The revenue of Rivalry, a betting company that focuses on esports and other sports games, grew 640.0% in 2021 to $11.1m. Chief executive Steven Salz called it “an incredible year” by almost all standards.
Betting handle increased by 202.0% to reach $78.2m.
Costs of revenue for the business also grew quickly. They increased by more than 10 times to $8.9m.
This still leaves a gross income of $2.2m which is up by 216.8%.
The company then spent an additional $26,9m on operating costs. This was a 258.7% increase.
Share-based compensation costs accounted for the largest portion of this cost, with $10.5m. In 2020, these costs amounted to only $671,111. The other operating costs were $6.2m for general and amortization costs, $6.1m for marketing costs, $1.5m for bad debt costs and $1.3m technology and content expenses.
Due to these costs, Rivalry has made an operating profit of $24.7m compared with a loss of $6.8m in 2020.
Rivalry also suffered a net loss of $24.7m after minimal investment and interest costs. This is 258.0% higher than the loss in 2020.
Rivalry’s comprehensive total loss increased by 224.8% after accounting for the exchange rate difference.
Steven Salz, co-founder of Rivalry and its CEO, said that despite the growing losses the brand had a successful year.
We had an incredible year in nearly every way. “We had a tremendous year by nearly all measures in 2021. Our team delivered triple digit growth. We secured financial resources to speed up our momentum. Continued to improve our original developed product. Added significant talent depth. Further solidified Rivalry’s position as the leading esports betting brand globally.
Rivalry also listed for the first time its voting subordinate shares at the TSX Venture Exchange in 2009.
Salz added that the growth rate continued through Q2 2022.
He said: “I am also happy to report that we’ve continued this pace into 2022. Our Q1 bet handle delivered 62% sequential increase over Q4 and was up 273% from year-over-year.”
The Q1 betting handling reached a record $40.2m. This is a 273% increase year-over-year.
Rivalry began its Ontario operations at the beginning of Q2 2022 as the first operator to be licensed.
Our focus for 2022 will be growth in product and new markets, as well as an expansion of Rivalry’s creative universe. We want to seize what we consider a unique opportunity in the betting and entertainment industry to lead the way in the future. We believe that by implementing our operational targets and maintaining a financially disciplined approach, our unit economics and profitability will increase.
