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indred Group released its interim report for the third quarter, also including results for the first nine months of the year.
Gross winnings revenue amounted to GBP 280.7 million (USD 331.5 M) during Q3, an increase of 24 percent as compared to the same period of the prior year. Underlying EBITDA was GBP 74.6 million, up from 37.3 million.
The company reported a net debt position of GBP 2.2 million, improved from GBP 61.0 million at the end of the second quarter. The number of active customers was at an all-time high of 1,650,153, an increase from 1,384,416 in Q3 2019.
Henrik Tjärnström, CEO of Kindred Group, noted that with the return of major sports leagues across the world, and the ongoing shift from offline to online, the company’s active customer base grew by 19 percent compared to the same period last year.
He highlighted a “strong growth in regulated markets combined with continued cost focus.” He said the finalization of the previous season’s sports leagues combined with the start of the new season resulted in a strong sportsbook activity, though with a slightly lower sportsbook margin of just over 8 percent for the quarter.
The firm said 61 percent of its revenues were derived from locally regulated markets, which achieved annual growth in gross winnings revenue of 31 percent.
“The US is a key investment market where our team have been working hard to go live in our third state, Indiana, during the quarter,” Tjärnström continued. “We are now pushing forward to launch in Illinois and Iowa in 2021, along with more states in the pipeline. It is encouraging to see the continued strong growth in the US, with the market share in Pennsylvania reaching above 5 percent during the third quarter. With New Jersey and Indiana also growing steadily, I expect the US to become one of Kindred’s largest markets during the next couple of years. As with all market entries, the initial investment phase is focused on building our customer base and, as a result, the US market has seen revenue negatively impacted by big bonus campaigns during the second half of the quarter, but still grew 22 percent sequentially.”
The CEO also provided a trading update. For the period 1 October to 3 November 2020 average gross winnings revenue in GBP was 42 percent higher (38 percent in constant currency) and active customers was 18 percent higher than for the same period last year. “We saw continued strong activity in sportsbook and casino and the sports betting margin was approximately 2 percentage points higher than in 2019,” he concluded.
See full Kindred Group’s Interim report January – September 2020 here.
