GAN’s 2018 losses lead to talk of selling the company

UK-listed online gambling technology provider GAN is mulling flogging itself to the highest bidder now that it’s US-based operations are growing.

On Friday, GAN informed investors that its net revenue hit £10.6m in 2018, a 16% improvement over 2017’s tally. However, the company’s so-called ‘clean’ earnings swung to a £1.5m loss from a modest £454k profit in 2017 and the company’s pre-tax losses grew by £2.5m to £6.7m.

GAN insists that the negative numbers don’t tell the full story, noting that its US-facing real-money online gambling and sports betting operations grew much quicker than its free-play Simulated Gaming business, which launched only one new client in 2018. Last year marked the first time that real-money gaming revenue (£5.3m) eclipsed GAN’s social casino operations (£4.3m).

GAN launched its second real-money online casino client in New Jersey (Ocean Resort Casino) last July, joining the New Jersey-licensed Betfair Casino site of UK operator Paddy Power Betfair (PPB). GAN also helped launch online sports betting for PPB’s FanDuel brand in New Jersey.