Fortuna Entertainment reveals strong H1 growth

una Entertainment Group has thanked strong performances in all of its traditional markets for the continued growth shown in the company's unaudited preliminary H1 results.

The Fortuna Group is a central European betting operator established in 2009 and was one of the first online operators in Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Per Widerström, CEO and Chairman of the Board, Fortuna Entertainment Group N.V. said: “During the first half of the year, the volume of bets accepted by the group continued to grow rapidly, reaching €720.7m, up 40.9% compared to the same period the previous year.”

This strong growth was helped by Fortuna’s online gaming ventures in the Czech Republic as well as a strong performance from the newly-acquired Hattrick Sports group.

Also impressive was the group's ability to increase their win percentage by 24% year on year to €100.2m.

The group’s EBITDA and net profit both saw large dips as a direct result of ‘one-off costs associated with expansion across the CEE region and the integration into the Group of recently acquired business operations’.

EBITDA was lowered to €7.6m which represented a 22% reduction. However, Fortuna stated they the results would have’ increased by about 8% year on year’ without the one-off costs.

The net profit was reduced by 53.1% to €2.5m in comparison to the H1 2016 results due to the aforementioned acquisition and one off debt payments.

Widerström added: "This strong growth was the result of solid performances in all traditional markets where Fortuna operates. The recently acquired Hattrick Sports Group Ltd., operating in Romania, Croatia and other countries, also contributed. Our operating profitability, as measured by EBITDA, was mainly influenced by the one-off costs associated with our expansion across the CEE region, coupled with integration into the Group of recently acquired business operations.”