Mybet SE : publishes report on first quarter of 2015

mybet Holding SE publishes report on first quarter of 2015

- Slight year-on-year rise in revenue to EUR 18.3 million

- Betting stakes for sports betting around 14% up on previous year following intensive marketing to existing and new customers

- Strong revenue growth in mobile sector to 14% of online sports betting revenue

- Term sheet signed with amelco on significantly optimised sports betting product; clear growth impetus expected

Kiel, May 13, 2015 - mybet Holding SE (Deutsche Börse, Prime Standard, ISIN DE000A0JRU67) today publishes its figures for the first quarter of the 2015 financial year. The first three months are dominated by the measures to reposition the business ("change project") and by lasting improvements to business with existing customers. Marketing to existing customers was significantly stepped up in the final quarter of 2015 and clearly had an impact in the first three months of 2015, reducing the migration rate among online customers. In the offline sector, revenue per shop - the main early indicator of sustained growth - rose again. With the turnaround having been successfully launched last year, the company will press ahead with the process in the current financial year.

First quarter of 2015

The first quarter progressed positively in terms of customer activity. Betting stakes for sports betting were boosted by 13.8 % over the prior-year quarter by intensive marketing and redefined processes. The Casino & Poker segment, too, benefited from this and saw its revenue increase slightly to EUR 5.7 million (previous year: EUR 5.5 million).

Because of weak hold margins below the statistical average in the months of February and March, the very good development in betting stakes was not reflected in revenue and earnings. Revenue of EUR 10.4 million was broadly unchanged from the previous year's level (previous year: EUR 10.6 million). At group level, revenue showed a 2.3 percent increase to EUR 18.3 million (previous year: EUR 17.9 million). This rise is attributable to growth in the Casino & Poker and Horse Betting areas.

The first quarter was very positive for the subsidiary pferdewetten.de AG. The company posted a 40.0 percent increase in revenue in the 2015 reporting period to EUR 2.0 million (previous year: EUR 1.4 million). As matters stand, mybet expects pferdewetten.de AG to maintain the successful course of growth achieved in the 2015 reporting period.

The revenue of the other operating segment mainly comprises the activities of C4U-Malta Ltd.; it was roughly on a par with the previous year at EUR 0.2 million (previous year: EUR 0.3 million).

Even if the overall revenue performance in the largest segment of Sports Betting fell short of expectations because of very high payouts of winnings, Sven Ivo Brinck, CEO of mybet Holding SE, was positive about the future prospects: "We are obviously disappointed that the high level of customer activity is not yet reflected in the result. But we succeeded in activating new and existing customers satisfactorily for the first time in this first quarter. With the change project moving up a gear, we will see a permanent improvement in customer loyalty and in the revenue volume at our shops."

The company is also satisfied with the very positive performance in the mobile sector: mybet significantly increased the share of online sports betting revenue generated via that channel to 14 percent in the period under review (previous year: 1 percent). Moving forward, this trend will also have a beneficial impact on the company's figures.

The company's profitability in Q1 2015 came under pressure from a variety of factors. Following a structural shift in revenue towards sales channels that are more cost-intensive for the company, there was an unscheduled increase in expenditure for commissions of around EUR 0.5 million. The marketing costs were equally up markedly by around EUR 0.5 million as a result of increased activity to acquire customers. Combined with a lower hold margin, this meant that earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) came to EUR -0.8 million in the first quarter of 2015 (previous year: EUR 0.3 million).

The Management Board does not expect these negative trends within commissions and margins to continue over 2015 as a whole. The budgets for marketing costs have been reallocated to reflect the new findings and compensate for the elevated marketing spending from the first quarter. On this basis, despite finishing the first quarter off target the company remains confident of achieving the full-year forecast.

The financial and liquidity situation of the mybet Group was stable at the end of the first quarter of 2015. As well as cash and cash equivalents of EUR 6.5 million, the debt-free company enjoys a high equity ratio of 48.7 percent (December 31, 2014: 51.2 percent).

Outlook for 2015

Having successfully initiated the turnaround in the past year, the mybet Group will adhere to its chosen strategy and concentrate on its operational core skills. For 2015, mybet will follow up the many measures taken to stabilise business in 2014 by focusing on bringing its products up to the standard of its leading competitors. To that end, the past few weeks saw it launch the change project, the goal of which is to comprehensively revamp the product range. In this connection mybet has now signed a term sheet with amelco UK Ltd., a specialist for the development of software solutions and products for the betting industry. The goal is to comprehensively overhaul the sports betting product range with amelco's help and further improve system stability. The cooperation is currently still subject to a definitive contract being concluded; its final signing of the contract is envisaged for June 2015 at the latest. While the costs of this project will be a burden on the 2015 result, the technology switch will enable the company to grow appreciably faster from 2016. The Management Board expects that this investment spending will have a very positive impact on the overall result from the 2016 financial year, in the form of overproportional rises in earnings.

The full Q1 Report 2015 will be made available today on the following websites:

German report: https://mybet-se.com/category/finanzberichte/

English report: https://mybet-se.com/en/category/finanzberichte/

Key figures for first quarter of 2015

Contact:

mybet Holding SE

Investor Relations & Corporate Communications

Yulia Link

Tel. : +49 (40) 8537 880

Fax : +49 (40) 8537 8830

Mail : yulia.link@mybet.com