Industry News
Betsson Publishes Interim Report for the Third Quarter of 2023
Betsson has published its interim report for the third quarter of 2023.
Highlights
- Group revenue was EUR 237.6 (200.3) million, an increase of 19%. Organic increase of 39%.
- Casino revenue increased by 27%. Sportsbook revenue increased by 2% and the sportsbook margin was 7.3% (8.3%).
- EBITDA was EUR 68.9 (48.6) million, an increase of 42%. The EBITDA margin was 29.0% (24.3%).
- Operating income (EBIT) was EUR 56.0 (38.4) million, an increase of 46%. The EBIT margin was 23.6% (19.2%).
- Net income was EUR 46.2 (32.6) million, corresponding to EUR 0.35 (0.24) per share.
- Operating cash flow was EUR 44.9 (38.5) million.
- Net debt was EUR -65.5 (-54.7) million.
- Active customers increased by 17% to 1,237,238 (1,056,400).
CEO Comments:
Betsson’s third quarter 2023 featured continued high customer activity, strong financial development and further investments in product and new markets. Revenue increased by 19%, driven by casino games, while earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) increased by 46% compared to the corresponding quarter of the previous year. The revenue and EBIT, which include the acquisition of betFIRST, were the highest ever for Betsson in a single quarter and mark the seventh quarter in a row with sequential growth.
Active customers and deposits increased significantly during the quarter, and turnover was high in both casino and sports betting. The sportsbook margin was 7.3% (8.3) for the quarter and was negatively affected by many favourite wins and goal-rich games during the start of the European football leagues.
Revenue for the Group growth was broad-based with high growth in all major regions except for the Nordics. The geographical expansion continues and several new milestones were passed during the quarter; betFIRST in Belgium was included in the Betsson Group, a launch took place on the locally regulated market in Serbia and a local license for sports betting was obtained in France, where go-live is expected in the fourth quarter. France is an important gaming market in Europe with large long-term potential for online gaming and we now take a first step to be able to offer French players a first-class experience in sports betting. At the end of the summer, the brand Betsson was also introduced in Denmark, which strengthens the Group’s position on the Danish market.
B2B is an important part of Betsson’s growth strategy and work continues to strengthen the B2B offering. In September, Betsson’s sportsbook solution was launched with the operator Bethard.
During the quarter, Betsson’s first-ever global advertising campaign was launched. The theme “A bet makes the difference” focuses on the excitement and entertainment that comes from placing a bet, on sports or casino, rather than the chances of winning. The campaign is part of the marketing strategy to establish Betsson as the Group’s global main brand, aiming to achieve economies of scale and competitive advantages for the business in the long run.
I look forward with confidence to the final sprint of the year. Geographical diversification, a solid balance sheet and strong cash flows create good conditions for continued investments in profitable growth to deliver long-term value creation for our shareholders.
Industry News
Ex-Binance exec Ryan Horn joins Press Box PR as Growth and Business Development Advisor
Press Box PR, an award-winning digital PR agency specialising in betting, gaming, sport, consumer, retail, and hospitality, has announced the appointment of former Binance sports partnerships leader Ryan Horn as its new Growth and Business Development Advisor.
Horn will work closely with Press Box PR’s leadership team to drive strategic growth initiatives, advise on international opportunities, and support clients navigating the fast-evolving intersection of sport, payments, gaming, and emerging technologies.
With offices in London and Manchester, Press Box PR is renowned for securing earned media coverage across gambling, sports, consumer, finance, hospitality, and catering publications. The agency also helps brands increase visibility in AI-generated answers, citations, and large language model (LLM) recommendations. Press Box PR was named PR Agency of the Year at the 2026 European iGaming Awards.
Horn brings over 20 years of experience at the crossroads of global sport, commercial partnerships, and digital innovation. He has collaborated with major organisations including FIFA, UEFA, the International Olympic Committee, Formula 1, and the Rugby Football Union, helping connect global brands with some of the world’s largest sporting audiences.
He co-founded Brandtix, a sports data intelligence company that introduced a data-driven approach to sponsorship measurement, and later held senior roles in the global advertising sector, including Chief Business Development Officer at Euro RSCG, managing sponsorship strategy and campaigns for top-tier brands.
More recently, Horn led sports and digital asset partnerships at Binance, working with figures and organisations such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Mike Tyson, and Italian Serie A club Lazio, with a focus on the convergence of sport, digital payments, fan engagement platforms, and online gaming ecosystems.
In his role at Press Box PR, Horn will provide strategic insight on emerging areas shaping modern sports business, including AI-driven fan engagement, tokenised commerce platforms, global payments infrastructure, and the digital transformation of sport.
Alex Donohue, Founder and Managing Director of Press Box PR, said:
“Ryan has spent his career at the intersection of sport, technology, and commercial innovation. His experience and network will be hugely valuable as we expand internationally and support clients across sport, betting, and fintech.”
Horn added:
“The digital transformation of sport is creating entirely new commercial ecosystems. I’m excited to join Press Box PR and help clients navigate and communicate their role in this evolving landscape.”
The post Ex-Binance exec Ryan Horn joins Press Box PR as Growth and Business Development Advisor appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.
Choice Gaming
Choice Gaming: Expanding Across Slots, Crash, Instant and AI Live Casino
Choice Gaming produces and distributes content across four key verticals: slots, crash games, instant formats, and live casino offerings via its dedicated Kiss division. The company maintains full control over concept development, visual direction, and release scheduling, ensuring a cohesive and strategically aligned portfolio.
Collaboration-Driven Product Development
A cornerstone of Choice Gaming’s approach is integrating public figures and cultural collaborators directly into the design of its games. In the crash segment, Evra Crash was developed in partnership with football legend Patrice Evra, incorporating his likeness, persona, and competitive identity into the game’s mechanics and presentation.
