Wicket Gaming increases turnover significantly after the acquisition of the Wegesrand Group
Eric de Basso, CEO of Wicket Gaming, talks about the fourth quarter of 2022 and the plans for 2023, with a focus on upcoming global gaming launches and continued strong growth for the German group.
2023 is the year when Wicket Gaming will take the next step on its global growth journey. It will do so as a gaming and edtech group with 30 employees. Together, we will create a company that takes market share in the fast-growing markets in which we are now active - virtual education products and mobile games. The work in the fourth quarter has been aimed at laying the foundations for this journey and creating the right conditions for success.
An important milestone during the quarter was the completion of the acquisition of the German Wegesrand Group and its integration into Wicket Gaming. Wegesrand will henceforth be referred to as Wicket Media GmbH, a wholly owned German subsidiary which in turn owns all of our German companies. The accounts are consolidated in our books, a common organisation and governance is designed to take on 2023.
Wegesrand
The Wicket Gaming Group notes a turnover of SEK 6.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2022. Wegesrand (ed-tech segment) has grown organically by about 24% in one year and notes a turnover of about SEK 26.5 million. Our intention is to invest even more resources in our ed-tech segment, where we see great growth potential. It is clear to us that the Serious Games and Playful Learning segments have a significant and growing market - a market in which we expect to take further market share in 2023. According to Grand View Research, the ed-tech market today is approximately $127 billion and is expected to grow to approximately $430 billion by 2030.
The Wegesrand Group is the first acquisition we have made. We would like to make more acquisitions in the long term, although we are obviously aware that the general financial climate is not entirely optimal at the moment. However, we look forward to 2023 with confidence.
Games - global launches
Cricket Manager Pro 2023
Finally releasing Cricket Manager Pro is a milestone for us, after a series of delays based on technical challenges in India in particular, as well as the implementation of improving user requests, we now intend to win a place in the global cricket arena. We obviously intend to leverage our cricket stars AB de Villiers, Hardik Pandya and Jasprith Bumrah who reach a total of 100 million followers on their social media channels to reach the largest user base possible. All planned marketing activities will be launched with the aim of maximising the number of downloads.
Idle King
In December, the free-to-play mobile game Idle King was acquired. Since its test launch, Idle King has been downloaded 450,000 times and has received high ratings on both the Apple App Store and Google Play. With a rating of 4.5, the game has been "Featured" on the Apple App Store.
Idle King will be released globally by Wicket Gaming in March 2023 under the name King Royale. To support the launch, influencer marketing will be activated using Wehype and "paid marketing" through Facebook and Google ads. Worth noting are the KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) that King Royale has received during the test launch. With a "Day 1 retention", i.e. the number of unique users who returned to the app the day after installation/opening, of 36%, the game is in the best performing category by far. The game has an ARPDAU (Average revenue per daily user) of 0.10 USD and an ROI of 33%, these are very good KPIs. From Wicket Gaming's side, we are looking forward to launching two strong game titles globally.
Conclusion
We are in the middle of a rights issue, and of course we hope that our existing shareholders will see the potential going forward and subscribe. We have explained in the prospectus that the rights issue is necessary in the phase that Wicket Gaming is in. Necessary resources need to be secured in order for us to effectively invest in both gaming launches and the expansion of the ed-tech segment. We have seen strong organic growth in ed-tech and will invest further to enable the business to grow even faster in 2023.
The financial performance in the fourth quarter clearly shows that we are now a consolidated group with a stable base. The major investments in our games have been taken. We can therefore expect a change in the cost picture regarding the development of our games in 2023.
Link to the report for the fourth quarter of 2022:
Links to the games:
King Royale:
Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.motap.idleking&hl=en&gl=US
App store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/idle-king-tycoon-tap-games/id1479539390
Cricket Manager Pro:
Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.wicketgaming.cricketmanager&hl=en&gl=US
App store: https://apps.apple.com/in/app/cricket-manager-pro-2022/id1631795331f
For further information, please contact:
Eric de Basso, CEO, Wicket Gaming AB
E-mail: eric@wicketgaming.com
Phone: +46 70 780 52 00
About Wicket Gaming
Wicket Gaming is a Swedish gaming and digital education company consisting of two verticals, Games and EdTech. Within the Games vertical, the business idea is based on developing and distributing free-to-play games ("F2P") within mobile games for Android and iOS. Within EdTech, the Company focuses on developing products in genres such as Game-based Learning and Serious Games, it is in these areas that Wicket Gaming has identified the greatest synergies between the Company's two verticals.
For more information, see Wicket Gaming's website www.wicketgaming.com