Global Gaming upbeat despite 75% plunge in Q4 2019 revenue

Global Gaming has revealed a 75% year-on-year drop in its revenues for Q4 2019, with the embattled operator’s revenues falling to SEK57.5m (£48.1m) in the final three months of the year.

Operating profits slumped from SEK18m in Q4 2018 to an operating loss of SEK26.6m (£22.2m) during the fourth quarter of 2019 as well as a profit after tax drop to a loss of SEK31.6m (£26.4m) during Q4.

Global Gaming full year 2019 revenues dropped by 55% year-on-year from a 2018 high of SEK915.9m to SEK412.1m (£345.4m) during 2019.

Full year 2019 operating profits dropped from SEK148.6m in 2018 to a loss of SEK118.7m (£99.4m).

It has been a turbulent year for the Global Gaming business, with the operator losing its Swedish licence in July, coupled with a subsequent lengthy legal dispute with the Swedish Gambling Authority.

Following the revocation, Global Gaming inked a marketing-led agreement with fellow operator Finnplay to launch a new brand Nano Casino under its Viral Interactive subsidiary licence.

However, the SGA has recently said it would not accept the application to add Global Gaming’s Ninja Casino brand to the Viral interactive licence, claiming it was “highly inappropriate” to do so.

Despite all the issues with the business in 2019, Global Gaming CEO Tobias Fagerlund told shareholders that the business looked “brighter at the future than we have done in as many months”.

“In the short term, 2020, our goal is, all else being equal, to once again be a lucrative and profitable company. Our first intermediate goal is to be at least break-even again in the first half of the year and then to deliver continuously increasing black numbers,” Fagerlund added.

The chief exec confirmed Global Gaming will look to launch a “comprehensive” sportsbook offering in its existing Estonian and Finnish markets ahead of the UEFA Euro 2020 football tournament which takes place this summer.

In addition to confirming the sportsbook plans, Fagerlund cited reducing financial commitments in 2020, as well as a reduction in its technical lead in times, as being reasons for optimism.

Fagerlund also confirmed Global Gaming aims to consolidate and strengthen its existing positions in the firm’s existing Estonian and Finnish operations. The group’s contentious Ninja Casino brand will also be launched in several new markets during 2020.

“There is a good bit left for us before we have recovered from the 2019 setbacks and certainly there is much that can go against us.

“We firmly believe that the processes we control ourselves will go according to plan and we firmly believe that when we sum up 2020 in a year, it is something quite different from the year we have now left behind,” he added.