, we start by focusing on some KPIs. Customer deposits in all gaming solutions are down by 6% compared to the same period last year, but at the same time, the number of active customers increased by 5%. The gross turnover in Sportsbook across all bets and gaming solutions was down 14% compared to the same period last year and amounts to approximately EUR 1.5 billion. Sportsbook margin was 8.8%, which is lower than the 9.8% margin in the fourth quarter last year, but above the 2-year rolling average margin of 8.4%. Sportsbook revenue decreased by some 9% compared to last year and amounted to EUR 83 million. The casino turnover is down 7% year-on-year, but casino revenue increased by 3% and is the second highest reported casino revenue ever. Casino revenue represented 72% of the group's total revenue in the quarter and Sportsbook some 27%. Reported revenue for the quarter amounted to EUR 304 million, a slight decrease of 1% year-on-year, but 5% organic growth. Revenue from locally regulated markets increased by 13% compared to last year and now constitute 68% of total revenue compared to 60% last year. Revenue from the B2C business has grown by 4% or EUR 9 million year-on-year, whilst the B2B business shows declining revenue year-on-year by 14% or by EUR 12 million, explained by decreased revenue from one of the group's B2B customers. Revenue from the B2B business corresponds to 23% of total revenue and B2C revenue to 77%. Splitting revenue by region. We see growth compared to previous year in all regions, except for the Nordics and the Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia region, the CEECA region, which both are down compared to last year. In the Nordic region, Denmark reported decreased revenue in the fourth quarter, primarily driven [Audio Gap] increased turnover and growth in revenue in the fourth quarter. The growth is mainly explained by the casino product and somewhat negatively affected by a lower Sportsbook margin in Peru compared to the corresponding period last year. The Latin America region represented 28% of the group's total revenue in the fourth quarter. Explaining the development in operating income, this picture breaks down the different components in the profit and loss statement to display the impact of the different line items. Revenue is more or less flat year-on-year, but revenue from locally regulated markets has increased and following that increased gaming taxes by some EUR 10 million, which increases cost of services provided. Apart from increased gaming taxes, cost of services provided, is also impacted by the revenue mix with somewhat higher part coming from casino, which comes with lower contribution margin than Sportsbook revenue since Sportsbook is an in-house product. We've increased casino revenue, follows then also increased license fees of some EUR 2 million in the quarter. Gross profit is also impacted by the change in revenue mix between B2C and B2B in the quarter where we, in this quarter, see a step down in B2B revenue as a percentage of total revenue. Year-on-year, gross profit decreased by EUR 16 million compared to the same period last year and amounted to EUR 184 million, which corresponds to a gross profit margin of 61% compared to 65% last year. Marketing spend decreased by EUR 3 million compared to last year and corresponds to 17% of total B2C revenue and to some 22% when including affiliate marketing costs as well. Personnel expenses increased by some EUR 7 million compared to last year, explained by increased number of employees following geographical expansion and acquisitions, increased investments in product and technology development and also impacted by some nonrecurring personnel items of a couple of millions. Depreciation and amortization costs were flat compared to last year. Other items include capitalized development costs, other external expenses and other operating income and expenses. The latter 2 are flat compared to last year. The movement in other items related to increased capitalized development costs following increased focus on product and tech development and also following the acquisition and sporting solution adding new employees within tech and product development. Overall, operating expenses have remained constant year-on-year and changes in operating income are solely coming from gross profit impact. Operating income amounts to EUR 53 million, a decrease of 24% compared to last year. The EBIT margin was 17.5% compared to 23% last year. Operating cash flow amounts to EUR 23 million compared to EUR 85 million in the same period last year. The deviation year-on-year comes from a series of independent events that have impacted the operating cash flow in the quarter. To start with, operating income has decreased, but taxes paid have increased by some EUR 13 million, partly explained by changes in government's tax collecting processes in some of the countries that Betsson operates in. Operating cash flow is also negatively impacted by changes in working capital by EUR 30 million, mainly explained by a prepaid sponsorship deal due to cost savings, higher payment provider balances due to timing effects on settlements that occurred after the end of the quarter and jackpot win in Croatia are lowering the jackpot reserves. Cash flow from investing activities sums up to EUR 28 million, where some EUR 14 million relates to investments in own product and technology development, and EUR 14 million comes from investment in new -- 2 new gaming licenses in Italy. Cash flow from financing activities impacted the cash flow by EUR 61 million, mainly driven by dividend paid to shareholders of EUR 46 million and share buybacks of EUR 13 million, but also impacted by dividend paid to noncontrolling interest, loan to associated companies and lease payments. In November, senior unsecured bonds were issued at a total amount of EUR 75 million under a framework of up to EUR 250 million. The bonds have a tenor of 4 years and a floating interest rate of Euribor 3 months plus 275 basis points. In connection with the bond issue, early voluntary redemption of the bonds in the 2023-2026 Series was offered. For those who refrain from this, a mandatory redemption was called for and remaining bonds in the 2023-2026 Series, that did not participate in the voluntary early redemption offer were redeemed in December. The issue of the new bonds and the redemption of the bonds in the 2023-2026 Series means a significant step down in interest from Euribor plus 460 basis points down to Euribor plus 275 basis points, which will lower the group's interest cost going forward. Betsson has, as end of December, a net cash position of EUR 158 million and an equity ratio of 67%. Now back to you, Pontus, to present the suggested dividend distribution and trading update.

