The beginning of its tenure as UK National Lottery operator was understandably the highlight of the year for Allwyn, which has confirmed revenue growth of 12% for 2024.
The multinational lottery group previously released an unaudited financial report for the full 2024 trading year as well as Q4, and has essentially confirmed all these figures in a new update.
Group-wide 2024 revenue was up 12% from €7.9bn to €8.8bn alongside adjusted EBITDA growth of 4% from €1.5bn to €1.54bn. This performance was replicated in Q4, with revenue 10% to €2.4bn (€2.2bn), GGR was up 10% to €2.3bn (€2.1bn), and adjusted EBITDA was up 12% to €437m (€388m).
“I am pleased to report that 2024 was another year of solid financial performance and strategic progress, as we continued to execute our growth strategies successfully,” said Robert Chvatal, Allwyn CEO.
Last year was a transformative one for Allwyn in more ways than one. Firstly was the start of the group’s 10-year stewardship of the UK National Lottery, awarded to it in 2022 by the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) after a licensing contest.
This was met with a legal challenge from Camelot UK, which had been the sole operator of the lottery since its first draw in 1994. Eventually, this was settled and Allwyn ultimately bought out Camelot UK and the Camelot Lottery Systems technology group.
As well as starting this monumental task, the company later secured terms to acquire a 51% stake in Novibet, a major Greek betting company. Another purchase saw a 70% stake in online instant in games developer Instant Win Gaming (IWG) in September.
The company has acknowledged that these developments have had a ‘significant impact on the consolidated metrics of the group’ and so reported some consolidated financial results excluding its UK, North America, technology and content operations.
These results saw revenue rise 8% from €4.2bn to €4.6bn, while adjusted EBITDA was up 27% from €1.2bn to €1.5bn. Similarly to their group-wide results, GGR rose 8% to €4.4bn (€4bn).
Summarising the Novibet and IWG purchases, Chvatal said: “Both transactions are in line with our strategy of making selective acquisitions in relevant products, technologies and content to support future growth. During the year we also saw a small increase in our interest in OPAP, as a result of its share buyback programme.”