Betsson Operating Income Plummets 47% as Tax Hikes Hurt and B2B Stalls 

Betsson AB, the Swedish B2c and B2B gaming group, missed across the board on its Q1 2026 earnings results.

€285 million ($333.86 million) revenue fell short of the €298 million that analysts had expected. EPS was 26% off target at €0.19 compared to the €0.26.9 expected. It was none better on EBIT. A forecast €63.5 million EBIT came in at just €49.0 million (our table below shows the EBITDA estimate).

Most alarmingly perhaps, while Betsson revenue decreased 3% year-on-year, operating income (EBIT) declined by 47%.

CEO Pontus Lindwall put the drop in EBIT down to the company’s conscious decision to fund future growth:

“We are investing in several B2C markets that are not yet profitable, negatively affecting total EBIT by approximately €10-15 million on a quarterly basis. We still believe that these markets possess potential for profitability, though the company continuously monitors and evaluates their performance.”

European Tax Hikes Hurt Profitability

Tax headwinds in Europe are also likely to be contributing to pressure on profitability. 

Impressively, Betsson has significantly improved the quality of its earnings, posting a record 73% of revenue from locally regulated markets in this quarter. That’s up from 59% on 2025 but comes at the cost of a heavy tax burden. 

Gaming taxes paid by the firm rocketed 17.7% YoY to €53 million. Western Europe and the Nordics were the chief culprits on the fiscal downside, where more stringent regulatory oversight and tax rises in Sweden and other jurisdictions have squeezed margins.

There has also been a 21% collapse in CEECA (Central & Eastern Europe and Central Asia) revenue – it fell to €96 million. 

Analysts on the earnings call were concerned that high-margin gray-market revenue in CEECA is being displaced by lower-margin regulated revenue from Latin America.

Latin America Growth top 24% at €93 Million

Still, Latin America remains the powerhouse of the Betsson growth strategy. LatAm revenue has grown 24% to €93 million. 

Investment in Peru and Colombia is clearly paying off. Nevertheless, this growth is lower-margin than Western Europe.

Unfortunately for shareholders, there was no let-up in the bad news. Revenue in the Casino segment was down 4% as well.

Casino revenue was €204 million, a drop from €212 million, with management blaming the slump in B2B and a plateauing of the “organic increase” seen in 2025 in CEECA.

B2B license revenue (mostly casino-based) fell from €90 million to €51 million. Betsson’s North America strategy is primarily focused on B2B in Canada.

Addressing the B2B issue directly, Lindwall told analysts:

“Our B2B business continues to be weighed down by lower revenue at one of our customers. However, since the start of December, this B2B customer has seen average activity levels stabilize… In the slightly longer term, I am excited about growing our B2B revenue with existing and new partners.”

Banking on the FIFA World Cup Catalyst

Still, despite the litany of woes, investors were given some meat on the bones to chew.  Management was keen to talk up the 2026 FIFA World Cup as a major catalyst for the company’s tech roadmap.

Betsson has been rolling out new mobile gaming apps and upgrading its proprietary platform to handle higher concurrent loads.

The CEO highlighted the first fruits of this tech with the launch of early win payouts and enhanced bet-builder features in the sportsbook. This is designed to help grow engagement ahead of the tournament.

Despite the Q1 challenges, Betsson’s leadership shared that trading data in early Q2 (up to April 8) showed average daily revenue 9% higher than the same period in 2025. 

It could be that the first-quarter dip is a temporary setback due to tax adjustments and one-off volatility in the B2B sector.

Betsson AB’s stock price is down 0.10% to SEK 98.55 ($10.64) at the time of writing.

Betsson AB Financial Performance (2025 – Q1 2026)

Table note: *Estimated based on reported EBIT of €34M and typical depreciation/tax ratios for Q1.

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Gary McFarlane

Financial Journalist

As an experienced financial journalist and analyst, Gary McFarlane has worked at some of the leading online finance publications.

Gary spent 15 years as production editor for highly regarded UK investment magazine Money Observer, covering subjects ranging from social trading to fixed-income exchange-traded funds. Gary introduced coverage of Bitcoin to Money Observer in 2013. For three years Gary was the cryptocurrency analyst at the UK’s No. 2 retail investment platform Interactive Investor.

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