bet-at-home published final Q2 figures fully in line with prelims which already unveiled soft sales, but significantly improved profitability. In a nutshell:  

• Sales of only € 10.9m were significantly below Q1 figures (€ 13.3m) and previous year´s figure of € 14.0m. The sales slump is caused by 1) lower betting volumes due to the summer break (€ 86.2m in Q2; -23% qoq, -23% yoy) and regulatory changes (i.e. implementation of cross-product and cross-provider monthly betting limits) as well as 2) lower gaming volumes (-28% qoq, -49% yoy) due to limitation of the licensed offering vs last year. The lower volumes were partially compensated by higher betting margins (13.1%; 7% qoq, 10% yoy) and gaming margins (8.9%; 3% qoq, 47% yoy).
• EBITDA came in at € 2.0m (19% qoq, -18% yoy), thanks to OPEX remained stable yoy at € 7.7m on the back of streamlined operations as well as numerous cost-cutting and efficiency measures. Still, the major driver of the Q2 EBITDA was a one-off that lifted other operating income to € 1.2m (vs € 0.3m in Q2´22).

Overall, the Q2 figures showed once again that the efficiency measure bear fruit, making the EBITDA guidance of € -3m to € 1m look too conservative (eNuW: € 1.8m), even by taking into account higher marketing spending in the second half of the year and the sales guidance range of € 50-60m that starts to look ambitious.

Apart from the solid operating business, risk associated with the liquidation process of the bet-at-home.com Entertainment Ldt. as well as provisions for current and potential new customer claims are still burdening the case. Positively, only € 9.5m in accounts receivables against the Entertainment Ldt. are at risk at the moment, according to the final Q2 figures. Further, we expect that the peak of new customer claims has already passed, which limits potential new provisions. That, paired with the promising long-term trends (shift towards online and increasing acceptance of betting and gambling) makes bet-at-home a potential candidate for 2024 and beyond.

With new customer claims that are expected to decline going forward, we see light at the end of the tunnel. For the moment we remain cautious, despite the promising operating outlook and reiterate HOLD with an unchanged, conservative PT of € 5.00 based on FCFY´23E.