Nominations in five categories of the EGR Marketing and Innovation Awards is further recognition of Soft2Bet’s cutting-edge gamification solutions and innovative approach.

Soft2Bet, a leading provider of iGaming turnkey solutions, is delighted to announce that Betinia, its renowned brand in Denmark and Sweden, has been shortlisted in five categories of the EGR Marketing and Innovation Awards 2024.

The nominations are recognition of the incredible work that has been achieved by the Betinia team in two of Europe’s most competitive and regulated markets.

Betinia’s shortlisting in the following categories:

• Best Native App,
• CRM Campaign,
• Innovation in Sports Betting,
• Innovation of The Year,
• Responsible Gambling Marketing Campaign of the Year, demonstrates how it has grown into being one of the most innovative and progressive operators in the industry.

Soft2Bet was recognised in February when its Motivational Engineering Gaming Application (MEGA) gamification solution won the Innovation of the Year at the EGR Nordics Awards and it is delighted to see its achievements gain further recognition with these shortlist nominations.

Oksana Tsyhankova, CMO of Soft2Bet, commented: “Being shortlisted in five categories is a great achievement and huge credit goes to our technical, product and marketing teams. Betinia’s success in two of Europe’s most competitive and regulated markets is also highly satisfying because it showcases our B2C expertise in driving engagement, retention and revenues.”

MrQ.com, the UK’s fastest growing online casino, has seen a dramatic increase in the number of players willing to submit financial data for affordability and source of funds checks after implementing ClearStake’s industry tailored smart financial data request solution.

Through the integration of ClearStake, MrQ enables its players to quickly, easily and securely share data via their banking app in under 30 seconds, rather than having to manually supply physical documents.

55% of MrQ’s players are now seamlessly submitting their financial data, laying rest to the long-held market belief that players are unwilling or unable to share the financial data required for affordability and AML checks.

The adoption of ClearStake was part of a larger review by MrQ of its processes, designed to solve issues surrounding the cumbersome process of manually requesting and analysing documents which had historically seen poor uptake from players.

ClearStake has also enabled MrQ to reduce affordability and AML case review times by 46% through seamless follow up requests and reliable data verified directly from the bank, in contrast to requesting physical documents which are prone to fraud, error and unreliable OCR extraction.

MrQ’s remarkable results will no doubt give comfort to other operators who need to navigate the challenges of an increasing number of checks as the UKGC sets to fulfil the recommendations of the white paper.

Savvas Fellas, Founder & CEO at MrQ.com, said: “At MrQ.com we are committed to our mission of offering ‘value-entertainment’. In today’s regulatory landscape this goes hand-in-hand with the security and wellbeing of our players without negatively impacting their entertainment experience or worse, discouraging them to seek their entertainment from within the regulated space.

“We are constantly looking into new ways of navigating our regulatory obligations by embracing new and up and coming technology services. We share ClearStake’s vision on the utilisation of open banking technology and leveraging this to keep our learning curve ahead of those around us.

“ClearStake offers MrQ a strong route towards achieving seamless affordability and AML checks. ClearStake’s feature-rich platform, player-centric design and speed of integration made them the clear supplier of choice, and we look forward to furthering the capability of the technology around thresholds like Standard Due Diligence and our Enhanced Due Diligence checks.”

Martin Burt, Founder of ClearStake, said: “We are delighted to be working with such a forward-thinking market leader who share our vision of how new technology can transform an industry.

“This partnership with MrQ demonstrates that ClearStake’s technology is trusted by the industry’s leading brands and is a fantastic testament to the strength of our product.

“We are thrilled with the results to date which unequivocally demonstrate players’ willingness to share data when required. Furthermore, we are excited by the opportunity to fully automate once resource intensive compliance processes and continuing to delight both players and operators alike.”

ZEAL Network SE, the leading German online provider of lottery products, has started the new financial year with a strong growth spurt. In the first quarter of 2024, billings from lotteries climbed by 22% to € 246.3 million. Group revenue increased by 35.0% to € 36.1 million (2023: € 26.7 million). EBITDA at Group level increased slightly by 1% to € 9.4 million due to one-off effects and the almost doubling of marketing expenses compared to the previous year.

“We made a very strong start to 2024 and were able to significantly accelerate our revenue growth, particularly in our core business of lottery brokerage. We are also particularly proud of the fact that we were able to achieve EBITDA slightly above the previous year’s level in the past quarter despite almost doubling our marketing expenses and a negative one-off effect from a major win in our charity lottery Deutsche Traumhauslotterie amounting to € 0.8 million. This shows that our measures to acquire new customers are paying off very quickly and that we are generating income across the entire breadth of our customer base,” says Sebastian Bielski, CFO of ZEAL. “With the announced squeeze-out at LOTTO24, we are also putting ZEAL in the best possible position for the future and are leveraging further efficiency potential.”

Revenue in core business grows by 28 percent

ZEAL’s significant revenue growth in the first quarter is primarily due to the strong performance of the lottery business. Billings increased by 22% to € 246.3 million, while revenue from lotteries rose by as much as 28% to € 32.0 million (2023: € 24.9 million). The growth in billings is primarily due to the 21% increase in the average number of active customers per month (MAU). ZEAL was also able to improve the gross margin in the lottery business to 13.0% (2023: 12.4%) thanks to a change in the product mix and further margin optimizations. Excluding the one-off effect from the distribution of a major prize in the company’s charity lottery Deutsche Traumhauslotterie, the gross margin would have been as high as 13.3%.

Games business with significant revenue growth compared to Q4 2023

The games business, which was launched last year, also developed very positively in the first three months of the year. Compared to the fourth quarter of last year, ZEAL was able to increase revenue from games by around 20% from € 1.8 million to € 2.2 million. At 7.0%, the gross margin was stable compared to the previous quarters.

ZEAL was also able to further expand its games portfolio at the end of the quarter. The subsidiary LOTTO24 AG received permission to offer a further 64 games.

Stable result thanks to efficient expansion of future earnings base

ZEAL invested heavily in future growth in the past quarter, acquiring more than twice as many new customers (320 thousand) as in the same period of the previous year (2023: 143 thousand). The company achieved this customer growth much more efficiently than in the same period of the previous year. At € 33.04, the acquisition costs per registered new customer (cost per lead, CPL) were noticeably lower than in the previous year (2023: € 36.77). Due to the company’s strategic decision to use the exceptionally good jackpot situation in January 2024 for efficient new customer growth, marketing expenses of € 13.4 million were 91% higher than in the same period of the previous year (2023: € 7.0 million). As a result, other operating expenses rose to € 21.0 million (2023: € 12.5 million). As a result of the increased number of new customers and the growth of the games business, the direct costs of business operations also rose to € 4.0 million (2023: € 2.7 million).

At € 9.4 million, EBITDA was slightly higher than in the first quarter of the previous year (2023: € 9.3 million). At € 7.5 million, EBIT was 6% higher than in the same period of the previous year (2023: € 7.1 million) due to lower depreciation and amortization recognized in profit or loss. Net income for the period rose to € 21.1 million (2023: € 4.7 million) due to the first-time recognition of expected tax benefits from the utilization of existing tax loss carryforwards in connection with the LOTTO24 squeeze-out.

Due to the good results of the first quarter of 2024, ZEAL confirms the forecast published on March 20, 2024.