Genius Sports posted revenue figures of $53.7m for the first quarter of 2021, marking a 51.9% increase on the same period last year and prompting the data supplier to raise its revenue guidance for the year to $250m-$260m.
moneyOf this total, $39.0m came from betting technology, up 42.1%, $9.4m was generated from media technology (a 127.0% increase), and sports technology contributed $5.4m.
Gross profit also increased 76.6% to $13.6m, whilst net operating profit decreased 60.2% to £3.3m. Adjusted EBITDA saw a 414% year on year increase to $9.3m.
Operating expenses were up 17.6% to $16.7m. Although sales and marketing costs dropped to $3.9m, research and development costs increased 37.5% to $3.3m. Administrative costs reached $8.9m, whilst transaction expenses amounted to $689,000.
As a result, operating losses decreased 52.3% to $3.1m.
In terms of non-operating costs, interest expenses rose to $2.3m, foreign currency losses were $163,000., and other expenses came to $2.5m. Depreciation and amortisation amounted to $4.5m, while litigation costs totaled $878,000
Pre-tax losses totaled $5.6m, while after tax net losses came to $5.3m – down 29.3% from 2020.
Following the successful quarter, the business raised its rveenue guidance by 35%, from $190m to between $250m and $260m.
In a busy year for Genius, 2021 has already seen the supplier list on the New York Stock Exchange, completee a deal with FanHub, acquire Second Spectrum in a $200m deal, and sign a multi-year data partnership with the NFL.
“We delivered superb results in the first quarter of 2021, demonstrating our continued excellent momentum and solid execution of strategic commitments,” said Genius co-founder and CEO Mark Locke.
“There is a significant opportunity to utilize our leading portfolio of official sports data, supported by our unique technology, scale and growing network of industry partners. Our strategy of powering the global sports data ecosystem has supported our growth in the quarter, and we’re confident in our ability to continuously improve our end-to-end solution and deliver on our increased guidance for the year.”
Analyst Paul Leyland of Regulus Partners, however, said it still remains to be seen whether Genius can live up to the high investor expectations.
“The group is still very much in ‘investment phase’, but from a much stronger underlying position than just nine months ago.
“Like most US-facing business models, Genius will sink or swim on commercial drivers, technical competence and operational execution – not daydreaming about what the size of the US market might be in five years time.”
