Virtual sports and casino game developer Leap Gaming has seen gross gaming revenue rise 123% for the opening five months of 2020, with the business now expecting to post a profit in the third quarter of the year.While no figures were provided, an update from Leap’s shareholder FastForward Innovations – which holds a 43.4% stake in the supplier – also revealed that revenue (gross revenue minus expenses) had also grown 95% year-on-year.
This, it said, was driven by the roll-out of new products and new client wins in the period to 31 May 2020, as well as expansion into new markets such as Latin America.
In total 30 new customers were signed or partnerships agreed in the five-month period including deals with the Association of Tennis Professionals’ ATP Tour Masters 1000 events, Nascar and Carnoustie Golf Links. This has seen Leap work with its strategic partner, media giant IMG, to develop virtual sports games based on real-world locations and events.
“Leap Gaming started 2020 strongly with the completion of its own RGS (remote gaming server), accelerated pace of game title releases, new distribution deals and deepening relationships with incumbent partners,” Leap chief executive Yariv Lissauer said.
“Our strategy of further evolving virtual sports through embedding officialisation into the products had started to manifest itself with the partnerships deals we recently announced with ATP (for the creation of Virtual Tennis ATP 1000 Tour, first version of which is already live); Nascar; and Carnoustie.”
Leap now expects to become profitable in the third quarter of 2020, and to support the business’ continued growth, its shareholders, including FastForward, have agreed to advance the supplier a €250,000 (£225,884/€280,187) bridging loan. This matures on 31 December 2021, and accrues interest at 1.02% per month.
It will be used to provide working capital, which is expected to allow the business to reach profitability, and replaces plans for a much larger fundraising drive originally planned for the third quarter.
“With the support of FastFoward and its other shareholders including IMG, Leap Gaming has rapidly developed new products, created new partnerships and expanded its global reach to build market share; this has seen a 95% year-on-year increase in revenues in the first five months of 2020,” FastForward chief executive Ed McDermott said.
“We are therefore delighted that the business continues to be ahead of schedule and that in providing this modest bridging loan we, together with the other shareholders, have given them additional funding as the company moves towards profitability,” McDermott added. “We look forward to continuing to support Yariv and his team during the next exciting growth phase.”
FastForward first acquired a stake in Leap in 2016, originally purchasing a 29.4% holding, but with the option to increase this by 11.75%, before increasing its shares in the business to 43.4%.
IMG, meanwhile, struck a strategic partnership with the supplier in June 2018.
