Rapid Asia growth drives 36% rise in revenue for Evolution in 2022
Live casino and online slots giant highlights shortcomings in RNG segment but maintains 2022 was a “strong financial year”
Evolution has announced a 36% revenue increase for both full-year 2022 and Q4 2022, with the emergence of Asia over the last 12 months highlighted as a geographical leader.
The live casino behemoth recorded Q4 revenue of €407.5m (363.6m), up from €300.2m YoY while full-year revenue stood at €1.5bn.
Meanwhile, Q4 EBITDA increased 35% YoY to €279.5m, with the full-year figure increasing 37% to €1bn, while operating profit for the quarter amounted to €223.5m, with full-year profit of €843.4m.
The positive results sent Evolution’s shares up more that 6% to SEK1,246 at the time of writing.
Live casino took the lion’s share of the supplier’s revenue, bringing in €334.9m for Q4 while RNG reached €72.5m.
Despite a 5.1% rise in RNG revenue, CEO Martin Carlesund stated that performance on that front was “still below expectations”.
He added: “The throughput of new games remains on the softer side and as we move forward, we need to improve efficiency as well as quality in our own production.”
Asia and rest of Europe were Evolution’s top performing regions, with revenue of €136.2m and €124.4m respectively between October and December.
For comparison, the Asian market generated €90.8m revenue in Q1 2021.
Revenue from the UK stood at €22.6m, with North America taking €56.2m and the Nordics €23m.
The remainder (€45.1m) was derived from other markets, while market share in regulated markets stood at 40% for Q4 2022.
Carlesund said: “We wrapped-up a strong financial year 2022 with a very good fourth quarter. This despite the challenging market environment reflected in the war in Ukraine, rising inflation, lower consumer confidence and remaining Covid-effects on supply chains – all of which are currently impacting the recovery of the post-pandemic world economy.
“We remain firmly anchored and we continue to deliver according to our plans with the everlasting ambition to always perform better.
“As we now move into 2023 we expect an EBITDA margin in the range of 68%-71% for the full-year 2023. Given the high level of uncertainty in the world, we give a slightly wider range for our guidance compared to previous years.”
Carlesund also stated Evolution’s intention to introduce 100 new games in 2023.