Global Gaming has seen fourth quarter and full-year revenues take a significant tumble as group CEO Tobias Fagerlund reasserts a previous message of looking to a bright future.
Following Ninja Casino’s licence revocation in 2019 the company has seen a number of appeals fall by the wayside, however events after the quarter saw the Administrative Court of Appeal grant the firm a review permit.
This was followed by the Swedish gambling authority rejecting an application by Viral Interactive to resurrect the Ninja Casino brand within the online market.
Revenue during the final quarter for Global Gaming decreased 76 per cent to SEK 57.5m (2018: SEK 236.4m), with a 55 per cent full year drop finishing at SEK 412.1 (2018: SEK 915.9m).
“Sweden is still important to us and we regret that the Swedish Gambling Authority recently rejected Viral Interactive’s application to add the domain ninjacasino.se to its offer. We do not share the Swedish Gambling Authority’s assessment and, to say the least, find the motivation strange,” Fagerlund stressed.
“More important and more gratifying is that our appeal of the Swedish Gambling Authority’s decision to revoke our subsidiary SafeEnt’s licenses for the Swedish market has been granted review permit in the Administrative Court of Appeal. We look forward with confidence and excitement to the decision of the Administrative Court of Appeal, which we believe will be announced in the coming months.”
The company has also had to pull the plug on a previously announced sportsbook collaboration with Kambi, due to the uncertainty surrounding a potential Swedish launch. It is emphasised however that a “comprehensive” sportsbook offering is to debut ahead of this summer’s European championships.
Gross profit for Global Gaming during Q4 also saw a sharp decline to SEK 37m, representing a 74 per cent drop from SEK 142.6m, with full-year figures plunging 60 per cent from SEK 553.2 to SEK 221.3m.
Operating profit swung from a SEK 18m gain in 2018’s final quarter to a loss of SEK 26.6m in 2019, with full-year losses finishing at SEK118.7m from a profit of SEK 148.6m.
Maintaining the confidence evident in his previous CEO’s address, Fagerlund reassured: “During the period, our efforts to create the conditions to succeed with our short and long term goals have continued unabated.
“We have completed the technical migration to Finnplay’s platform, fine-tuned a partially new and much smaller organisation, regained control of our costs and – not least – internally anchored, launched and started delivering according to the ambitious road-map that followed this autumn’s extensive strategy work.”
Adding: “There is a good bit left for us before we have recovered from the 2019 setbacks and certainly there is much that can go against us. My most important message now, given the difficult starting position, is that there is a lot that goes well.
“We firmly believe that the processes we control ourselves go according to plan and we firmly believe that when we sum up in 2020 in a year, it is something quite different from the year we have now left behind. We believe in what we do!”
