EQS-News: bet-at-home.com AG: group company figures for 2023 (01.01.2023 until 31.12.2023)

CORPORATE NEWS

bet-at-home.com AG: group company figures for 2023 (01.01.2023 until 31.12.2023)

Düsseldorf, March 6, 2024. The bet-at-home.com AG Group (hereinafter also referred to as "BaH Group") announces its full-year 2023 IFRS financial results.

Major developments in the financial year 2023

In February 2023, after months of preparation, the Malta-licensed offering of bet-at-home.com Internet Ltd was outsourced to the external service provider EveryMatrix Holding plc. The outsourcing of the Germany-licensed offering to www.bet-at-home.de was successfully completed in October 2023.

The BaH Group henceforth concentrates its internal development and operation solely on those customer- and revenue-relevant components that cannot be sourced externally, or can only be done so insufficiently. The increased operational focus is made on efficient and effective customer management and marketing.

The reduction in internal complexity and resource requirements associated with the increased outsourcing has resulted in lower IT costs and positively impacted the BaH Group’s financial performance. This strategic reorientation will continue to form the basis for a lean and cost-efficient organisational structure in the future.

The Group’s performance in previous financial years was significantly impacted by the situation, when Austrian and German customers with the support of litigation financiers claimed their gambling losses back from the Group’s companies in court. Due to the favourable case law to date, statutory provisions on limitations and far-reaching settlement solutions, potential legal risks in Austria can now be classified as significantly lower. In Germany, there is still legal uncertainty, due to inconsistent case law. From today’s perspective it is therefore difficult to predict further developments. The Management Board endeavours to reduce potential risks further through the active risk management and successful litigations.

Revenue development in the financial year 2023

Gross betting and gaming revenue in the financial year 2023 amounted to EUR 46,176 thousand and falls thus within the forecast range adjusted in October 2023 (previous year: EUR 53,532 thousand). The major reasons for the revenue decline were the imposition of cross-product and cross-provider monthly betting limits in Germany effective from mid-2022, the regulatory obligation to report increased deposit limits starting from the second quarter of 2023, as well as losses from migration of customers from the own “.com” and “.de” platforms to the new system of EveryMatrix.   

Gross revenue from online sports betting (less paid out winnings) in 2023 amounted to EUR 42,339 thousand, which is below the previous year’s level (previous year: EUR 49,068 thousand).

Gross revenue from online gaming (less paid out winnings) decreased by EUR 627 thousand compared to the previous year, to EUR 3,837 thousand (previous year: EUR 4,464 thousand). Online gaming segment includes mainly slots for the German market.

Taking into consideration betting taxes and gambling levies, as well as VAT on electronic supplied services, net gaming revenue in the financial year 2023 amounted to EUR 36,090 thousand (previous year: EUR 42,036 thousand).

Earnings development in the financial year 2023

Advertising expenses in the financial year 2023, amounting to EUR 17,029 thousand, were higher than in the previous year (previous year: EUR 13,628 thousand), which is attributable to intensified marketing of the company’s brand with a large-scale advertising campaign and numerous bonus promotions before the start of the football season 2023/2024.

Personnel expenses in the financial year 2023 reduced to EUR 8,653 thousand (previous year: EUR 13,508 thousand) as a result of the headcount reduction in 2022.

Other operating expenses were at EUR 12,615 thousand (previous year: EUR 16,242 thousand), which is below the level posted in 2022, resulting from a decrease in legal and consulting fees associated with bet-at-home.com Entertainment Ltd. (in Liquidation), which was deconsolidated in the previous year, as well as lower costs for information services and software maintenance.

As a result, EBITDA in 2023 amounted to EUR 807 thousand and was below the same period of previous year but in the upper range of the initially announced forecast for the financial year 2023 (previous year: EUR 2,105 thousand).

Consolidated net income in the financial year 2023 amounted to EUR -1,505 thousand (previous year: EUR 11,907 thousand).

EBITDA before special items[*] as an alternative performance measure (non-IFRS measure), which was introduced in 2023 as a new control parameter, amounted to EUR 2,361 thousand in the financial year 2023 (previous year: EUR 4,361 thousand). In the financial year 2023 for the calculation of EBITDA before special items, expenses for legal cases/ customer claims in the amount of EUR 2,692 thousand (previous year: EUR 4,781 thousand) were added to EBITDA and income from reversals of impairment losses in the amount of EUR 1,138 thousand (previous year: EUR 2,524 thousand) was extracted from EBITDA.  

Asset and capital structure as of December 31, 2023

The Group’s consolidated equity as of December 31, 2023 totalled EUR 27,444 thousand (December 31, 2022: EUR 28,949 thousand). The decline resulted from the consolidated net income in 2023 in the amount of EUR -1,505 thousand. The consolidated equity ratio increased to 48.3% (December 31, 2022: 46.2%).

