The finance-focused data, technology, and broadcast business experienced growth across all segments in Q3, despite remaining at a net loss. The significant growth, combined with earlier success in 2023, prompted Genius to raise its guidance. The highest growth was seen in Genius’ betting technology, content, and services division during the quarter, with a 34.1% increase in revenue. The media and sports businesses also saw double-digit percentage growth. Co-founder and CEO Mark Locke, along with CFO Nick Taylor, expressed their enthusiasm for the Q3 growth and the impact of Genius’ ongoing expansion plans. Taylor described it as a “critical” turning point for the business. Genius remains heavily focused on betting.
Breaking down the performance of each segment in Q3, the betting technology, content, and services division generated $65.9m, a 34.1% increase compared to the same period last year. This growth was driven by acquiring new customers, increased utilization of available content by existing customers, and growth within the existing customer base. Price increases on contract renewals and renegotiations, expansion of value-add services, and new service offerings also contributed to the division’s revenue growth. The media technology, content, and services segment experienced a 27.9% increase in revenue to $17.9m, with growth primarily driven by programmatic advertising services in the Americas region. The remaining revenue of $12.9m came from technology and services, representing an 11.3% increase.
In terms of spending, the cost of revenue increased by 6.3% to $77.4m, while operating expenses decreased by 15.3% to $33.2m. Genius incurred an additional $1.2m in interest income, offset by a $4.2m loss on foreign currency. Last year, Genius reported a $25.5m gain on foreign currency, which skews the year-on-year comparison. As a result, the pre-tax loss widened to $12.0m compared to $10.6m last year. Genius paid $1.2m in tax and gained $1.5m from equity investment method, resulting in a net loss of $11.6m, compared to $9.0m last year. However, group adjusted EBITDA in Q3 increased significantly by 131.1% to $17.7m.
In the first nine months of the year, Genius achieved a 21.3% increase in revenue, reaching $285.8m. Betting-related revenue increased by 30.5% to $187.5m, while media revenue rose by 10.5% to $63.1m, and sports revenue by 0.8% to $35.2m. Cost of revenue amounted to $227.3m, and operating expenses totaled $98.3m, both lower than the previous year. The business also reported net other costs of $3.9m, compared to $82.6m in income in the previous year, primarily due to a $68.3m gain on foreign currency. Consequently, the pre-tax loss improved to $43.7m, compared to $55.5m last year. Genius paid $5.8m in income tax and gained $2.4m from equity investment method, resulting in a net loss of $47.1m, a decrease from $53.9m last year. Additionally, group adjusted EBITDA surged by 215.3% to $41.4m.
Based on these figures, Genius has raised its full-year guidance for revenue and group adjusted EBITDA. It now expects group revenue to reach approximately $412.0m and group adjusted EBITDA to be $53.0m. The revenue forecast includes $268.0m from the betting business, $94.0m from media, and $50.0m from sports.
