ZEAL confirms profitable growth and raises forecast

Reading Time: 3 minutes

ZEAL Network SE, Germany’s leading online provider of lottery products, recorded significant growth in revenue and EBITDA in the first nine months of 2025. Group revenue increased by 34 percent to € 162.6 million (2024: € 121.0 million). EBITDA grew disproportionately by 55 percent to € 54.1 million (2024: € 35.0 million).

“In the first nine months of the year, we once again transformed our corporate strengths into excellent results and thereby continued our long-term success. We achieved strong revenue growth in all business areas with great operational efficiency, which is reflected in a significantly increased EBITDA margin. Since its launch last year, the Dream House Raffle has quickly become a very popular product. Across our core lottery brokerage business, charity lotteries, and games, we are well positioned for further growth” says Andrea Behrendt, CFO of ZEAL.

Lottery Revenue Grows by 36 Percent
The strong performance of the lottery business was the key driver of ZEAL’s significant revenue growth in the first nine months of the year. Lottery billings climbed by 12 percent to € 834.3 million (2024: € 743.1 million). This growth is attributable to the increase in the average number of active customers per month (MAU) by 17 percent to 1,572 thousand (2024: 1,347 thousand). Additionally, ZEAL was able to improve its gross margin by 3.0 percentage points to 17.5 percent (2024: 14.5 percent), driven by a price increase implemented in the previous year and a changed product mix. The simultaneous increase in billings and gross margin resulted in a significant 36 percent rise in lottery business revenue to € 146.0 million (2024: € 107.6 million).

Fourth Dream House Raffle Most Successful Campaign to Day
The charity lottery Traumhausverlosung (Dream House Raffle) continues to develop very positively. Since the launch in August 2024, four houses have been raffled off. The most recent dream house on the North Sea coast generated the highest billings of all campaigns so far. The fifth raffle is currently underway, offering participants the chance to win a dream house in the Bavarian Forest.

Games Business Grows by 51 Percent

The games segment also continued its encouraging development in the first nine months of the year. ZEAL expanded its B2C games portfolio to almost 600 titles, partly through new partnerships with renowned game developers such as Greentube and GGames, and increased revenue in the Games segment to € 10.3 million (2024: € 6.8 million).

Targeted Marketing Leads to Record Customer Growth
ZEAL has once again significantly expanded its customer base since the beginning of the year. The number of registered new customers rose by 9 percent in the first nine months of this year to a record value of 879 thousand (2024: 807 thousand). The successful acquisition of new customers led to an increase in acquisition costs per new customer (cost per lead, CPL) of 31 percent to € 46.52 (2024: € 35.54).

Other operating costs increased by 29 percent to € 81.2 million (2024: € 63.2 million). Marketing expenses, which were specifically used to grow the customer base, increased by 35 percent to € 50.0 million over the first nine months of the year (2024: € 36.9 million). The reason for the increase in direct operating costs from € 12.4 million to € 15.2 million is the 15 percent increase in customer pay-ins and the € 0.8 million increase in commissions for external developers as a result of the growth of our games business.

Significant Increases in EBITDA and EBIT
Despite significantly higher marketing expenses, EBITDA in the first three quarters of 2025 increased disproportionately to revenue due to efficiency gains and further economies of scale, rising 55 percent year-over-year to € 54.1 million (2024: €35.0 million). At € 47.7 million, EBIT even exceeded the comparable figure by 65 percent (2024: € 28.9 million).

Forecast Raised
Due to an improved lottery gross margin and the positive development of the charity lottery Traumhausverlosung, ZEAL Network SE expects revenue and EBITDA for the financial year 2025 to exceed the forecast published in March 2025. Depending on the general conditions – in particular the further development of the jackpot – the company now expects revenues of between € 205 million and € 215 million for the 2025 financial year (previously: € 195 million to € 205 million). ZEAL expects EBITDA to range between € 63 million and € 68 million (previously: € 55 million to € 60 million).

The post ZEAL confirms profitable growth and raises forecast appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.