Cash and cash equivalents within the bet-at-home.com AG Group amounted to EUR 34,645 thousand as of December 31, 2023 (December 31, 2022: EUR 35,327 thousand).

The combined management report and the consolidated financial statements of the BaH Group for the financial year 2023 will be published on April 8, 2024 at https://www.bet-at-home.ag/de/financial-figures/download/.

Outlook for the financial year 2024

In the financial year 2024, the strategic transformation will be continued. In terms of technology, the focus of in-house development is made on the creation and introduction of an innovative customer loyalty programme based on real-time data processing and machine learning. Continuous investment in the internal data platform enables to increasingly automate core value creation processes and constantly increase their efficiency. In close cooperation with EveryMatrix, the online casino and sports betting product as well as the customer platform are being constantly improved and adapted to the customer needs and legal requirements of the German-speaking markets.

Due to a high level of awareness and acceptance of the "bet-at-home" brand in the core markets of Germany and Austria, the BaH Group aims to further expand its market position in the sports betting segment in the financial year 2024. Targeted marketing measures are planned in this respect. Particular attention will be paid to the first half of 2024, especially to the start of the European Football Championship 2024, which will take place in the core market of Germany. The Management Board expects the upcoming European Football Championship to provide positive impetus for business development.

As a result of extensive initiatives and supported by the European Football Championship 2024, the Management Board expects the following revenue and earnings results: 

• Gross betting and gaming revenue: EUR 45 million to EUR 53 million

• EBITDA before special items[*]: EUR -1 million to EUR 2.5 million

About bet-at-home.com AG

The bet-at-home.com AG Group is active in the domain of online sports betting and online gaming. With 5.7 million registered customers, the company (which is listed on the Frankfurt stock exchange in the Prime Standard segment) represents together with its subsidiaries, one of the largest providers in Europe. The bet-at-home.com AG Group has companies in Germany, Austria, Malta and Gibraltar. The bet-at-home.com AG Group holds various licenses via its Maltese companies for online sports betting and online gambling. These licences authorise the company to organise and to sell online sports betting and online casinos in Germany as well as in other countries of the European Union. bet-at-home is certified according to ISO/IEC 27001:2013 for all Group companies in Germany, Austria and Malta.

Since 2009, bet-at-home.com AG has been part of the Betclic Everest SAS Group, a French group specialising in online gambling and online sports betting. FL Entertainment N.V. holds the majority of shares and voting rights in bet-at-home.com AG via Betclic Everest SAS. The bet-at-home.com AG Group is therefore included in the consolidated financial statements of FL Entertainment N.V., which are disclosed on a regular basis on the dates specified in the FL Entertainment N.V. financial calendar.

Forward-looking statements

This publication contains forward-looking statements. These are based on the current assumptions and forecasts of the Management Board of bet-at-home.com AG as well as on the information currently available. The forward-looking statements are not to be understood as binding predictions or guarantees that the future developments and results mentioned therein will occur. Future developments and results depend on a variety of factors; they involve various risks and uncertainties and are based on assumptions that may not prove to be accurate. Known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors could lead to material differences between the forward-looking statements made here and the actual development of bet-at-home.com AG Group, in particular its results, financial position and business. The risk factors include, in particular, the factors contained in the respective forecast, opportunity and risk report. The forecast, opportunity and risk report is part of the respective combined management report, which is included in the respective annual report. The annual reports are available at: https://www.bet-at-home.ag/de/financial-figures/download/. Beyond the statutory requirements, the company assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements made in this announcement.

Other financial information – EBITDA before special items as an alternative performance measure

The financial information included in this press release is prepared in accordance with the actual financial reporting standards. In addition to the information and key measures required therein, the BaH Group discloses in the financial year 2023 for the first time an EBITDA before special items as an alternative performance measure (Alternative Performance Measures = APM), which is not included in these reporting standards and for which there is no generally accepted reporting standard (non-IFRS measure). Although the data has been extracted or derived from the consolidated financial statements, neither this data nor the underlying assumptions have been audited or reviewed. This key measure should therefore only be regarded as supplementary information. EBITDA before special items represents the Group's operating result before special effects, i.e. the Group's result adjusted for special expenses and special income (i.e. effects that are special in terms of their nature and amount for management of the Group). Special items may include restructuring, legal cases in connection with customer claims, as well as closures or disposals of parts of the company.

The EBITDA before special items calculated in this manner applies to all periods and is used both internally to manage the business and externally to assess the performance and efficiency of the BaH Group starting 2023.

Contact

Investor Relations

+49 211 179 34 770

ir@bet-at-home.com

www.bet-at-home.ag

^[*] For the definition of the non-IFRS performance measure of „EBITDA before special items“ refer to the Section “Other financial information – EBITDA before special items as an alternative performance measure” of this press release  

^[*] For the definition of the non-IFRS performance measure of „EBITDA before special items“ refer to the Section “Other financial information – EBITDA before special items as an alternative performance measure” of this press release