President & CEO, Betsson
Betsson's Record Revenue and Regional Strategies | Ep. 819
In this episode, Betsson AB CEO Pontus Lindwall discusses the company's recent financial results, regional strategies, and insights from the World Cup, providing valuable perspectives on the iGaming industry.
Key Topics
Betsson's Q2 and H1 financial results
Regional focus on Latam and Europe
Regulatory challenges in Western Europe
Impact of the World Cup on revenue
Strategies for customer retention post-World Cup
Decline in Nordics and CEE regions
B2B and B2C revenue dynamics
Future outlook for Betsson
Host: Charlie Horner
Guest: Pontus Lindwall
Producer: Anaya McDonald
Editor: Anaya McDonal...
About Pontus Lindwall
Pontus Lindwall, President and CEO of Betsson, spoke at an event titled "Gaming in the Nordics 2026" in Copenhagen on July 1, 2026. He discussed the regulatory landscape across five Nordic markets, describing them as "all in motion." Lindwall said he expects new regulation in Finland to take effect on July 1, 2027, and expressed hope that Finland would model its rules on Sweden and Denmark rather than Norway. He characterized Finland as "a monopoly in transition." Regarding Iceland, he stated that the country has "like 0% channelization" because no regulated online business currently operates there, though he noted that some Icelandic attendees had told him regulation is forthcoming. Lindwall also commented on other European markets. He said Betsson had been "forced to exit UK and Germany," describing the UK as having "cranked up the taxes" and Germany as having "over restriction." He argued that "good regulation is good business for players, society and operators alike" and stated that "channelization is the scoreboard" for evaluating regulated markets.
Transcript (33 segments)
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Pontus Lindwall0:00
I was very nervous about the first half of the tournament because we saw all those teams that we didn't know what to expect from them and you could see okay there are like 20 games where we're just going to lose money and pay out but those teams stood up you know and they did things that no one did expect.
I
Interviewer0:27
Welcome back to i Gaming Daily supported by Optimov, the creator of positionless marketing and the number one player engagement solution for sports betting and i gaming operators. Today I'm delighted to be joined by Betsson CEO Pontus Lindwall just after the company published its Q2 and H1 results. Pontus, thanks ever so much for coming on. How are you doing?
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Pontus Lindwall0:50
Yeah, good. Thank you very much.
I
Interviewer0:52
No, not a problem. and it's great to have you on the show and we'll have a full piece of coverage on SBC News of those results. But just as a quick overview of some of the numbers, group revenue at 595.5 million euros, an organic increase of 5%. EBITDA at 108.4 million euros, that's a decrease of 33% and operating income at 76.2 million euros. First of all, Pontus, revenue is at all-time high. I think that's driven by the B2C side of the business. Could you outline what the strategy has been to get to this point and maybe has the opening stages of the World Cup helped to contribute to that milestone?
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Pontus Lindwall1:39
Yeah. the B2C part of our business which is obviously the largest part and where we own the brands and we run the whole operation it has been growing for a very long time and it's been going well now in this second quarter of the year as well and of course boosted a bit by the end of the quarter by the championship but then again we have to remember that it was only around 20 days of the championship in that quarter. So it helps a bit, but it's not what makes the difference really for the results. It's the long-term job that we do within all our B2C business that has made this possible.
I
Interviewer2:32
Sure. Yeah. I'm sure that the World Cup or particularly those opening stages of the tournament is more of an acquisition period rather than where you actually sort of generate your big results. So I guess it's testament to the operational side of the business that you have managed to get those sort of all-time high revenues during this quarter. Latin America now is Betsson's largest region and there were also record revenues in that region. we've spoken about it a little bit before as well but what was the strategic decision making process to sort of focus heavily on Latam and secondly what is it about your product and brands that resonates with players so much in that region?
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Pontus Lindwall3:15
I think we started off in Latam a very long time ago and I can say that from the very first day of that I didn't state that it should become our largest region but we have been doing well over there. Thanks a lot to our local teams over there. And I think that is one of the keys to our success that we have always been local in the market or in the different markets over there because they are different between themselves as well. So but after being there for quite some time actually we saw that we had good traction and we decided to invest more and we have been early in the market and with the fact that we had people on the ground and local knowledge we managed to keep the traction also going into new markets that was regulating in LATAM. So it's a very important region for us and now it's the region where we put the most of our efforts into.
