Online gambling vertical delivers for Finnish gambling group
News on 4 Aug 2015
News on 4 Aug 2015
In Finland, the state-owned gambling group Veikkaus reports that 40.3 percent of its revenues now come through the internet and mobile channels.
The company reported total sales for 2014 of Euro 1.95 billion in 2014, up 5.4 percent y-o-y, with digital operations up four points from 2013, and website visits up 7 percent to 414,600 a week, whilst the mobile channel delivered 15 percent of all digital sales.
The company’s other divisions did not fare as well, with retail turnover down 1 percent to Euro 1.17 billion.
Profit was up 2.8 percent at Euro 520.4 million.
Other interesting points within the Directors’ Report include:
* Games margin overall (subtracting the prizes paid to players from the turnover.) up 3.3 percent;
* Strong growth in digital sales at 40.3 percent of group sales – 59.7 percent of the sales came from the retail channel;
* The Finnish gaming market increased by 0.4 percent in 2014, and the total market amounted to Euro 1,701 million in terms of the game margin. Veikkaus was the only Finnish gaming company whose game margin grew during the year under review, and the group’s share of the Finnish gaming went up 1.3 percent to 50.7 percent;
* Group advertising expenditure was up 6.5 percent to Euro 18.3 million;
* The group boasted over 1.6 million registered customers by September last year – a third of the Finnish population;
* Veikkaus spent a total of Euro 9.7 million (+24.5 percent) on research and product development during the year under review;
* The group invested a total of Euro 3.8 million in responsible gaming during the year under review;
* By the end of fiscal 2014-2015 the group had 332 employees, 88 percent salaried full-time employees and 12 percent part-time;
* Personnel expenses were up 4.8 percent at Euro 27.9 million, with salaries accounting for Euro 22.1 million (+4.2 percent), and the remaining Euro 5.8 million (+7.0 percent) spent on pension expenses and indirect personnel costs.
* Veikkaus’ projected profit in the 2015 State Budget is Euro 541.1 million, of which Euro 515.6 million has been earmarked for return to the State. The company will also return Euro 25.5 million at the minimum in undistributed prize funds from previous years to the Ministry of Education and Culture.
