LeoVegas ramps up fight against Italy’s gambling advertising ban

Swedish mobile casino operator LeoVegas says its second quarter earnings have exceeded expectations, while the company is ratcheting up its fight against Italy’s new gambling advertising ban.

LeoVegas released an early preview of its Q2 fiscal report this week, happily announcing that its earnings were likely to come in around €15m on revenue of around €87m. The official figures will be released on August 1.

The company said its marketing expenses amounted to around €30m, representing around 35% of Q2 revenue. When LeoVegas released its Q1 report this spring, it said its Q2 marketing spend would likely exceed the 42.3% of revenue the company spent in 2017.

LeoVegas CEO Gustaf Hagman said the company’s “data-driven marketing model works so that we only invest if we see good enough returns in our marketing channels.” This model indicated that the frenzy of rivals’ marketing efforts during the 2018 FIFA World Cup meant LeoVegas “should not advertise in some channels due to the low return, which in turn led to a significantly higher EBITDA than expected.”