XLMedia Provides a Year End Update
For the Full Year 2020, XLMedia expects to deliver revenue of approximately $54.5 million (H1 2020: $27.7 million) and adjusted EBITDA of approximately $11.5 million (excluding transformation costs and share based payments).
The Company is pursuing a multi-track approach to recovering the Casino vertical, where a number of sites were penalised by Google early in 2020. This process is being carried out in conjunction with a fundamental rationalisation of the asset portfolio, significantly reducing the overall number of sites and upgrading the quality of those remaining, with a concentration on highly-engaging content and enhanced functionality to drive increased traffic and build consumer loyalty.
The approach to recovering the Casino vertical is a combination of:
i) submitting to Google for reconsideration certain sites which have been rebuilt in-house or in conjunction with a partner
ii) developing some entirely new sites, where this is the better strategic option
iii) de-indexing sites which are immaterial and may have a negative impact on the authority of the premium websites,
iv) disposing of sites which no longer fit with the direction of the business.
XLMedia have now completed the core development work on all the rebuilt sites we will take forward and have commenced the submission process to Google for reconsideration.
To date, they have been successful in having the penalty removed for three of the ten sites we wish to recover, Casino.pt, Casino.gr and CasinoKiwi.co.nz.
XLMedia stated that learnings from both successes and initial rejections are being applied to the ongoing refinement of the remaining sites and we will resubmit those sites in due course. XLMedia have said they will provide a further update on the Casino recovery process on 13 April 2021.
