Rise in Staffing Costs Results in Full-year Revenue Loss for Genius Sports

Genius Sports Group has posted a loss of £7.6m for the year 2018 despite a 23.9% yearly rise in revenue for the 12-month period.

Revenue for the year ended December 31, 2018, amounted to £65.8m, up from £53.1m in the year 2018. Genius Sports experienced momentous growth in its rest of world business, with revenue up from £200m to £31.3m. UK revenue also climbed from £6.1m to £7.3m, while rest of Europe revenue increased a little from £26.9m to £27.2m.

Though, GS also noted a growth in expenses for the year, with the cost of sales rising 52.4% from £18.4m to £28.0m and administrative expenses up from £23.3m to £29.5m. Hiring more staff costs particularly hit Genius, with this jumping from £22.3m to £29.7m as the business increased its employee numbering from 669 to 901 in the year.

The increased costs drove Genius from an operating profit of £5.9m in 2017 to an operating loss of £4.2m for the full year. Evaluating the results, Regulus Partners said that Genius’s historical pattern of growing revenue at the expense of profitability also need to be changed in order to deliver viable potential.

Market Analyst at Regulus also emphasised Genius’s acquisition of English and Scottish football official betting data from what is now Stats Perform, saying that this is “transformational to Genius and potentially transformational to the betting as well as sports rights sectors.”