Non-Exec Chairman Q&A with Gilles Ohana at Veltyco Group PLC (LON:VLTY)

Veltyco Group PLC (LON:VLTY) Non-Executive Chairman Gilles Ohana caught up with DirectorsTalk for an exclusive interview to discuss their final results for the year ended 31st December 2017.

 

Q1: First off, congratulations are in order on delivering a record set of results for 2017. What have been the main drivers of this growth?

A1: Let me start by saying, first of all, as a Board we are extremely proud of those results that we’ve announced today.

Just to reiterate, the revenues increased from to €16.2 million which is an increase of 165% compared to 2016, the EBITDA increased 260% to €8.1 million for 2017 which was €2.2 million in 2016 and the net profit increased to €6.8 million compared to just €20,000 in 2016. We’ve also proposed, given those results, a maiden dividend of 0.25p per share and throughout the year, we also raised €2.5 million of equity to finance two acquisitions which I will mention in a minute.

In terms of why this performance, I think it’s been driven mainly through the marketing activities through the three verticals that we operate in which essentially are the sportsbook and casino on the one hand, the lottery business on the other hand and the financial trading on the third vertical.

The three verticals on the marketing side have been operating extremely well and have been steadily growing throughout the year, it’s also for 2017 the first full-year operation for a financial trading brand that we had acquired in 2016 called Zoomtraderglobal which has contributed in 2017 as a full-year.

We’ve also launched, in July 2017, our own brand for the sport betting vertical called Bet90 which is the acquisition I mentioned before, which got financed with this capital increase of €2.5 million and this Bet90 brand has started to contribute steadily through those results in the second half of 2017 and is expected to continue growing and contributing fully in 2018 to those results.

 

Q2: As you mentioned, you recently completed the acquisition of a database of active users in the online financial trading sector. What was the rationale for this and why do you prefer to own your brands?

A2: Initially, Veltyco Group started as a pure marketing company and Bet90, last year, was a first venture in operating our own brand, in a way, this is a bit like controlling your own destiny in a better way. When you operate your own brands, you tend to keep 100% of the earnings you generate, you’ll probably incur more costs than you would do if you were purely doing marketing activities but by being the operator you can control those costs in a better and more efficient way. Ultimately, you’re likely to generate a greater EBITDA number at the bottom line if you operate your own brand.

So, I think we are slowly moving towards a potential launch of the trading platform for the financial services vertical in 2018 and alongside Bet90 will be our two own brands essentially. It will take time for the operations to generate as much as the marketing activity, but I think it’s a trend that we are, on a selected basis, willing to continue to explore because, as I said before, you manage to control a much bigger part of the bottom line by doing so.

 

Q3: eSports is becoming more and more popular, how do you expect Veltyco to benefit from this trend?

A3: eSports is, as you said, is growing exponentially and is expected to grow exponentially in the next 5-6 years. We have, as you may know, a minority stake in a company called eSports.com AG which is the owner of the eSports.com website and domain which has the ambition to become the largest community of eSports players on the planet. eSports and Veltyco have extended throughout 2017 through partnerships and various initiatives including around blockchain technology and so on.

Ultimately, I think Veltyco will be able to provide, through Bet90, some gaming wagers on eSports.com and on the games that are being played there so that will not only benefit from the pure gaming revenues but also through the stake that Veltyco own into eSports.com.

 

Q4: Current trading is strong, how do you view the outlook for the rest of the year?

A4: Well, the 2018 year has started, I would say, in the same way as in 2017 finished, in Q1 of 2018, we generated around €4.8 million of revenues which itself 60% more than Q1 in 2017.
We expect this growth to continue in 2018 throughout the year backed by the full year of operations of Bet90 in 2018, the continuation of the growth of the three main verticals of the business on the marketing side and I suspect towards the end of the year, the contribution of the launch of our own financial trading brand.

