The top line – H1
- Revenues were down 4% YoY to €457.4m, AEBITDA was up 14% on constant currency to €124.1m and adjusted post-tax profits were up 1460% to €54.6m.
- Retail closures in Italy were offset by 95% revenue growth to €123.4m and 118% EBITDA growth to €51.6m for Snaitech.
- On the B2B front revenues were up 16% to €267.2m with Latin America growing strongly in Mexico with Caliente and WPlay in Colombia. Revenues from the Americas grew 106% YoY to €46.4m.
- In the US Playtech launched Parx Casino in Michigan and signed new partnerships with Scientific Games and Novomatic and progressing with its bet365 and BetMGM partnerships in New Jersey.
New and old combine: CEO Mor Weizer was clear the Americas would be the source of major new growth in the coming years and the “number 1 priority”. Mexico is its main market in the region currently, Colombia is performing well and it is highly optimistic about Brazil following its agreement signed last year with Galera Bet. The group also highlighted the “significant unrealised gains of €299.9m” it had recorded in relation to call options on its B2B agreements in Colombia and Mexico.
Italy meanwhile was “a significantly underpenetrated online market at just 20%, compared with 40% in the UK,” Weizer said. Retail outlets reopened in June and were still ~20% below 2019 levels, but online EBITDA was “higher than 2019 and 2020” and there was still room for “double-digit growth,” he added.
Timing for Italian license renewals was still uncertain. CFO Andrew Smith said they were “getting moved around all the time, the earliest is for the end of next year and maybe even 2023.”
America, America: Weizer was bullish on the US market, forecasting a B2B market worth $3bn for Playtech with OSB worth ~$825m, igaming $1.8bn and platform (PAM) $390m on revenue shares of 10-15% and 3-5% for PAM. Asked how this compared with the stated aims of the leading brands to own as much of their tech stack as possible, Weizer said Playtech was working to sign deals across all “three tiers” of operators with the market remaining fragmented as more states opt for iGaming regulation.
Operators that are focused on a limited number of states will expand and the “long-term view is that third-party providers can take share,” Weizer added. “Of course the market is dominated by DraftKings, FanDuel and others but over time it will fragment as we’ve seen in other markets.”
Everything everything: The group expects to be certified for US sports-betting in a number of states and now operates three live casino studios in the US, one in Peru and is building one in the Netherlands as part of its partnership with Holland Casino. Weizer said: “We believe we have everything we need even if we are always looking to extend that. We’re strongly positioned in OSB and SSBTs (for land-based betting), IMS for igaming and live casino. We can always refine and sharpen around the edges but the opportunity is there with an entire market up for grabs.”
