Evolution: Interim report January-June 2022

Second quarter of 2022 (Q2 2021)

• Operating revenues increased by 34.0% to EUR 344.0 million (256.7)
• EBITDA increased by 36.4% to EUR 238.2 million (174.7), corresponding to a margin of 69.3% (68.0)
• Profit for the period amounted to EUR 200.9 million (144.4)
• Earnings per share amounted to EUR 0.94 (0.68)

January-June 2022 (1H 2021)

• Operating revenues increased by 36.2% to EUR 670.7 million (492.5)
• EBITDA increased by 39.8% to EUR 467.9 million (334.8), corresponding to a margin of 69.8% (68.0)
• Profit for the period amounted to EUR 398.6 million (276.4)
• Earnings per share amounted to EUR 1.87 (1.30)

Comments from CEO Martin Carlesund:

The operational delivery in the second quarter 2022 is nothing but fantastic and during the quarter we reached many and significant milestones. These include the new studio in Connecticut, opening of the regulated Ontario market, opening of the new studio in Madrid, opening of the new studio in Yerevan, launch of Live games in West Virginia and started construction of an additional studio in New Jersey. All this on top of expansion all over the world adding close to 1,000 employees during the quarter shows the speed we are moving forward with. I am very proud of all achievements that the employees of Evolution have made during the quarter. Even so, we need to be better tomorrow than what we are today and we need to constantly challenge ourselves to perform better.  

During the quarter we also announced the acquisition of one of the leading and most innovative slots creators - Nolimit City. We are all very happy to welcome Nolimit City to the Evolution family. The acquisition is financed with our existing cash-flow, it’s a way to use our financial strength to take yet another step towards becoming the leading provider of casino games in the world. The transaction, expected to be completed in Q3, includes an upfront consideration of EUR 200 million and, earn-outs of up to EUR 140 million, payable in 2023, 2024 and 2025, respectively. Looking further ahead, our intention is to distribute Nolimit City slots through our OSS (One Stop Shop) and add them to our offering to operators. The earlier communicated goal of double-digit growth for our exiting RNG-business remains and is not affected by this latest acquisition.

Financially, I regard the second quarter as good but not great and not quite reflecting the success we have had operationally. When evaluating our financial performance in the second quarter I also factor in the exceptional development we had during Q1 and Q2 last year which effects the year-on-year percentage growth rate in Q2.

In Q2 2022 revenues increased by 34.0 percent year-on-year to EUR 344.0 million, and the EBITDA increased to EUR 238.2 million, corresponding to an EBITDA margin of 69.3 percent.

In the second quarter 2022 Live Casino increased by 36.7 percent year-on-year and RNG revenues grew by 6.1 percent year-on-year. As I have stated earlier when it comes to RNG, our ambition is double-digit growth and I find the result in Q2 as good step towards that goal. I’m pleased with the development of our RNG business in Q2 2022.

The EBITDA margin of 69.3 percent is within our guided range of 69-71 percent for 2022. Our ambition is always to do more and do better on cost items within our control. As stated many times before, if there is a trade-off between margin and market share, we will always go for market share and what we believe are the right decisions long-term for Evolution.

We all know that the world is a challenging place right now and it’s hard not to mention the ongoing horrible war and also the effects of the Pandemic. Our fast expansion is affected by the current cost inflation especially in categories like energy, logistics, semiconductor products and wages. We are happy but not content with the margin of 69.3 percent in the quarter and we are likely to continue to see margins vary during the year but expect to stay within the guided range for 2022.

Flawless, seamless player satisfaction through entertaining and exciting world class games – nothing is more important. The newly released Evolution smart lobby is one example that makes a difference for players every day. In total 34 of our 88 games planned for this year have been released, so we have more than half of our planned game releases during the second half of this year. During the quarter we have released one of our headline games this year - XXXtreme Lightning Roulette – it is a great game which attracts both new and existing players. This roulette game with more and bigger multipliers, is a good example of how we can leverage our growing portfolio of brands from both the Live- and RNG-space. Another new game combining the Live and RNG playing experience is Crazy Coin Flip. This can be seen as our first ‘Live Slot’ game. It definitely strikes a chord with players and is a style of game that we will continue to explore. New RNG titles in the second quarter include Funkmaster, Dragons Clusterbuster and Space Wars2.

In terms of development by region, we see the larger trends maintained with the demand for online casino continuing to increase globally. However, both our Asia and Other regions while growing very nicely are at a marginally lower pace in this quarter compared to earlier this year. We continued to expand our studios in North America however most of the increased capacity was added toward the end of the quarter. European markets overall showed single digit growth in the quarter, with a step faster pace in the Nordics.

I very much look forward to the second half of 2022, I feel excited about all things we have in front of us. We want to be better, we want to deliver more, we want to run faster- that is who we are. Adding Nolimit City and the upcoming games on the 2022 roadmap will be great and we are again increasing the gap to all competitors. The world is changing but we stand strong, we continue forward.

Presentation for investors, analysts and the media  

CEO Martin Carlesund and CFO Jacob Kaplan will present the report and answer questions on Thursday, 21 July 2022 at 09:00 a.m. CEST via a telephone conference. The presentation will be in English and can also be followed online. Number for participation by telephone: 
Dial-in number, pin code: 4662947# 
SE: +46 8 505 163 86         UK: +44 20 319 84884         US: +1 412 317 6300 

Follow the presentation at: https://tv.streamfabriken.com/evolution-gaming-group-q2-2022

For further information, please contact:
Jacob Kaplan, CFO, ir@evolution.com.

This information is such that Evolution AB (publ) is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation and the Swedish Securities Market Act. The information was submitted for publication, through the contact person set out above, on 21 July 2022, at 07:30 am CET.

Evolution AB (publ) (”Evolution”) develops, produces, markets and licenses fully-integrated B2B Online Casino solutions to gaming operators. Since its inception in 2006, Evolution has developed into a leading B2B provider with 600+ operators among its customers. The group currently employs 15,000+ people in studios across Europe and in North America. The parent company is based in Sweden and listed on Nasdaq Stockholm with the ticker EVO. Visit www.evolution.com for more information.

Evolution is licensed and regulated by the Malta Gaming Authority under license MGA/B2B/187/2010. Evolution is also licensed and regulated in many other jurisdictions such as the United Kingdom, Belgium, Canada, Romania, South Africa, and others.