Click to view all articles for the EPIC:
Or click to view the full company profile:
    Facebook
    Twitter
    LinkedIn
    Veltyco Group Plc

    More articles like this

    Veltyco Group Plc

    Veltyco Group acquires 49% of Quasar Holdings

    Further to the Company’s announcement of 19 December 2019, Veltyco Group (LON:VLTY) has today announced that it has acquired the 49% of Quasar Holdings Ltd not owned by the Company from Binbar GmbH.  Quasar wholly owns Bet90

    Veltyco Group Plc

    Veltyco Group announce potential acquisition of Bet90

    Veltyco Group (LON:VLTY), the online marketing and operating company for the gaming industry, has today announced that it has raised £500,000 (approximately €593,000) pursuant to a subscription for convertible loan notes by Mr Peter Paul Westerterp.

    Veltyco Group Plc

    Veltyco Group plc Launch of own regulated brand

    Veltyco Group plc (LON: VLTY), the online marketing company for the gaming industry, announced today that it has entered into separate loan agreements with three of its directors, being Paul Duffen, Marcel Noordeloos and Mark Rosman, pursuant

    Veltyco Group Plc

    Veltyco Group plc Update on launch of own regulated brand

    Veltyco Group plc (LON: VLTY), the online marketing and operating company for the gaming industry, announced today that, further to its announcement of 22 November 2018, it now expects to launch its own regulated online financial trading

    Veltyco Group Plc

    Veltyco Group plc Update on receivables and operations

    Veltyco Group plc (LON: VLTY), the online marketing and operating company for the gaming industry, today provided an update on its receivable position and operations. As detailed in the Company’s interims, announced on 28 September 2018, taking

    Veltyco Group Plc

    Veltyco Group PLC Revenues jump by 40%

    Veltyco Group plc (LON:VLTY), the online marketing and operating company for the gaming industry, announced today its unaudited interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2018. Financial highlights · Revenues increased by 40% to

    Veltyco Group Plc

    Veltyco Group PLC Revenues ahead of expectations

    Veltyco Group PLC (LON: VLTY), the online marketing and operator company for the gaming industry, today announced the following trading update for the six months ending 30 June 2018. Following the reported growth in 2017, the

    Veltyco Group Plc

    Veltyco Group PLC Update on potential sportsbook acquisition

    Veltyco Group PLC (LON:VLTY) announced on 1 February 2018, the Company entered into an exclusivity period regarding the potential acquisition of Ruleo Alpenland GmbH, a company that operates the BTTY branded sportsbook in Germany and Austria. Following

    Veltyco Group Plc

    Veltyco Group PLC to pay a maiden dividend

    Veltyco Group PLC (LON:VLTY) announced today that its annual report and accounts for the year ended 31 December 2017, notice of Annual General Meeting and form of proxy for the AGM, have now been posted to shareholders.

    Veltyco Group Plc

    Whitman Howards Research: Veltyco Group PLC

    Update | Post results update We reassess our forecasts below, no significant changes to the P&L and the company produced a strong start to FY18e where revenue in the 1Q18 was +60% YoY to €4.8m, maiden dividend of

    Veltyco Group Plc

    INTERVIEW: Veltyco Group Record Set of Results

    Veltyco Group Plc (LON:VLTY) Non-Executive Chairman Gilles Ohana talks to DirectorsTalk about a record set of results for 2017. Gilles explains what the key drivers were behind the growth, the rationale for acquiring a database of

    Veltyco Group Plc

    Whitman Howard Update: Veltyco Group PLC

    Triple digit growth FY17, strong momentum 1Q18 Forecasts: Strong start to FY18, revenue in Q1 was +60% YoY at €4.8m, which leaves our c. €20m of revenue estimate for FY18e well underpinned. No changes to revenue and profit

    Veltyco Group Plc

    Veltyco Group PLC Notification of Final Results

    Veltyco Group PLC (LON:VLTY), the online marketing and operator company for the gaming industry, today announced that following the acquisition of the database as announced on 25 May 2018 the Company is in the process of finalising its