Growth for operators and suppliers serving the Scandinavian markets continues amid the economic downturn. After Net Entertainment A.B. and Unibet reported significant third-quarter gains year on year, so too have Betsson A.B. and Entraction Holding A.B.
"Some people have stated that the Nordic markets are matured, but I think there's a lot more revenue to be taken," Pontus Lindwall, the chief executive of Betsson, said at an analyst presentation today in Stockholm.
Revenue for Betsson rose 52 percent to 252 million Swedish kronor against the previous-year period. Gross profits, 204.2 million Swedish kronor, rose 48 percent.
Its core casino product generated 126.9 million Swedish kronor in gross profits, up 76 percent over last year, which offset a year-on-year loss of 28 percent in poker. Poker gross profits, which came in at 36.8 million Swedish kronor for the third quarter, were, however, up 3.9 percent, sequentially.
Sports betting, which grew 187 percent year on year, was flat quarter on quarter at 32.5 million Swedish kronor.
Other products, an 8 million Swedish kronor stream which includes bingo, grew 471 percent against the same period last year and 29 percent, sequentially.
Betsson, one of the last listed I-gaming companies still serving the Turkish market, very likely grew gross profits there -- the geographic segment "rest of Europe," which includes Turkey and accounts for 27 percent of gross profits, generated 125 percent more than it did last year.
Turkey has been particularly problematic for Sportingbet this year, as two of its employees were arrested then jailed in Istanbul while on holiday. The London company has cut its Turkish advertising completely and at fiscal yearend, only 8 percent of its net gaming revenue was derived from the Southern European country.
Meanwhile, Norway, one of Betsson's three largest markets, is considering legislation that would prohibit Norwegian banks and financial institutions, exclusively, from processing online gambling transactions for Norwegian residents.
"Betsson evaluation is that the proposed law is difficult to implement," it said in today's results statement. "If the law is adopted and comes into effect it would most likely affect Betsson negatively in the short term."
Looking ahead to the fourth quarter, Mr. Lindwall said: "Across all the line of our products and markets, we see very strong, broad development in October." He added that October had beaten out September -- its strongest month this year.
Profits after tax were 63.6 million Swedish kronor for a net margin of 25 percent.
Entraction Holding A.B., the software developer and poker network operator, reported net revenue of 86.2 million Swedish kronor for the third quarter, up 51.4 percent against last year.
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization came in at 17.3 million Swedish kronor, up 540 percent a year ago. Earnings after tax were 13.5 million from 200,000 Swedish kronor in 2007.
Chris Krafcik is the editor of IGamingNews. He lives in St. Louis, Mo.