Third-quarter numbers are coming in with plenty of winners and very few losers. The Italian operator, Sisal wraps up the period with earnings of €459.8m (£388.7m/$518.9m) for the first nine months of 2021.
Online revenues led the parade with a jump of 90.9% over the same period last year for a take of €185.6m. Sports and other online betting outstripped casino earnings seeing a boost of more than 110%.
The overall numbers for all revenue streams were up more than 23% over the first three quarters of 2020 with previous earnings that were impacted heavily by the onset of the pandemic.
Retail Down, Online Soars
Nearly all of the company’s retail businesses suffered declines due to government-mandated lockdowns for a year-over-year drop of 25.3%. In-person betting took the biggest hit with a drop of nearly 60% to €28.8m. Fruit machines (amusement with prizes) shed 40.5% (€42.5m) and video lottery terminals saw a drop in revenue of 32.7% (€30.6m).
Tempering those declines, retail lottery sales rose some 26.5% with revenues of €94.8m.
Lotteries and bingo online were in the growth column with numbers up nearly 30% with skill games online providing a revenue rise of more than 11%
Francesco Durante, CEO of Sisal said: “Results for the third quarter of 2021 were very positive, sharply increasing compared to 2020, which had been marked by compelling challenges, but also by even greater opportunities for the whole sector,” said Francesco Durante, CEO of Sisal.
“Today’s results confirm the soundness of our choices and let us look at the market with confidence and the awareness of the excellent progress we have made on the three sustainability pillars and on digitalisation and internationalisation — the core principles of our growth strategy.”
Sisal Expands
Rather than batten down the hatches, Sisal pursued an expansion strategy in 2021 and split off its payment processing business, Mooney Group in August. In April the operator threw its hat into the ring in a bid to become the official operator of the UK’s National Lottery and has been adding game providers to their online casinos in Italy and Spain.
Lotteries in all countries but Spain showed growing numbers with most of the revenue coming from Milli Piyango, the Turkish national lottery. Their partnership with Loterie Maroc in Morroco saw earnings up nearly 95%.
The expansion strategy comes at a cost, albeit most likely temporary. Service costs for the nine months ended September 30 were up over 17% year-on-year to €200.0m.
Source:
Sisal year-to-date revenue hits €459.8m as online contribution soars, iGaming Business, November 29, 2021