The Finnish state-owned and monopoly operator, Veikkaus, released its latest financial report, uncovering details regarding its performance throughout 2023. Overall, Veikkaus Group’s sales revenue last year halted at €1.03 billion ($1.13 billion). This result, compared to the 2022 figure, showed a slight 3.5% decrease year-over-year.
On the other hand, profits for the fiscal year reported by Veikkaus Group saw another dip, halting at €578.5 million ($633.7 million). A year-over-year comparison showed a 13.7% decrease. Similarly, the company’s operating profit in 2023 decreased by 14.5% to €573.6 million ($628.3 million). A statement released by Veikkaus confirmed that the declines are the result of “an increase in the Lottery tax, one-time cost entries made as a result of the cooperation negotiations in the autumn, and significant investments in the Group’s future.”
Further details released by Veikkaus Group reveal that the profit of its parent company, Veikkaus Oy, in 2023 decreased by 14% year-over-year to €585 million ($640.8 million). Not unexpectedly, the operating profit reported for the period also marked a 14.7% decrease to €580.2 million ($635.5 million) for last year. The company confirmed that the decrease in the results was partly because of the new responsible gaming initiative by Veikkaus that required all physical ticket-game players to identify. The aforementioned change was enforced back in May 2023.
Regina Sippel, Veikkaus’ CFO, revealed that the performance and profits of the company for last year were in line with expectations. Moreover, she added that Veikkaus is happy with the results. Finally, Sippel noted: “The year was particularly successful for our online games, and Veikkaus will continue to deepen its development investments in its digital channel.”
“Veikkaus’ profits and performance in 2023 were as expected, and we can be satisfied with these as a whole.“
Regina Sippel, CFO at Veikkaus The Company Unveils Further Highlights Further insights released by Veikkaus confirmed that its authenticated gambling was responsible for 90.6% of the activities in 2023. This result represented a year-over-year uptick of 11.1%. Additionally, Veikkaus reiterated that starting from January 1, this year, all of its games can only be played via people who are registered and must identify each time they play.
The company added that in 2023, it observed a reoccurring trend for channelization toward online gambling. Last year, some 54.8% of the gross gaming revenue reported by Veikkaus came from digital gambling activities, a result that marked a 4.5% increase year-over-year.
The company’s registered customers increased by 180,000 during 2023, an uptick of 8%. As a result, Veikkaus wrapped up 2023 with approximately 2,520,000 registered users.
