500.com lost $91m in 2019, still can’t renew online casino license

Struggling online lottery and casino operator 500.com lost over $91m in 2019 and has only around half that sum left in its coffers with virtually no revenue coming in.

On Thursday, the Shenzhen-based, Nasdaq-listed 500.com announced that its revenue in the final three months of 2019 totaled a mere RMB8.6m (US$1.2m), less than one-third of the RMB27.2m the company generated in Q4 2018. The company’s operating losses tripled to RMB298.7m while the company booked a net loss of RMB307.9m.

The full-year figures were equally grim, as revenue fell by more than two-thirds to RMB39.7m ($5.7m), operating losses nearly doubled to RMB634.4m and net losses hit RMB636.4m ($91.1m).

Nearly 99% of 500.com’s Q4 revenue came via its European-facing The Multi Group (TMG), which offers online lottery betting and casino products via the Multilotto brand. The brand has suffered ever since the beginning of 2019, when the launch of Sweden’s regulated market forced Multilotto’s customers to re-register their accounts, except many chose not to bother.