Revenue for the year remained minimal, at $25,174, which was down 66.6% from 2020. All of this total came from the Isle of Man.
Despite the lower revenue, costs of sales grew slightly, to $290,286. This was mostly due to a 24.1% increase in platform and service provider fees to $277,994, as the cost of free bets dropped by 80.8% to $12,292.
This meant the business made a gross loss of $265,112, which was up 24.8% year-on-year.
Operating expenses also increased by 62.1% to $8.4m. This included $1.9m in share-based compensation, up 113.0%, $1.7m in salaries and director fees, up 12.2%, and $1.4m in consulting fees, a 111.2% increase. The business also paid $1.3m in legal and professional fees and $943,234 in advertising and marketing costs.
After also paying $40,799 in interest income, the business’ pre-tax loss was $8.6m, up 57.0%. The business paid only $6,061 in taxes, meaning its final loss was also up 57.0% to $8.6m.
Chief executive Thomas Rosander said that while the business had focused on building its platform in 2021, it was not well-placed to work on acquiring customers.
“During fiscal 2021, our team worked to enhance and extend both our proprietary platform and infrastructure, positioning us to launch our player acquisition efforts in 2022,” Rosander said. “Our work has enabled us to develop and launch a next-generation wagering platform, powered by superior business intelligence infrastructure to support our player acquisition efforts, with the aim of optimizing marketing spend and player value.
Rosander added that the business had added a number of new verticals including online casino as part of this.
“As part of our plan to build a betting platform for a new generation of players during 2021, we made hundreds of improvements to the platform, announced eight new partnerships and further strengthened our team,” he said. “To compliment our core esports offering, we added sports wagering, enabling fans to bet on hundreds of daily markets on sports such as football, basketball, soccer and hockey.
“We concluded the year with the online casino launch, bringing an expected near-term revenue stream in a vertical where I have had prior successes throughout my career, including my tenure as CEO of Dunder.”
“We are looking forward to launching our offerings in Ontario and expect to enter additional regulated markets during 2022.”
Original article: https://igamingbusiness.com/luckbox-set-for-player-acquisition-after-minimal-revenue-in-2021/
