AGA State of the States Report Shows Record $14.67 Billion in 2023 Commercial Industry Tax Contributions.

U.S. commercial gaming revenue reached a quarterly record of $17.67 billion in Q1 2024, the industry’s 13^th consecutive quarter of growth, according to the American Gaming Association’s (AGA) Commercial Gaming Revenue Tracker. The quarter was punctuated by March revenue of $6.09 billion, the industry’s second-highest grossing month ever.

“While gaming’s momentum remains strong, 2024 will be the new baseline for future growth after several years of sports betting legalization and post-pandemic consumer shifts,” said AGA President and CEO Bill Miller. “Gaming’s continued growth relies on maintaining our commitment to innovation and responsibility.”

Commercial Gaming Revenue Tracker Highlights

Across the country, 11 state gaming markets set new quarterly revenue records, including Pennsylvania and New York, two of the nation’s largest commercial gaming markets.

Both retail and online gaming saw annual growth in Q1 2024, though at slower rates than in previous quarters. Retail gaming accounted for 70.7 percent of total revenue while online gaming represented its largest share ever, 29.3 percent. Looking closer at each sector:

• Traditional Gaming: Traditional brick-and-mortar casino gaming generated quarterly revenue of $12.34 billion, a modest increase of 0.3 percent year-over-year that was hampered by severe January weather in regional gaming markets nationwide.
• Legal Sports Betting: Americans wagered a first-quarter record $36.86 billion on sports in Q1, generating $3.33 billion in quarterly revenue (+22.0% year-over-year). The growth compared to Q1 2023 was in part driven by new market launches in Kentucky, Maine, North Carolina and Vermont.
• iGaming: iGaming grossed an all-time high of $1.98 billion in Q1, a 26.1 percent year-over-year increase bolstered by Rhode Island’s iGaming market launch in March.

State of the States 2024

The AGA also released its annual State of the States report today, which provides the definitive state-by-state economic and regulatory analysis of U.S. commercial gaming in 2023 for policymakers, gaming stakeholders and industry observers.

State of the States 2024 details the record $14.67 billion in direct gaming tax revenue paid to state and local governments by commercial gaming operators in 2023—up 9.7 percent from 2022. This does not include the billions more paid in income, sales or other taxes.

“As gaming expands, more communities than ever are benefiting,” continued Miller. “We are proud to create jobs across the country, provide world-class entertainment experiences that offer safe alternatives to the pervasive illegal gambling market, and generate tax revenue to support critical public projects.”

Background

• AGA’s Commercial Gaming Revenue Tracker provides state-by-state and cumulative insight into the U.S. commercial gaming industry’s financial performance based on state revenue reports. This issue highlights Q1 2024 results.
• 37 states and the District of Columbia featured operational commercial gaming markets in Q1 2024, including casino gaming, sports betting and iGaming.
• AGA’s State of Play Map charts gaming’s economic impact, industry regulations and casino locations on a state-by-state basis for both the commercial and tribal gaming sectors.

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Gambling.com Group Limited (Nasdaq: GAMB) (“Gambling.com Group” or the “Company”), a fast-growing provider of digital marketing services for the global online gambling industry, today reported financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2024. The Company also updated its 2024 revenue and Adjusted EBITDA guidance as detailed below.

“We are off to a great start to the year furthering our confidence in our ability to generate strong Adjusted EBITDA and Free Cash Flow growth this year and for years to come,” commented Charles Gillespie, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Gambling.com Group. “The investments we have made for years in our proprietary technology, website portfolio, and accretive acquisitions are driving consistent growth. As we continue to expand our industry leadership and influence across global online gambling markets and leverage the many growth drivers we have, we see a clear road ahead to generate substantially higher Adjusted EBITDA and Free Cash Flow.”

Elias Mark, Chief Financial Officer of Gambling.com Group added, “By growing year on year in every one of our geographic reporting markets, we delivered record Q1 revenue with top line growth of 9% despite the comparable period benefiting from significantly more new state launch activity.”

