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ZEAL publishes 2020 Annual Report, confirms dividend policy and provides guidance for 2021

DGAP-News: ZEAL Network SE / Key word(s): Annual Results ZEAL publishes 2020 Annual Report, confirms dividend policy and provides guidance for 2021 25.03.2021 / 07:30 The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. ZEAL publishes 2020 Annual Report, confirms dividend policy and provides guidance for 2021

• Preliminary figures for 2020 confirmed
• Targeted cost synergies fully implemented
• Market share expanded
• EUR 246 million for good causes

(Hamburg, 25 March 2021) ZEAL Network SE (lotto24.de, tipp24.com) today published its Annual Report 2020 and confirmed the strong preliminary figures for the financial year 2020 already published on 26 January 2021:
With growth of 40%, billings of the ZEAL Group rose to EUR 652.8 million in the fiscal year 2020 (2019: EUR 466.7 million). In addition to the first full consolidation of LOTTO24, the positive jackpot development and the associated strong acquisition of new customers contributed to this. For contractual reasons, the billings of the ONCE business in Spain are not included in the total. Due to the expected dis-synergies in the course of the business model change, revenue decreased by 23% year-on-year to EUR 87.0 million (2019: EUR 113.5 million). At 12.3%, the gross margin in the Germany segment was above the previous year's level (2019: 11.7%).

In addition, ZEAL was able to acquire 918 thousand new registered customers in the Germany segment (2019: 274 thousand) at acquisition costs per new registered customer (cost per lead, CPL) of EUR 27.79 (2019: EUR 33.64). The average number of monthly active users (MAU) and average billings per user (ABPU) also increased in the Germany segment to 986 thousand and EUR 55.07 respectively (2019: 640 thousand and EUR 48.99).
Due to the revenue dis-synergies associated with the change of business model and the increased marketing investment, adjusted EBITDA of EUR 12.7 million was below the previous year's figure (2019: EUR 29.4 million), as expected, but above the already raised guidance. At EUR 5.4 million, EBIT was also down on the previous year (2019: EUR 9.1 million). Due to the EUR 3.4 million increase in the financial result and the EUR 6.6 million reduction in tax charges, net profit of EUR 7.9 million was well above the prior-year figure (2019: EUR 1.7 million).