Gaming content specialist NetEnt has reported full-year revenues of SEK1.625bn (€160m) for the 12 months to December 31, up 11.7 per cent on 2016 but down on initial forecasts.
Fourth quarter revenues were up 4.7 per cent year on year, to SEK419m (€42.3m). Operating profit in Q4 fell 3.9 per cent year on year, to SEK150m (€15.15m). Operating profit for the full year was SEK587m (€59.3m), an increase of 9.5 per cent on 2016.
The operating margin for the full year was 36.1 per cent, slightly lower than 2016’s 36.8 per cent.
In a statement, Per Eriksson, president and CEO of NetEnt, said: “2017 was another eventful year with profitable growth for NetEnt, even though we had expected a much better outcome.
“Our strategy to grow on regulated markets remains in place and during 2017 we terminated deliveries of games to operators in Australia, Poland and Czechia, which affected revenues negatively by three percentage points in the fourth quarter.
“The lower-than-expected revenue growth in Q4 resulted in a lower operating margin compared to the previous year as we continued to make growth-enabling investments to strengthen our product and sales organisation, enhance our live casino offering and moved to new, larger offices in Malta. In 2018, we are increasing our commercial focus and optimising our organisation to make sure that revenues grow more than costs.
“In the fourth quarter we signed license agreements with eight new customers and launched online casinos for 11 new customers,” said Eriksson.
“Having just returned from the annual gaming exhibition ICE in London I can say that our roadmap for new games in 2018 looks very exciting. We are planning to release at least 20 new games, compared to 14 in 2017, including two branded games, Jumanji and Vikings.
“A third branded game that was unveiled at ICE is based on the popular Netflix series Narcos and expected to be released in Q1 2019.”
