Acroud reports 43% Q2 revenue growth to all-time high as NDCs soar
Malta-based affiliate’s new depositing customers rocket by 234% but EBITDA plummets by 67%
Acroud has reported a 43% year-on-year (YoY) increase in Q2 2023 revenue to €10.3m (£8.9m).
EBITDA for the period amounted to €588,000, while adjusted EBITDA before special items affecting comparability hit €1.6m.
Profit after tax was noted as a negative return of €21.3m while earnings per share after dilution amounted to negative €0.104.
New depositing customers (NDCs) reached an all-time high of 117,365, an increase of 234%.
During the quarter, Acroud received bondholders’ approval in the written procedure on 27 June 2023, which lowered its debt excluding the bond from €26m to €6.5m. This move also reduced short-term cash outflow from just over €6m to approximately €2.5m.
Transactions during the quarter included a settlement of the PMG Group earn-out, which reduced short-term commitment from €4.5m to €2.5m. The earn-out is a result of the deal that concluded at the end of January 2021, which saw Acroud complete the acquisition of PMG’s igaming assets which included Matching Visions.
The firm sold 9% of its shares in Acroud Media, reducing contingent liabilities by €13.5m. The affiliate also had an equity injection of SEK22m (£1.6m).
On the firm’s performance during the quarter, Robert Andersson, CEO and president of Acroud, said: “Q2 2023 marked a new all-time high for both revenues and NDCs. The quarter’s results showed weaker margins, partly due to increased investments in the media business and one-off costs incurred during the quarter, amounting to €1.03m.”
Andersson went on to speak about other actions the firm had taken to cut costs: “We have also implemented further cost savings in our old core business, where we have now moved the operations and development of our casino products to a team with whom we have previously cooperated successfully.
“The reason for this is that our own casino products have seen a continuous decline in revenues over the last five years, and we have not been able to reverse the trend despite the various attempted leadership and strategy changes. So, based on this, we decided it was time for a drastic change, a change where no ‘legacy’ and sacred cows burden the way of thinking.
“As a result of this, we are lowering our operating costs while giving our partners a clear incentive to grow our casino sites since they share in the profitability increases. We expect to see the result of this and the investments in the media business during Q4 2023 and onwards. The fact that our old core business has been performing so poorly for a long time has also led us to the decision to impair goodwill by a further €20m.”
Andersson concluded with how these decisions will affect the firm going forward. He said: “Following the mentioned decisions that have been taken in this quarter, we have now ‘cleaned up’ and look forward to taking the company forward and upwards from this platform.”