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Interviewer4:25
Sure. No, it's nice to hear the sort of color on that. But what which markets specifically in Latam are the ones that are sort of driving the best results for Betsson?
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Pontus Lindwall4:38
I would say we are in many markets there but I would say that Argentina and Peru are two large markets and very interesting now when we have Argentina in the final of the World Cup. It's going to be very interesting to see.
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Interviewer4:54
It's still a sore point Pontus. I'm sure my co-host Fur will be much more happy with that. But yeah, it's nice to see that Argentina is contributing so heavily to the business there. Just moving on slightly from Latam and going to Western Europe. That's another region where Betsson is seeing revenue growth. And that's despite a lot of what we would say regulatory pressure in the region as well and tax pressures. How much of an opportunity do you see in Western Europe as that landscape continues to shift and other operators sort of look at mitigation measures in that region? Do you see a real opportunity to sort of put the foot down on the gas?
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Pontus Lindwall5:40
Yeah, I mean Europe is a fragmented market. There are some countries that are very hard to digest and very hard to work in because of regulatory measures and let's say over regulation I would say too much constraints on the product and what we can offer and then there are other markets which are more optimistic and more opened up and these are the markets where we put our efforts. and this is where we put our marketing money. Italy being such one market where we are growing strongly both in casino and sports book.
I
Interviewer6:29
Mhm. And that's obviously the market where you have the big partnership with Inter into Milan as well which must be a great deal for Betsson to get that exposure in that market. And is that a reflection of maybe the regulatory system in Italy being more favorable than other markets in Western Europe?
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Pontus Lindwall6:49
Yeah, I wouldn't say that the system in Italy is particularly favorable because it's not easy either, but on the other end of the spectra, there are several markets where it's more or less not feasible to try to do something. And that's a sad part of the Western Europe story.
I
Interviewer7:12
Mhm. Yeah. Absolutely. It's something that we've covered a lot on this show is that while they are sort of mature markets and there's a lot of appetite for these products, the overregulation is sort of hampering what businesses can do there. Another I want to sort of turn our attention now to two markets where revenues have declined and that's in the Nordics and the Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia regions. They're down 17.1% and 14.9% respectively. Just wanted to ask what you think is causing the downturns in those regions and sort of how you've mitigated for those declines.
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Pontus Lindwall7:55
If we start with the Nordics then it's just because we don't put the same focus there in terms of marketing investments. We are here we have presence we have quite strong positions in the market but we don't invest much because the return on investment is less good here than what we see from Latin America as an example and the same as SIKA is a different story because there we have a few markets where we do really well but that one is it's more an imbalance between different geographical markets over there.
I
Interviewer8:40
Sure. Sure. Just on the Nordics you said you just don't invest as heavily in that region as other regions. I think in the report it says it's more on the casino side where the activity has declined. Are you seeing that's because again of sort of the regulatory environment in those countries and sort of channelization rates declining as a result?
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Pontus Lindwall9:08
Yeah, that's a big part of the situation there and the problem that there is a tough competition between the licensed operators and the operators who are not locally regulated. And that makes it very hard for us to kind of get the revenues that we would need from our customers to invest more and grow. It's possible but it doesn't leave much money on the bottom line.
I
Interviewer9:45
Sure. Sure. Absolutely. Pontus, we'll take a very quick break and we'll come back and we'll continue our discussion. Learn how Optimov's positionless marketing is changing how iGaming teams operate. Discover how operators are using Optimov's positionless marketing platform to launch personalized CRM campaigns. Dynamically change casino lobbies and bet slips and create engaging gamified experiences. Learn more at optimove.com.
Welcome back to i Gaming Daily. I'm joined by Betsson CEO Pontus Lindwall. Pontus, despite the record revenues and the all-time high revenues, EBITDA and profitability have taken a little bit of a hit on the B2C side of the business. Do you think this is due to the sort of increased mix of locally regulated markets and the subsequent taxes? Or are there sort of other factors at play?
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Pontus Lindwall10:39
I think actually that the main impact on the decrease that we see compared to the same quarter last year is a loss of revenues on the B2B side. Those revenues are very profitable and we have one B2B client which is pretty big and who lost some traction there by the end of last year and in the first quarter this year that has stabilized but the increase that we see now in profitability comes from the B2C side more so that's as we see growth on the B2C side, we saw 14% growth in this quarter. That means a lot for the bottom line on the B2C side.
I
Interviewer11:32
Sure. And I guess that's underlined by the fact that marketing spend is up. So you have some sort of confidence in that B2C side of the business that you can sort of put the foot on the pedal and go for the marketing spend a bit more.