In the instant category, Mono Choice was created alongside contemporary artist Alec Monopoly. The title embeds elements of his signature artistic style throughout the creative execution, extending well beyond surface-level branding.
The collaboration approach also extends to live casino offerings. As part of its cross-vertical strategy, the company launched Evra Sic Bo, a live table game featuring Patrice Evra’s identity integrated into the format.
Live Casino: Kiss Division
Through the Kiss division, Choice Gaming operates an AI-driven live casino infrastructure. Kiss AI Live Casino replaces traditional fixed studios with digitally generated environments and AI-controlled dealers. Operators can customize dealer appearance, ethnicity, attire, language, atmosphere, and studio design without altering the table structure.
The live portfolio includes multiple Sic Bo tables, each offering distinct dealer presentations and visual styles, creating differentiated table experiences within a scalable framework.
Slot Portfolio
Choice Gaming’s slot catalogue features fully in-house developed titles designed for multi-market deployment. Each release adheres to a defined concept and visual framework, avoiding reused layouts or re-skinned games. The company’s roadmap includes continued expansion of slot themes and innovative design directions throughout the year.
Crash and Instant Segments
Beyond collaboration-led releases, the crash and instant categories continue to grow with titles built around streamlined mechanics, clear visual identity, and structured gameplay positioning.
Scaling with Control
Choice Gaming continues to expand across all verticals while retaining complete oversight of production, creative direction, and collaborative integration, ensuring consistent quality and innovation across its portfolio.
The post Choice Gaming: Expanding Across Slots, Crash, Instant and AI Live Casino appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.
Groove
Groove Rolls Out Next-Gen Instant Tournaments Solution
In an industry where player attention spans diminish rapidly, leading platform and aggregator Groove has launched what could be the most valuable weapon in the fight for engagement: their groundbreaking Instant Tournaments Tool.
This groundbreaking advancement enables operators to envision, set up, and initiate high-stakes tournaments straight from Groove Command’s back-office faster than it takes to make a pot of coffee, no developers needed, no delays, only sheer competitive excitement at the speed of now.
The development team, under the guidance of Product Development Head Shay Kababie, observed with pleasure as the initial live test occurred. An experienced casino operator, who was initially doubtful, launched a $10,000 Blackjack Blitz with only a few clicks. The outcome? A sudden increase in players, soaring engagement statistics, and revenue boosts, all happening before lunchtime arrived.
“This alters everything,” the operator said, observing leaderboards illuminate in real-time.
For years, creating tournaments involved managing intricate technical specifications, relying on overloaded development teams, and hoping that everything would run smoothly at launch. Groove’s approach completely eliminates these obstacles.
The new advancement in the Groove Command platform is already causing a stir in the iGaming industry, as beta testers indicate significant increases in player involvement and earnings.
“This isn’t just an upgrade, it’s a fundamental shift in how operators compete,” says Rachel Tourgeman, Head of Partnerships at Groove. “Our partners have been begging for a solution that keeps pace with player demand. Now they can create high-stakes tournaments faster than most teams can schedule a meeting. We’re seeing operators launch tournaments around live sports events, viral trends, even competitor outages, all in real time.”
Operators can now react to market trends with the quickness of day traders, identifying an opportunity in the morning and profiting from it by afternoon. Looking to take advantage of a competitor’s downtime? A competition exists for that. Looking to reconnect with inactive VIPs? The ideal challenge is merely a few clicks away.
This advancement integrates effortlessly into the Groove Command ecosystem, the most robust back-office platform in the industry. In this scenario, establishing a tournament is merely one tool in a well-equipped arsenal. Operators have total control over their operations, encompassing detailed game management, real-time financial analysis, compliance protections, and now, immediate competitive experiences that engage players continuously.
The consequences are significant. While rivals may take days or weeks to set up tournaments, operators using Groove can experiment, refine, and enhance various tournament formats in just one afternoon.
The platform’s user-friendly interface masks its advanced features, customizable prize formats, interactive leaderboards, and specific player segmentation can all be effortlessly set up via a sleek dashboard.
“Speed has become the ultimate competitive advantage in iGaming,” explains Kababie. “We’re not just giving operators tools, we’re giving them the ability to outmanoeuvre competitors at a strategic level. The team that can launch a perfect tournament when a trending slot drops, or capitalise on a major sporting event in real-time, that’s the team that wins.”
Looking ahead, Groove’s roadmap promises even more disruptive innovations, including AI-driven tournament suggestions and automated optimisation algorithms. But for now, the message to the industry is clear: the tournament landscape has changed forever, and operators who hesitate will find themselves hopelessly outpaced.
Yahale Meltzer, Co-Founder and CEO of Groove, explains the strategic advantage: “For years, operators have been trapped in a cycle of slow, expensive tournament development. We’ve broken that cycle. Now when an operator sees Messi score a hat-trick or Drake tweet about a new slot, they can capitalise immediately. That agility is worth millions in today’s market.”
Perfectly incorporated into the Groove Command platform, the Instant Tournaments Tool complements a range of operator-centric innovations such as real-time analytics, automated compliance verification, and data-informed game suggestions. The user-friendly interface of the system enables operators to configure personalized rules, prize frameworks, and qualification criteria effortlessly through easy dropdown menus, eliminating the need for coding skills.
In the future, Groove has hinted at new features such as AI-driven tournament enhancement and large-scale cross-operator events. However, as Meltzer observes, “The true revolution is occurring at this moment, in the possession of operators who realize that speed is the new greatest competitive edge.”
Meltzer states, “The tournament arms race has changed permanently and Groove has just given operators the nuclear codes.”
The post Groove Rolls Out Next-Gen Instant Tournaments Solution appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.
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