Fredrik Elmqvist, CEO of Yggdrasil has commented as follows on the significant financial growth that has been achieved in the six months to June 30, 2016.

“The entire team can be very proud with how things have progressed in the first half of 2016 for Yggdrasil. Our strategy is firmly on track and we are consistently smashing our target numbers out of the park. Being awarded Slot Provider of the Year at the 2016 EGR B2B Awards was a huge moment for the company and proved that we are now a tier one supplier. This is all thanks to a rapid moving and growing team.

The growth we have achieved has been excellent, but we are still in a volatile phase of expansion so we need to view the current results in a more long-term perspective. We have focused predominantly on organic growth from existing customers over the past nine-twelve months, delivering a range of market-leading promotional tools that have proven very popular with our customers and their players.

Our attention now turns to new business as we are ready to take on a lot more after investing significantly in infrastructure and focusing on optimisation during H1. The fact we have signed massive names like bet365 and bwin.party shows how well our products and promotions are being received by the very best in the business.

Securing our Gibraltar licence was a real landmark for the business and we will be seeking to capitalise on all the opportunities that the licence brings during the remainder of 2016 and next year. We are also assessing other regulated markets as well as dot com options.

Recruitment remains vitally important, but we have made some changes to the way we recruit and how we then integrate new employees into the business so they are ready to hit the ground running. We’ve filled numerous positions, both in Malta and Poland, while we still have a few key positions left open in Gibraltar. We are now focusing on prioritised roles moving forward. Because we do things slightly differently from the rest of the industry, we create positions that don’t exist anywhere else. At the end of H1 we had a team of 74 and I expect this to grow further in H2.

We have revamped our finance department to increase quality and control in a pan European landscape and I was delighted to appoint our first chief financial officer Frida Gustafsson, who has an incredibly sharp financial brain and can help us continue our strong growth.

The reaction from the market to our games portfolio remains extremely positive. Bicicleta, Wicked Circus and Monkey King have all been top performing games and they followed on from Incinerator, Golden Fish Tank and Seasons which were launched in Q1.

BOOST, our collection of promotional tools, has taken the industry by storm. Cash Race, which launched alongside new football-themed slot Bicicleta at the start of Euro 2016, proved hugely popular across our network, as did the Mystery Win Tournament network promotion. If we’re not already, I confidently predict that by the end of this year we will be the market leader in promotional tools in the online slots arena.
Mobile continues to grow rapidly and during the period mobile gaming had reached 48 percent of total gross game win. We identified some time ago the importance of adopting an HTML5 strategy and that has paid dividends. We look forward to 2017 and believe we are well-positioned to take advantage of an ever-changing technological landscape which could see Google Chrome reduce its support for Flash.

Although we have grown quickly, we remain a small and agile supplier compared with a number of others in the industry. We still have some important revenue drivers that we hope to secure during the remainder of Q3 early Q4, so we certainly aren’t resting on our laurels and are hungry for further success. As we’re now becoming known for our industry-firsts, like BRAG, our recently launched social tool, I’m happy to reveal there will be one more before the end of the year. Watch this space!”

Key Highlights are as follows:

•Revenues for the period increased by 661 percent YoY to MSEK 34.1 (4.5)
•Operating profit increased by MSEK 12.2 (-4.7)
•Operating margin was 36 percent
•Number of player transactions (rounds) increased by 1,062 percent YoY to 753.1 million
•Mobile gaming has now grown to be 48 percent of total gross game win
•Eight new licence agreements were signed, including bet365 and bwin.party
•Two new customers were launched
•Six new games were released: Bicicleta, Wicked Circus, Monkey King, Incinerator, Golden Fish Tank and Seasons
•Named Slot Provider of the Year at the 2016 EGR B2B Awards and iGaming Software Supplier of the Year at the 2016 International Gaming Awards
•Awarded Gibraltar B2B remote gambling licence
•Innovative Cash Race promotional tool launched alongside Bicicleta slot featuring a half-time network campaign during opening game of Euro 2016 with a €10,000 prize pool