Codere Online sees strong results but can’t get a hold in Argentina
Growth in Mexico and Spain drove strong full-year results for 2024.
Spain.- Codere Online has reported full-year net gaming revenue of €211.6m for 2024, a rise of 23 per cent year-on-year. Adjusted EBITDA was €6.4m, a rise of 18.1 per cent, and the operator’s average monthly active player number rose by 13 per cent to 144,900.
Growth was driven by Mexico, where revenue rose by 30 per cent year-on-year to €106.6 million. However, revenue flattened in the last quarter due to the devaluation of the Mexican peso. In the operator’s home Spanish market, revenue rose by 16 per cent year-on-year to €87.7m as average monthly active players climbed by 17 per cent to 49,700.
While the news was mainly positive, Codere Online recognised that, despite its efforts, it hasn’t been able to penetrate Argentina due to the country’s federal regulatory system. While it has gained a presence in the City of Buenos Aires, it hasn’t been able to enter the more populous and profitable Buenos Aires Province.
CEO Aviv Sher said: “We made a lot of efforts, but we are not able, at the moment, to enter the province of Argentina where the majority of the money in the country is coming from and we are not able to grow our business there based only on the city.”
As for Mexico, Sher said he had seen signs that competitors were backing off. “I don’t know why, but I think some of the competitors slowed down their investment a little in the fourth quarter, and we are enjoying it,” he said. “I think some of the competitors, let’s call them the European competitors that came in, did not succeed as well as they thought. They probably saw success in other markets in LatAm, and I think right now they lost a little bit of focus into this Mexico market a little bit.”
No expansion in Latin America for now
As for Codere’s chances of expanding further in Latin America, Sher said Spain and Mexico would still come first, and that it didn’t make sense to invest in markets such as Chile or Peru while there is still space to grow in existing markets.
He said: “The problem we are facing right now is if I want to increase my marketing spend, our next dollar, in terms of ROI, should go into Mexico and Spain because we know how to spend it and we know the ROI on it.”
Codere Online must file its delayed 2023 annual report on or before May 12 to avoid the threat of delisting from the Nasdaq.
See also: Spanish online gambling revenue climbs in Q3 amid relaxation of advertising rules
