Sports betting services provider Kambi Group has shared its financial report for the fourth quarter of 2022. Revenue in the three-month period amounted to €57.8 million ($60.9 million), up 66% from Q4 2021, including a €12.6 million termination fee from PENN Entertainment. The company has also shared its results for the full year of 2022, with revenue for the twelve-month period amounting to €166 million ($175 million), slightly above the €162 million posted in 2021.
Operating profit (EBIT) for the fourth quarter of 2022 was €18.7 million ($19.7 million), up 164% from €7.1 million the previous year, at a margin of 32.3%; but full-year 2022 operating profit declined by 39% year-over-year to €34.8 million ($36.7 million). Profit after tax for Q4 increased by 148% Y-o-Y to €15.1 million ($15.9 million), while full-year 2022 profit after tax declined by 43% to €26.5 million ($27.9 million).
“The year finished with a flourish with the business delivering across several key areas, providing the perfect springboard into 2023. Operator turnover continues to rise with Q4 turnover up 20% year-on-year and 43% sequentially, buoyed by a busy US sporting calendar,” said Kambi CEO Kristian Nylén.
The soccer World Cup was also an important event for Kambi during the period. Overall, player engagement was deemed as “excellent” by management, with the WC final providing “the highest turnover for a soccer game in Kambi’s history.” However, the trade-off was a significant reduction in domestic soccer fixtures as top leagues took a mid-season break.
Nylén noted that a WC highlight was the strength of the company’s product, driven by Kambi’s third-gen algorithmic trading capability. “This new method of trading automation has been in development for a few years, with the World Cup providing us with the perfect opportunity to stress-test it at scale and we couldn’t have been happier with its performance,” he said.
Powering the entire pre-match offering, this proprietary capability leverages the full power of data to deliver “an even greater product, with more betting opportunities presented to the player in a quick and cost-efficient way,” according to Kambi.
Since the World Cup, the business has fully automated the pre-match pricing to deliver a World Cup standard product “across many of the top domestic leagues” and will continue the rollout across the year “to realize more of its benefits, including the automation of in-play pricing.”
As for other Q4 highlights, just days after the World Cup final, the provider signed a partnership agreement with Rei do Pitaco, the largest fantasy sports operator in Brazil. “I have high hopes for this partnership, having seen the impact fantasy sports databases can have when transitioned to regulated sports betting,” Nylén stated.
Additionally, the agreement also strengthens Kambi’s position in Latin America, where the group claims to have already taken the leadership position in Colombia, and as it continues to expand in Argentina, adding a further four provinces during the quarter.
“Looking back on the full year, it was one where Kambi was able to make significant strategic progress, whether it was securing partnership extensions with Kindred and Parx, the numerous new partners we signed, the leap forward in our UX capability through the acquisition of Shape Games, the continued modularisation of our service to increase our addressable market or the development of our algorithmic trading capability,” added Kambi’s CEO.
All these achievements have seen the group enter 2023 “in a fantastic position,” one which Kambi says was quickly strengthened by an extended partnership agreement with Rush Street Interactive in January. “The global economic outlook might be uncertain, but we have a proven, robust business, one which is ready to meet any challenges that lie ahead,” concluded Nylén. “We are ready to build towards the financial targets we’ve set ourselves for the coming years.”
