Acclaimed casino software supplier NetEnt has reported a decline in revenue in the second quarter owing to weakness in the Nordic countries, and primarily Sweden.
The statement the firm has recently issued reads that the change resulted in a drop to SEK 419 million (€39.3m) from SEK 437 million (€41.4m). On the other side, income has fallen down by 3.4% from SEK 867m (€82.1m) to SEK 837m (€79.3m). The disappointing figures came as a result of the staggering changes in the gambling regulations in Sweden. However, the light at the end of the tunnel were markets such as New Jersey, Eastern Europe, Spain and Portugal, where the revenue rose by 1.7%.
Therese Hillman, group CEO of NetEnt, provided an explanation on the issue, “The weak development in the Nordic countries continued in the second quarter, particularly in Sweden, where we have seen fewer players and lower ARPU since the new regulation was introduced at the beginning of the year.”
Nevertheless, the NetEnt representative maintains a positive stance. Looking ahead, Hilmman said, “We continue to invest in increased game production, a technical platform featuring more functionality”. Moreover, they will be focusing more on live dealer department, with the aim of defending and raising their market shares in all of their markets.
In terms of operating profit, the first six months of the year brought about a total of SEK 256m (€24.3m), which is by virtually 10% lower than the same period the previous year. Next up, the number of game transactions came to 10.6bn in Q2, having lowered by 1.3% compared to Q2 2018. On the positive side, mobile games were responsible for a 64% game win. Slots are held accountable for the majority of the figure with 91.8%.
Hillman added that “The transformation of live casino continues at full speed and we added several new functions during the quarter to make our product more competitive.” With clients responding positively, they “expect growth in the coming quarters from this segment, but it will take a few more quarters before we can see more meaningful revenues”.
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