Thank you, Martin. The cash flows of our business and our solid balance sheet allows us to continue paying out attractive dividends to our shareholders and at the same time, invest in future growth. For 2025, the Board has proposed an ordinary dividend of EUR 0.66 per share. The proposed ordinary dividend for 2025 amounts to approximately EUR 90.9 million. The dividend will be paid out in Swedish kroner in 2 parts in June and October. Now let's look at how the first quarter of 2026 has started. The average daily revenue in the first quarter up to until and including the 3rd of February has been 0.6% higher than the average daily revenue of the entire first quarter of 2025. The organic growth has been 7.7% for the same period. Thanks, everyone, for listening to the presentation. And now it's time for Q&A. We welcome your questions.

[Operator Instructions]

We have a question from the web audience about regulations. Basically, noting that taxes have increased -- gaming tax have increased and regulations are becoming stricter. How do you see the future for Betsson in a highly regulated market, are there still interesting levers to pull?

Yes, it's not a surprise that the gambling market goes into taxes once they regulate locally. That's part of the deal, and that is something that we have expected all the time. Still, we believe that there's room to run profitable operations as we can see that we do already. So we believe that Betsson has a great fit into this market also in the future.

There was another question from the web audience about consolidation taking place in the gaming sector. How do you look at this? Do you prefer to look at M&A opportunities? Are there still small, medium players to be acquired? Or do you prefer organic investments into product and technology?

That's a good question. And as we have already mentioned, we continue to invest in both technology and our organic growth. But we are still looking for M&As. And with the strong balance sheet that we have, we are in a very good position to be able to conduct the M&As. It's not thousands of companies out there that fit our needs, but once we find something that suits us, we are in a very good position to make M&A. So the answer is yes, we continue to look, and I'm sure we're going to conclude M&A.

There have been further questions from the web audience about the margins, looking at both the gross margin and the EBITDA margin in Q4? Are there one-offs? And what can we expect going forward?

I mean, the big impact on EBIT is coming from the gross profit, as we said. And on the OpEx side, we are more or less flat year-on-year. There are a few smaller one-offs in personnel costs. But all in all, OpEx is what we can expect, I believe, and gross profit, it's hard to tell going forward.

There was another question from the web audience about the B2B segment. Do you expect the share of revenue from B2B to be stable or increase or decrease going forward?

It's very hard for us to make predictions and we usually don't predict financial figures. But the only thing we can say is that as a company, we have ambitions to continue to grow our B2B business as well as our B2C business. So that's our ambition going forward.

There was another question from the web audience about prediction markets, what can you comment on that? And do you have any current plan of launching products into prediction markets?

We can say that it's a very interesting market segment that has been created in quite a short time span. We don't see that fit as well in our core markets regulations as it seems to fit in the U.S. as an example. So we have no plans to enter into that business as of now.

Yet another question from the web audience. Do you have any plans of issuing a new share buyback program after the current one is completed?

We're now into this program and we don't have any predictions to do about future share buybacks. Okay. That was it from the web questions. Let's see if we should give someone on the phone another chance. If not, then we say thank you to all the listeners for listening in to this presentation and see you next time. Bye-bye.