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Pontus Lindwall11:44
Yeah, exactly. And now we see revenues are up on the B2C side and it's actually so that the marketing spend that we do on the B2C side it's quite you know it's not a fixed but not far away from a fixed share of the revenues. So we don't change that much quarter to quarter. So when we see this kind of traction then we keep on investing.
I
Interviewer12:16
Mhm. Sure. You mentioned the B2B side of the business just before as well and you mentioned that it was the decline in revenue was driven by one particular party. But are you seeing that maybe some of the increased regulatory pressure and tax hikes across different markets is sort of cooling the B2B sector in gambling or do you think there are other contributing factors or is it just a sort of individual case?
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Pontus Lindwall12:48
This is more an individual case. I think our B2B customers in general they face the same day-to-day life as we do with increased taxes and regulations and everything. So they are in a similar position and but they struggle anyways.
I
Interviewer13:10
Yeah, absolutely. Look, I just wanted to talk a little bit more about the World Cup and I know that it was just one part of a much wider quarter. But of course the World Cup results are going to keep streaming into Q3 results as well. How much activity have you seen on the Betsson Sportsbook platform throughout the tournament and how much of a boost are you expecting it to give you? I guess it's more from a customer acquisition point of view, but how do you go about retaining those customers as well?
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Pontus Lindwall13:44
Yes, it's more from a customer acquisition point than actually revenue for the company and we've seen great activity and now we look forward to the bronze final and the final and we believe it's going to be really heated games. So that would be very interesting to see. So it's a big activity that we have seen and of course the biggest impact is actually on new customer acquisitions. So now it's up to us after the tournament to start to engage with those customers and see if we can keep them as playing customers for the times to come.
I
Interviewer14:41
Sure. That's the big challenge for all operators now. What is the strategy to sort of hold on to those customers?
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Pontus Lindwall14:49
Yeah, exactly. That's what we have to do. We have to find out what kind of games they like. Obviously, if they came in for the World Cup, it's going to be no more World Cup after this weekend. So we have to find something else that we can attract them with.
I
Interviewer15:04
Sure. And just one more question on the World Cup. Because before the tournament, a lot was made about the 48 teams, the 104 games and that driving more bets ultimately. But there were concerns about sort of the competitive balance and some of the smaller teams. How do you assess how the World Cup sort of planned out in terms of we had great storylines like Cape Verde and you know there was other sort of Switzerland got to the quarterfinals as well but ultimately the top four seeds ended up in the semi-finals. So how do you sort of assess that from a sports betting perspective?
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Pontus Lindwall15:48
Yeah, that's a brilliant question because I was in the same position before the tournament. I was very nervous about the first half of the tournament because we saw all those teams that we didn't know what to expect from them and you could see, okay, there are like 20 games where we're just going to lose money and pay out. But those teams stood up, you know, and they did things that no one did expect. So it's like the beauty of sports. It was shown there as well. And with all those teams that we had with this new tournament format, of course, we expected it to be more uneven games, but still we have seen a lot of surprises and we have seen strong performances that we didn't expect. So it has turned out better than I expected in that regard.
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Interviewer16:49
Yeah, certainly. I think if you said before the tournament that there would be one team that didn't lose to either finalist in 90 minutes, I don't think many people would have said Cape Verde. But so that was a great storyline. Pontus, let's go towards our final question now. I really appreciate you taking the time out on such a busy day when you're sort of reporting results and talking to investors. What can we expect to see from Betsson throughout the remainder of 2026 as you sort of look to continue on the operational successes that you've seen throughout the year so far?
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Pontus Lindwall17:24
Yeah, I think what we do here in the second quarter is a really good performance. We will definitely keep on the same way there in the B2C part and hopefully we will be able to develop our B2B offering even more and hopefully serve our clients better there to get back to growth in B2B as well. Maybe not sequentially year-over-year growth in the near future, but still if we can get to growth quarter on quarter, that's a very good development that I'm hoping for.
I
Interviewer18:18
Fantastic. Well, Pontus, once again, thank you for joining us. Really appreciated the time and I've really enjoyed the chat as well. So thanks a lot and I'm sure we'll speak again very soon. Thank you to Optimov for supporting the show as always. And to our listeners, thank you for tuning in to today's episode of I Gaming Daily. And come back tomorrow to keep up to date with all the latest global gambling news.