Sky Betting & Gaming revenues rise 38% to £516m

Sky Betting & Gaming has this morning published annual reports which show the growth of the firm, with revenues up to £516m from £374m in the previous financial year and a 40% increase in Yorkshire employees.

In the year-end to June 2017, Sky Bet’s revenue was up 46% to £214m and Sky Gaming’s up 27% to £202m. Group EDITDA rose from £105m in the previous year to £146m in the latest figures. More than 80% of revenues were generated through mobile devices.

The group’s total customer base rose 31% to 2.6m and the firm launched more than 160 new games in this period. Sky Betting & Gaming now employs 1,200 people across seven sites and saw a 40% rise staff employed in the Yorkshire region.

The average age of employees at the firm is 32 and the average salary stands at £39,000. The firm’s annual report states that 76% of the workforce are ‘generation Y millennials’ and that 82% of staff are male, with 18% female.

Rob Painter, director of people and brand, said in the report: “At the heart of our culture is a flat structure, an entrepreneurial spirit and the sense that everyone is valued. This creates a fun and empowering place to work, and allows us to learn fast, and keep getting better quickly.”
Richard Flint, CEO of Sky Betting & Gaming, said: “The business performed very well in 2016/17, with further investments in product, technology and brand delivering strong financial results. During the year, we invested in people and technology in our Yorkshire base, with a 40% increase in headcount, helping us to cement our position as the UK’s most popular online betting brand.”
In the year, the firm delivered products like an in-app RequestABet builder, real time promotions, crowd boosted accumulators, and personalised programmatic marketing.

Flint added: “Protecting customers from harm, and providing a safe betting and gaming environment is critical to our success, and we continue to invest in more people and better processes to identify and protect vulnerable customers.

“We are proud of our record of job creation and investment in Yorkshire, as well as our contribution to regional and national taxation. Taking all our taxes in aggregate, our contribution was £153m in the year, or 30% of our revenue. We are also beginning to export our success, and it was a landmark year for the business, with the launch of skybet.it.
“Following the end of our financial year, we completed an £820m sterling equivalent refinancing of our loan, reflecting the strong growth in the business since CVC acquired an 80% stake in March 2015. We enter our 2017/18 financial year with strong momentum, and we will maintain our focus on investment in Yorkshire, delivering innovative and quality products and offers to our customers, leaving us confident that we can deliver further growth.”

Ben Murphy, chief legal officer, added: “Identifying and preventing problem gambling is our top priority; we are striving to minimise problem gambling and create a safe gambling environment. We are increasing investments in people, systems, data and research to keep improving the level of protection we offer our customers.”