Italy’s Lottomatica Group has reported its best first fiscal quarter to date, raking in €1.2bn in GGR and solidifying its domestic leadership position.
Total GGR went up 21% compared to the previous corresponding period (pcp), carried by strong market share across online at 30.4% (+1.6 p.p. YoY), iSports at 31.8% (+0.9 p.p.), and iGaming at 30.3% (+2.1 p.p.).
Domestic quarterly bets went up 28% YoY for a total amount of €11.2bn (Q1’24: €8.7m).
By segment, online bets reached a value of €7.4bn, climbing to 46% compared to the previous corresponding period (Q1’24: €5bn). Sports bets were up 27% YoY for a total value of €1bn (Q1’24: €822m), although gaming bets went down 3% to €2.8bn (Q1’24: €2.9bn).
Revenues
Q1 revenues stood at €586m, which represented a 33% increase from Q1’24 (€440m).
Online was once again the leading segment with a total revenue of €239.8m, up 59% from the €150.4m in the first quarter of 2024.
Sports revenue had the same growth capped at 59%, going up to €150.4m from the €94.4m in last year’s first quarter. Gaming revenue was level in both corresponding periods, reaching €196mn in Q1’25 (Q1 2024: €195m).
The total €586m revenue included a €1.2m in revenues from Cristaltec Group – an Italian developer of gaming machines and software that was acquired by Lottomatica in 2024.
Adjusted EBITDA
Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter stood at €220.5m, which constituted a 47% increase from last year’s Q1 (€150m). Margin was equal to 37.7% on revenues, compared to 34% in Q1’24.
By segment, online led once again with an Adjusted EBITDA of €128m and an Adj EBITDA margin of 53.6%, compared to €83m and 55.1% for last year’s first quarter. The segment was up 55% YoY.
Sports Franchise recorded Adj EBITDA of €46m with a margin of 30.4%, compared to the €20m and 20.9% in Q1 2024. This contributed to a positive difference of 132%.
Adjusted EBITDA for the group’s Gaming Franchise was down 1%, however, bringing in €46m and 23.7% margin by the end of March compared to the €47m and 24% from last year’s Q1.
Returning value to shareholders
Thanks to the strong quarterly performance, Lottomatica will launch a share buy-back programme starting June for a maximum period of 18 months to remunerate shareholders.
This year’s record quarter builds on what has been a record FY2024 overall for Gruppo Lottomatica, managing to surpass shareholder expectations with Adjusted EBITDA of €739m by 31 December.
This was accompanied by GGR of more than €2bn for the full 2024 – which compared to the performance in this year’s first quarter signals a serious commercial growth in the months ahead.
Guglielmo Angelozzi, CEO of Lottomatica, commented: “Market trends support our organic growth path and we feel confident in the strength of our business, even against the current macroeconomic environment.”