Betsson’s Q2 lives down to advance billing

The CEO of Nordic betting operator Betsson AB has earned an early nod for understatement of the year by admitting that the company’s second quarter results “did not live up to our expectations.”

Three weeks ago, Betsson saw its shares shed one-third of their value after the company alerted investors that profits in the three months ending June 30 were likely to come in 25% lower than the same period last year.

On Thursday, Betsson released its interim report covering the first half of 2016, which showed revenue up 13% to SEK 1.93b ($225m), operating income down 10% to SEK 408m and profit down 9% to SEK 380m. Perhaps because things weren’t worse, Betsson shares closed Thursday’s trading up over 13%.

As for that disappointing Q2, results largely mirrored those earlier dire forecasts. Revenue was up 9% to SEK 935m, operating income fell 26% to SEK 158m and profit was off 27% to SEK 146m.