Kambi freezes recruitment and trims executive pay in Covid-19 cost-saving measures

Sports betting supplier Kambi has announced a range of cost-saving measures to soften the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

Covid-19 has halted the global sporting calendar, significantly reducing the revenue of sports betting businesses since mid-March.

Updating investors, Kambi reported a level of sporting activity over the last three weeks driving revenues in the range of 25%-30% of those in Q4 2019. Q4 revenue amounted to €26.7m ($29m)

Kambi has since implemented a cost-saving program across the whole business, including a substantial reduction in data, travel and marketing costs, as well as a freeze on recruitment.

The Malta-registered supplier has also applied for the financial support packages made available by the Swedish and UK governments to protect existing jobs.

Kambi board members have further agreed to a 20% salary deferral, while that figure drops to 15% for chief executive Kristian Nylén and 10% for executive management.

“Kambi is conscious of its duty to protect the company, its staff, partners and investors at all times, but particularly during a period of such uncertainty,” said Nylén. “The cost-saving measures we are announcing today enable us to do just that for a significant period of time.

“Kambi is a technology company powered by skilled and experienced people, all of whom have helped establish Kambi as the global market leader, and who will be pivotal to us pushing on further in the coming years.

“Therefore, it is in Kambi’s long-term interests to retain these staff while also reducing our costs, including payroll, and I firmly believe we have found the right balance in order to achieve this goal,” he added.

Despite the impact of Covid-19 on the sporting calendar in the last two weeks of Q1, Kambi is expecting solid first quarter revenue of around $30.4m, with cash balance around $51m.