Sky Bet & Gaming annual report
The Stars Group Inc has reported its financial results for 2018 being boastful about what had been achieved in only a year’s time. Rafi Ashkenazi went on to call it a landmark year on account of the dynamic series of events that shaped the Stars Group the way it looks now, the most prominent of which was the acquisition of Sky Bet.
Sky Bet released their annual fiscal report © Pexels.
Richard Flint, Sky Betting & Gaming CEO, underlined that the fiscal year 2018 was yet another year marked by strong growth. Revenue went up, said Flint, and adjusted EBITDA increase hit the 43 per cent mark, or in other words – £209.
Satisfactory business metrics and expanding customer base ensued due to the pro-active customer acquisition policy of the company, Sky Bet’s CEO believes. He also mentioned that the excellent results were supplemented by the new sports betting-friendly reforms. In spite of the shift on emphasis, Richard Flint states that forward thinking and leadership was the key factor to reaffirm the company’s position as the UK’s most popular gambling and betting operator.
It was another year of strong growth, with our revenues up 30% – Richard Flint, Sky Betting & Gaming Ltd CEO
Sky Bet year-on-year net win margins evaluation
Q3 2017 brought the company a 25% revenue growth, in the wake of a solid football season start. En route to the end of 2017, Sky Bet’s revenue climbed to 71% in the light of auspicious turn of events regarding the sporting results. Going into Q1 2018 on the heels of a hugely unfavourable Q4, Sky Bet’s customers were reluctant to stake big bets. Ian Proctor, Chief Financial Officer of Sky Betting & Gaming says that customers tend to deposit less money in their accounts during that period. Overall, this had a rippling effect on the stake sizes and gaming revenues – a trend that continued in Q2.
In Q2 2018 Sky Betting & Gaming’s revenue growth was no way near the one reported for 2017, with the shaky 15%. 2018 went down in the fiscal history of the company with betting stakes size going down by 4% in relation to the previous year. Although Q2 2018 included the first two weeks of the World Cup, Manchester City romping in seriously compromised the sports betting revenue rate. Thus, bet revenue was up 18% and Gaming revenue growth coming at only 8%. Almost identical results to Q1 2018, determined to an extent by the company’s safer gambling policies and a decline in betting money investment.
Ian Proctor explains the volatility in Q2 2018 with the profile of an average Sky Bet customer, which exemplifies the recreational, low-spending punter who likes to bet on popular outcomes. This means that a significant number of favourites winning their matches would normally result in a margin drop. Conversely, consecutive unexpected outcomes usually raise the margin. Nevertheless, through its odds scraping history, Sky Bet specialists have observed relatively consistent sports betting margins, which reveals an efficient bookmaker model. That about summarizes Sky Bet’s annual report for 2018 and provides answers to the question of whether the Stars Group governance was beneficial for the company or not.
