LONDON (Alliance News) - Nektan PLC on Wednesday said continuation of strong trading momentum has resulted in a sharp increase in gaming revenue for 2018 financial year.
For the year ended June 30, the gaming software developer recorded a 48% jump in net gaming revenue to GBP19.4 million from GBP13.1 million recorded in the year ago period. Four quarter gaming revenue rose 11% to GBP5.7 million from GBP5.1 million.
Nektan said its US subsidiary Rapid Games will go live with its second northern Californian on-premise mobile gaming partner later in July. The company also said it saw interest from new markets in its Metric Gaming's full service Race & Sports offering.
Looking ahead, Nektan said it is currently reviewing its strategic options in the US and saw a number of offers to invest in Rapid.
Meanwhile, first time depositors grew by 19% quarter-on-quarter to 43,289 from 36,359. For the full year, the figures increased by 20% to 156,703 from 130,105 a year ago.
Cash wagering also improved by 14% in the quarter to GBP162.9 million from GBP142.4 million in the third quarter of 2018. On the year-on-year basis, cash wagering was 43% higher at GBP559.8 million compared to GBP390.3 million.
During the fourth quarter of 2018, the company launched 13 new sites and gained four new partners. Nektan is now operating with a total of 113 brands from 55 partners, while its platform has over 500 games from 24 games providers.
Turning to Nektan's B2B division, the company expects to move towards earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization break-even in Europe during 2019. The estimates came after Nektan generated revenue from the B2B business of GBP105,000 in the fourth quarter of 2018 financial versus GBP83,000 made in the third quarter of the financial year.
The company said that the number of deals in the segment also grew to 12 from 9 achieved in the third quarter. Nektan signed the first global deal with Tyche Digital, taking the total number of partners to four.
"We are delighted with Nektan's continuing revenue growth," said Interim Chief Execuitve Gary Shaw. "We expect to continue to build on this strong momentum in the year ahead."
Shares in Nektan were trading 15% higher on Wednesday at 22.97 pence each.
