ZEAL Network SE lauds company growth as revenues rise in Q3

ZEAL Network SE lauds company growth as revenues rise in Q3
Image: Shutterstock

German online lottery provider ZEAL Network SE has highlighted the ‘resilience’ of the lottery market after reporting a 14% rise in revenues over the nine-month period ended September 30.

The group achieved €74.5m in revenues between January 1 – September 30, 2022, an increase of €9.4m on last year’s figure of €65.1m achieved over the same period.

ZEAL also increased its transaction volume by 10% in the first nine months of 2022, moving from €493.2m in 2021 to €544.4m.

Meanwhile, the firm’s board of directors recently approved a public buyback offer for up to 714.285 shares of the company, corresponding to up to around 3.2% of the share capital.

“We are proud of our continued growth trajectory, which proves that we have also taken the right measures in the first nine months of 2022 to improve even further both in terms of customers and results,” says Jonas Mattsson, CFO of ZEAL.

“With the share buyback offer, we want to further optimise the capital structure of ZEAL Network SE.

“In addition, we look forward to continuing to make our products accessible to more and more new target groups through targeted partnerships, thus systematically further expanding our reach.”

The number of bigger jackpots reverted to statistical average in Q1-Q3, further emphasising the improved market environment for lotteries in Germany.

This helped ZEAL to accelerate its new customer growth; in the first nine months of 2022, the German lottery provider acquired 501,000 registered new customers (Q1-Q3 2021: 446,000).

Personnel expenses also decreased slightly year-on-year to €13.9m (Q1-Q3 2021: €14.5m), whereas other operating expenses increased only slightly year-on-year to €40.6m (Q1-Q3 2021: €33.2m) despite the ‘intense’ marketing activities.

EBITDA thus increased by 25% to €22m (2021: €17.6m). EBIT and net profit for the period were also significantly higher than the previous year’s figures at €15.5m and €12.1m (2021: €11.1m and €7.3m) respectively.

Looking ahead, ZEAL has forecast a billings volume of at least €750m, based on an average jackpot development, resulting in a higher growth rate than in the previous year. Its billings in Q3 2022 was €186.1m.

Additionally, ZEAL forecasts revenue of at least €105m in fiscal year 2022. For adjusted EBITDA, ZEAL expects at least €30m.