First Quarter 2024 and Recent Business Highlights

Delivered more than 107,000 new depositing customers (“NDCs”)
Strong initial contribution from North Carolina following launch on March 11th
Secured new $50 million credit facility with Wells Fargo Bank, National Association
Repurchased 329,490 shares for an average price of $9.10
Completed highly accretive acquisition of Freebets.com and related assets on April 1st
Board of Directors approved an additional $10 million for the Company’s ordinary shares repurchase program in May
First Quarter 2024 Results Compared to First Quarter 2023

Revenues rose 9% year-over-year to a first quarter record $29.2 million, reflecting growth across all geographic reporting markets. The Company delivered more than 107,000 NDCs to customers, an increase of 22%.

Gross profit increased 5% to $27.0 million, including a $1.2 million increase in cost of sales related to the Gannett and Independent partnerships.

Total operating expenses increased 9% to $19.1 million, reflecting increases in sales and marketing, technology and general and administrative expenses.

Net income attributable to shareholders and net income per share rose 11% to $7.3 million and $0.19, respectively. Adjusted net income of $7.6 million and adjusted net income per share of $0.20 were flat, reflecting fair value movement related to acquisitions in the comparative period.

Adjusted EBITDA for the first quarter of 2024 was $10.2 million, reflecting an Adjusted EBITDA margin of 35% as compared to Adjusted EBITDA of $10.7 million and Adjusted EBITDA margin of 40%, in the year-ago period. The Q1 2024 Adjusted EBITDA margin reflects higher costs of sales related to media partnerships.

Operating cash flow increased 24% to $8.8 million. Free Cash Flow increased 32% to $8.2 million reflecting positive working capital movements within operating cash flow and lower capital expenditures. The Company converted 28% of revenues and 81% of Adjusted EBITDA to Free Cash Flow in the first quarter of 2024.

2024 Outlook

Reflecting changes made in early May to how Google treats commercial content on high authority websites that, at present, diminishes the effectiveness of the Company’s media partnerships, Gambling.com Group today updated its 2024 full-year revenue and Adjusted EBITDA guidance. The Company now expects full year revenue of $118 to $122 million and Adjusted EBITDA of $40 million to $44 million. This compares to the initial guidance provided on March 21, 2024, for revenue of $129 million to $133 million and Adjusted EBITDA of $44 million to $48 million. The midpoint of the updated Adjusted EBITDA outlook of $42 million reflects expected year-over-year growth of 14%.

Charles Gillespie commented, “Even with these shifts in the digital landscape, the strength and resilience of our business will enable us to deliver strong year over year Adjusted EBITDA and Free Cash Flow growth. With less competition in the search engine results pages, our owned and operated assets are better positioned for the long term than ever before.”

The Company’s guidance assumes:

Following the launch of sports betting in North Carolina on March 11th, no additional North American markets come online over the balance of 2024
Apart from the acquisition of Freebets.com and related assets, no impact from any additional acquisitions in 2024
Full year cost of sales of approximately $4.8 million, of which $2.2 million was incurred in Q1
An average EUR/USD exchange rate of 1.09 throughout 2024

To access, please dial in approximately 10 minutes before the start of the call. An archived webcast of the conference call will also be available in the News & Events section of the Company’s website at gambling.com/corporate/investors/news-events. Information contained on the Company’s website is not incorporated into this press release.

Play’n GO, the world’s leading casino entertainment provider, has today announced a partnership with Canadian operator Loto-Québec, launching the Swedish gaming giant’s games into another Canadian province.

Already active in another Canadian province , this partnership sees Play’n GO’s content available in the province of Québec exclusively with Loto-Québec, a state-owned corporation, where online players now have access to titles such as Tome of Madness. 

Magnus Olsson, Chief Commercial Officer, Play’n GO said: “At Play’n GO, we have always been clear in our vision to be active in every regulated market in the world, and this partnership with Loto-Québec is the next step on that journey.

“Our past success in Canada gives us confidence that players in Québec will enjoy the best Play’n GO content, and we look forward to many years of success with Loto-Québec in the province.”

Stéphane Martel, Head of Product and Innovation at Loto-Québec added: “As the sole iGaming operator in Québec, we pride ourselves on offering titles that truly add value to our platform, lotoquebec.com. We are happy to bring Play’n GO games to our players.”