Zeal Network SE has released its financial results for the first quarter of 2024, displaying a 22% increase in lottery billings at €246.3m ($264.5m).  

Group revenue also increased by 35% to €36.1m, compared to the figure of €26.7m from the first quarter of 2023. Adjusted EBITDA was up by 1% to €9.4m, with the difference in increase level when compared to revenue being attributed by the company to an almost doubling of investment over the first quarter compared to last year. 

The main driver for these results for Zeal lies within its lottery business, which saw a 28% rise in revenue to €32m. Also reported by Zeal Network are figures for the lottery’s active customers, which are rising by 21% per month – subsequently contributing to the increase in billing figures. 

Sebastian Bielski, Zeal CFO, commented on the figures, saying: “We made a very strong start to 2024 and were able to significantly accelerate our revenue growth, particularly in our core business of lottery brokerage. We are also particularly proud of the fact that we were able to achieve EBITDA slightly above the previous year’s level in the past quarter despite almost doubling our marketing expenses and a negative one-off effect from a major win in our charity lottery Deutsche Traumhauslotterie amounting to €0.8m.”  

Launched last year, Zeal’s games business also saw an increase in its Q1 revenue compared to the figures from the final quarter of 2023 – up 20% to €2.2m.  

These latest figures build on Zeal’s FY2023 results reported in March, which detailed a 10% revenue increase for the year.