Revenue was up 9.4% compared to Q1 2023. Elias Mark, chief financial officer of Gambling.com Group, noted that the revenue growth was in spite of specific growth opportunities available in Q1 2023.
“By growing year on year in every one of our geographic reporting markets, we delivered record Q1 revenue with top line growth of 9% despite the comparable period benefiting from significantly more new state launch activity,” he said.
During Q1 last year, Gambling.com entered into a multi-year strategic partnership with US media group Gannett Co. This agreement saw Gambling.com make use of Gannett’s presence across the US.
Remarking on Q1 2024, Charles Gillespie, CEO and co-founder of Gambling.com Group, noted that Gambling.com’s prior investments were showing dividends.
“The investments we have made for years in our proprietary technology, website portfolio, and accretive acquisitions are driving consistent growth,” he said. “As we continue to expand our industry leadership and influence across global online gambling markets and leverage the many growth drivers we have, we see a clear road ahead to generate substantially higher Adjusted EBITDA and Free Cash Flow.”
During Q1, Gambling.com secured a $50.0m credit facility. This consisted of a $25.0m revolving credit facility and a $25.0m term loan facility. Additionally, the company delivered 107,000 new depositing customers and launched in North Carolina, which went live with online sports betting on 11 March.
Other Europe revenue surges in Q1
Looking at Gambling.com’s operations by market, its Other Europe segment saw revenue jump 39.3% to $3.8m. Revenue for its Rest of World segment was up 29.2% yearly.
The North America and UK and Ireland segments rose similarly. UK and Ireland hit $8.9m in revenue, up 4.6%, while North America revenue grew 4.7% to $14.8m.
By monetisation type, performance marketing generated the highest amount of revenue by far, accounting for $23.3m. The advertising and other segment accounted for $3.8m in revenue, up by 26.5%, and subscription and content syndication was up 5.1% to $1.9m.
Over to product type and Gambling.com’s Casino segment generated $19.8m in revenue, up 16.0%. However, the Sports and Other saw declines. For Sports, revenue dipped 0.6% to $9.1m and in the Other segment, revenue was down a significant 37.0% to $268,000.
Expenses cause decline in operating profit
Cost of sales for the quarter came to $2.2m, an increase of 125.3% year-on-year. This left gross profit at $26.9m, an improvement of 5.0% yearly.
Looking at other costs, sales and marketing expenses were the highest of the quarter at $9.6m. This was followed by general and administrative expenses at $6.3m and technology expenses at $3.2m. After considering $40,000 in movements in credit losses allowance, the operating profit totalled at $7.8m, a dip of 3.2%.
Finance income rocketed to $944,000 from $100,000 in Q1 2023. This was offset slightly by $454,000 in finance expenses, bringing the profit before tax to $8.3m, up 7.6%.
Following an income tax charge of $1.0m – largely similar to Q1 2023 – the net profit for the quarter was $7.2m, a rise of 10.6%.
Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $10.2m, marking a decline of 4.8% year-on-year.
Adjusted yearly projections
Off the back of its first quarter results, Gambling.com lowered its 2024 revenue and Adjusted EBITDA guidance today (16 May). The new guidance estimates FY revenue of $118m – $122m, compared to the initial $129m – $133m projection for FY24 made on 21 March 2024.
Adjusted EBITDA is now expected to fall between $40m and $44m, instead of the previously announced $44m to $48m. Gambling.com said the amounts were lowered due to changes in how Google treats commercial content on high authority websites. The affiliate said that this “diminishes the effectiveness of the company’s media partnerships”.
Gillespie said that Gambling.com’s operations will allow it to meet these targets in 2024.
“Even with these shifts in the digital landscape, the strength and resilience of our business will enable us to deliver strong year over year Adjusted EBITDA and Free Cash Flow growth,” he continued. “With less competition in the search engine results pages, our owned and operated assets are better positioned for the long term than ever before.”