Intralot Sees 2020 Revenue Drop
The main Greek lottery operator Intralot has reported its financial results for the financial year 2020. It generated a gross gaming revenue (GGR) of €292.9 million (£252.7m/$351.4m) during 2020, which represents a 14% decrease from 2019. Intralot’s overall turnover for 2020 totaled €364.8 million, down by 16.6%.
Greek lottery operator Intralot has revealed its financial results covering the financial year 2020, generating a gross gaming revenue (GGR) of €292.9 million (£252.7m/$351.4m), which represents a 14% decrease from 2019’s results. ©Michelleraponi/Pixabay
Overall Turnover Also Down for 2020
The Greek-based lottery provider Intralot has detailed its financial performance covering the financial year 2020, revealing drops in gross gaming revenue (GGR) and overall turnover despite relatively stable earnings.
The Athens-based group reported an overall gross gaming revenue (GGR) generated from continuing operations during FY20 of €292.9 million, which stands as a reduction of 14% compared to FY19’s total of €340.5 million.
Intralot’s overall turnover for the year, which accounted for amounts wagered for B2C in addition to revenue from the group’s B2B and B2G deals, was €364.8 million, which is down by 16.6%.
However, the group’s turnover from streams in Europe and the Americas increased during the same period, with Europe up by 56.2% to a total of €30.3 million, while the Americas saw an 11% turnover increase at €29.3 million. Turnover from Intralot’s remaining territories fell by 45.2%, down to €34.7 million.
Meanwhile, 60% of Intralot’s overall turnover consisted of lottery games, creating a total of €221.1 million. IT products and services contributed an additional €59.5 million, before €54 million was generated by sports betting.
The majority of the Greek group’s turnover stemmed from B2B management and tech contracts, with most of its decline in turnover due to poor performance within these verticals.
Licensed B2C Amounts Wagered Also Dropped Due to Covid-19 Pandemic
While a total of €19.3 billion was wagered worldwide via Intralot’s products and systems, showing a 1.9% increase year-on-year, the total amount wagered from Intralot’s licensed B2C operations dropped by 24.9% when compared to 2019, amounting to only €119.8 million.
The reason for this drop, according to Intralot’s most recent financial statements, is due to the impact of the ongoing coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic in such key markets as Brazil and Argentina, which saw a €21.4 million decrease, as well as Malta with an €18.3 million decrease.
Intralot’s management contracts also failed to generate as much revenue as usual, falling by a whopping 51.8% down to €33.5 million, namely due to a glaring €24 million deficit in the company’s Turkey-based operations.
Not all hope is lost, however, because Intralot’s revenue stemming from technology and support services rose by 1.5% to €211.5 million, in large part due to strong showings from its US-based operations, such as merchandise sales in Illinois, overall lottery performance, as well as a lucrative business deal in Canada in conjunction with the British Columbia Lottery Corporation (BCLC).
Meanwhile, the costs of Intralot’s sales, which include betting winnings, came to a total of €289.5 million, with an additional €102 million leaving the company in the form of expenses. Sales expenses amounted to €23.7 million, administrative expenses €73.3 million, R&D costs €2.9 million, before other expenses came out to €2.1 million.
Intralot’s gross profit sank down by 20.1% for the financial year 2020, at a total of €75.3 million, which was adjusted to €66.2 million after accounting for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA).
Therefore, Intralot Group’s overall losses after tax totaled €106.2 million, which marks only a 1.9% decrease from 2019’s results.
Intralot CEO Recognizes 2020’s Difficulties; Sees Hope Ahead in US Market
No doubt a challenging year for both Intralot and much of the physical gambling world, CEO Sokratis P. Kokkalis offered a series of statements accounting for the situation, while expressing cautious optimism for the future:
“During the financial year 2020 we faced the adverse effects and disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic, which had a significant impact on the Lottery and Sports Betting industries. This impact was only partially offset by mitigation measures, operational improvements, and cost-containment efforts.”– Sokratis P. Kokkalis, CEO, Intralot
Kokkalis highlighted emerging markets in the US as fueling much of Intralot’s focus moving forward:
“We remained focused on developed markets seeing significant growth in the US in the Lottery operations and we launched two new Sports Betting operations in Montana and Washington D.C., while we renewed significant contracts in Georgia, US as well as New Zealand, Australia and The Netherlands.”
Finally, Kokkalis reassured stakeholders that negotiations are underway to optimize the group’s capital structure: “The Company management also dedicated significant effort in negotiations with the bondholders to optimize the Capital Structure through a transaction that is expected to be completed during the first half of 2021.”
Current Intralot CEO Kokkalis Reprised Role in 2020
Greek operator and gambling supplier Intralot has seen numerous changes in management in recent years, when current CEO Sokartis P. Kokkalis returned to his once former role only as recently as November 2020.
Kokkalis replaced former executive Christos Dimitriadis, who himself only took over the role as recently as March 2020. Dimitriadis, for his part, took the opportunity to transition into a new role in which he will oversee the company’s continued expansion into the US and Canadian markets.
Slot Advertising is Restricted in Greece
In August 2020, Greek legislators passed a series of gambling reforms intended to minimize the risk of increased problem gambling posed to the public by online random number generator (RNG) games, restricting them to a time limit of three seconds between spins.
Advertisements promoting slot-based games will also be banned in places other than the website of the operator that is offering them.
Targeting online slot games in particular, these reforms legally mandate a limit to the amount of money that consumers can wager per spin, set at €2. The goals of such limits, alongside stricter rules on gambling advertising, is to reduce the incidence of dangerous gambling behavior.
