Playtech publishes 2020 results after reporting losses

Added: March 12, 2021

Playtech Plc has released its full-year report for 2020. The group has certainly attained many of its strategic goals for the year, which was a relatively tough one for all business around the world.

The company announced that it had recorded FY group revenues worth €1.07 billion, which is about a 25% decrease from the previous year’s results (€1.4bn). The FTSE250 group mentioned that this was caused by many setbacks during the year which negatively affected the execution of its B2C and B2B units.

The company’s B2B unit was able to see an 11% drop in its revenues, going from £554 million in 2019 to £495 million in 2020. This was mostly brought on by the mass-scale lockdown which happened in Europe during the beginning of the pandemic, leading to a halving of revenues from retail, as well as a 28% decrease in revenue from Asian contracts.

Playtech’s B2B division witnessed higher operating costs, from £339 million in 2019 to £369 million in 2020, and this was because of the various investments the company did in Latin America and the United States. The B2B adjusted EBITDA also declined by 41%, from €215 million to €125.8 million.

All the restrictions and regulations caused by the coronavirus have taken their toll on Snaitech Italia performance, who took a hit fo 31%, and witnessed a 34% decrease in revenues (£900m to £569m). Event though Playtech B2C worked hard on lessening the operating costs by about 37%, the firm still reported an adjusted EBITDA drop of €128 million. This is a 20% decline on 2019’s €160m.

Furthermore, Playtech stated that throughout the year, the B2C division saw an impairment charge of about €41 million in Austria and Germany. The general decreases in B2B and B2C caused the company as a whole to see a 19% drop in group-wide adjusted EBITDA, worth €310m from 2019’s €383m.

After a difficult year, the company reported profit valued at €27 million after tax, which is a whopping 80% lower than 2019’s profit of €137 million. Playtech also saw corporate losses worth €73 million, up from €56m in 2019.

Mor Weizer, Group CEO, mentioned in a statement:

“Against a challenging backdrop, Playtech delivered a resilient financial performance in 2020 with swift management actions limiting the impact of COVID-19 restrictions on overall adjusted EBITDA. Playtech also made significant strategic and operational progress by adding new brands, expanding existing relationships and entering new markets. We are particularly pleased with the excellent progress we have made in the US market, launching with bet365 and Entain in 2020. The significant strategic and operational progress we achieved in 2020 has placed us in a strong position to capture the exciting market opportunities ahead.”

Playtech Plc