High demand for Evolution's Live Casino drives 97% revenue growth

Online casino solutions provider Evolution has announced its interim report for the third quarter of 2021. Throughout the period, the company posted an increase of operating revenues of 97% versus 2020, reaching $322.3 million.

Moreover, EBITDA increased by 113% to $225.3 million, corresponding to a margin of 69.9%, exceeding guidance for 2021. Profit the period amounted to $183.8 million, up from $92.7 million, and earnings per share amounted to $0.85.

Throughout the quarter, the high demand for live casino generated a 53% growth year-over-year, while RNG revenue grew 7.9% compared to pro-forma Q3 2020. Evolution also continued its expansion within the US market, opening a new live casino studio in Michigan, which is “off to a very good start,” and launched RNG-games in Connecticut shortly after the end of the period. Live games are expected to follow soon, and the studio will be the 4th Evolution operating in the US.

“The third quarter this year has been another quarter of extremely high activity within Evolution,” said Evolution CEO Martin Carlesund in a press release. “The result has once again proven that our strategy to focus on the entertainment of the end-users and seamless and flawless experience is successful.”

The executive remarked the company’s top-line growth was mainly driven by a “very strong global demand for live casino." Revenue in this segment grew not only in comparison to 2020, but reached higher figures than pre-pandemic levels. Top-line growth was also impacted positively by the increased RNG business.

Online gaming developer Big Time Gaming, which Evolution finalized acquiring in June, was fully consolidated into results for the third quarter, contributing with $12.3 million in revenue. BTG stand-alone grew at a rate of over 30% in Q3, compared to the corresponding quarter in 2020.

Also during the past quarter, an agreement was signed to acquire Irish iGaming developer DigiWheel in an all-cash deal. The ambition is to launch new games in 2022 utilizing its technology, to be blended into Evolution’s online live casino games and game shows.

Evolution’s NetEnt and Red Tiger brands showed growth of about 3% versus 2020, a development in line with the company’s expectations. However, Evolution’s ambition for the brands is “to deliver stronger growth moving into 2022,” said Carlesund.

The CEO further reaffirmed Evolution’s commitment to reshaping its RNG business. This year, the company has both re-structured the product roadmap and also re-built the complete technology platform for NetEnt.

“We are right now rolling out our updated integration for casino, One Stop Shop (OSS), towards customers which enables operators to reach all our existing content from one single integration and ensures that access to future Evolution content will go seamless and fast world-wide,” said Carlesund in the update. “This is a major step for both us and our customers but even more so for all our end users who will get more fantastic Evolution content.” 

While this is seen as a major milestone for the company, it has resulted in the side-effect of Evolution being able to deliver fewer new game releases throughout the year. However, the company still continues to develop its portfolio, and while wheel-based games such as Monopoly Live and Crazy Time continue to attract players, the provider is keen on broadening the audience for the game show category.

Its new bouncing ball game, Cash or Crash, adds strategic and decision-making features in a game show-style game, giving players choices and the ability to control the outcome. It represents a gaming highlight, along with Fan Tan, “a fresh twist on the beautiful traditional Asian bead game.”

During the quarter, the group also launched an improved user interface to its traditional Blackjack game, through a new zooming feature in portrait mode, which “clearly improves the gaming experience further.”

Much of the business focus for the period has been centered around investing and establishing new studios. Ongoing projects include new studios in Madrid and Yerevan. The company expects to expand and invest in studios “at the same level as earlier.”

Another revenue update has also been issued, for the January-September period. Operating revenues have increased by 100% to $897.7 million, while EBITDA increased by 124% to $616.4 million, corresponding to a margin of 68.7%.