Aspire’s Breath of Fresh Air

Aspire Global has reported a 20.7 per cent year-on-year rise in gross revenue to €40.1m (£36m/$47.1m) for Q3.

The technology supplier has lived up to its name in the last 18 months, with the acquisitions of developer and aggregator Pariplay for €13.1m (£11.7m/$15.4m) in October 2019, followed by sportsbook BtoBet for €20m (£17.8m/$23.5m) in mid-September this year.

Adding BtoBet to the Q3 results would equate to a 26.1 per cent year-on-year rise to €41.9m (£37.5m/$49.2m) for the quarter ending 30 September 2020.

The bulk of Aspire’s gross revenue came from its B2B technology arm, which was up 13.6 per cent year-on-year to €23.8m (£21.3m/$27.9m)

Meanwhile, its B2C operations accounted for €12.3m (£11m/$14.4m) and the remaining €4m (£3.6m/$4.7m) came from Pariplay.

In a statement accompanying the results, CEO Tsachi Maimon said trading conditions returned to normal in Q3, following an unexpected uptick in Q2 due to the effect of the pandemic.

Maimon added that October’s total trading volumes, including BtoBet, increased to around €14m (£12.5m/$16.4m), which equates around a 32 per cent rise on the average monthly trading volume in Q4 2019. “The past twelve months have been very special to Aspire Global,” he said.

Looking at the regional breakdown of the firm’s revenues, the two acquisitions helped boost the contribution from Great Britain and Ireland to €9.1m (£8.1m/$10.7m), almost doubling it from the same time in the previous year.

The rest of Europe (excluding the Nordic region) contributed €24.4m (£21.8m/$28.6m), which was up 16.7 per cent, while €2.7m (£2.4m/$3.2m) came in from the rest of the world.

The Nordic region was the only one in which Aspire saw a decline, with revenue dropping 40.0% to €3.9m (£3.5m/$4.6m).

This came as Sweden imposed a SEK5,000 (£431/€478/$566) deposit limit and limited acquisition bonuses to SEK100 (£8.61/€9.56/$11.31) per week, in a bid to offer further protection to players during the pandemic.

At present Aspire operates in 25 jurisdictions and holds gaming licenses in 12 of them. Citing “endless growth opportunities” going forward, Maimon said the business was poised to enter the newly regulated German market.

“We [have been] very focused to comply with the regulations and to adapt to the transitional period which started 15 October this year”, he said. “Our prime target is to secure our entrance into the regulated German market in July 2021”.