Allwyn hails growth strategies as revenue and earnings climb in 2022
The past 12 months have proved transformational for Allwyn, with highlights including securing the fourth UK National Lottery licence in September. This is due to commence in February 2024 and will run for a period of 10 years.
Allwyn also struck a series of major acquisition deals including Camelot UK Lotteries, current operator of the UK National Lottery, with the deal completing last month. In December, the group also agreed to acquire US-facing Camelot LS Group and finalised the deal earlier this month.
In addition, Allwyn in April 2022 agreed with a subsidiary of OPAP to acquire its 36.75% interest in the business activities of Kaizen Gaming outside Greece and Cyprus, completing the purchase in December.
These acquisitions, Allwyn chief executive Robert Chvatal said, will help drive further growth across the group as it seeks to build on its success of recent years.
“I am pleased to report that Allwyn achieved another year of strong financial results in 2022, reflecting our continued successful execution of our organic and inorganic growth strategies,” Chvatal said.
“These results demonstrate how much the business has progressed in the last several years, with both total revenue and EBITDA growing by over 90% since 2019 – during which time we also deleveraged by more than 1x adjusted EBITDA, significantly increased our ownership in our existing businesses and strengthened our platform and increased our strategic optionality and diversification through securing entries into the UK and US markets.
“While delivering this strong performance, we have remained focused on our responsibilities to all our stakeholders and on safer gaming.”
Preliminary results
Publishing preliminary figures for its 2022 financial year ahead of releasing the full results next week, Allwyn revealed that consolidated total revenue increased 23.8% year-on-year to €3.22bn (£2.83bn/$2.50bn).
Of this total, €3.81bn was attributed to gross gaming revenue, which was 24.0% higher than in the previous year. Allwyn said its record performance reflected strong growth across all geographies and product lines.
The increase, Allwyn said, was primarily driven by its online channel, as well as by a strong performance of its casinos business in Austria and internationally, which was impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic in 2021.
The group noted that the acquisitions of Camelot UK and the Camelot LS Group closed after the end of the period, while the increase of its interest in Kaizen did not impact the results.
Aside from revenue, adjusted EBITDA also increased, with the €1.17bn reported in the 2022 financial year being 20.8% ahead of €966.8m in the previous year. Growth was primarily driven by the strong revenue growth, with margins broadly stable in all markets.
“Overall, I am very pleased with Allwyn’s financial and strategic performance in 2022 and the start of 2023 and believe we are well placed for the next chapters of our growth story,” Chvatal said.
“I would like to thank the entire Allwyn team for their hard work and for seizing opportunities to progress our strategic priorities and am very much looking forward to working together with them and with new colleagues from Camelot in 2023.”
Allwyn is due to publish its FY22 results in full on 3 April.