Genius Sports Slashes Losses, Moves Toward Profitability in Second Quarter
Genius Sports’ second quarter earnings showed a strong move toward profitability, with the data and analytics company’s net loss narrowing 99% to $4.8 million. Better-than-projected sales growth was muddied by a strengthening dollar, however.
The results, released this morning before the opening of trading in New York, showed Genius posted $71.1 million in sales, beating the consensus of $65 million from six Wall Street analysts and the company’s most recent guidance of $68 million because of the effects of converting foreign currency sales to dollars. The British pound has weakened 11% against the dollar during the quarter; previously, it had taken $1.35 to buy one pound, and it now takes about $1.20. If currencies remained level, then business would have generated $75 million, according to the press release.
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“We remain highly focused on delivering profitable growth and have executed ahead of expectations through the first half of the year. We continue to utilize our partnerships and unique technology to yield strong results and build upon our commercial strategy,” Mark Locke, Genius co-founder and CEO, said in the release.
Genius has been emphasizing to investors that it would narrow losses and turn toward positive earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) by year’s end. The business appears to be on track for those goals during the latest quarter, with the net loss of $4.8 million well below the $464 million of a year ago, a figure that was inflated by various accounting measures related to Genius going public. The business also turned adjusted EBITDA positive in the quarter, with $8.36 million in adjusted EBITDA. Many fast-growth businesses focus on EBITDA as a measure of their growth. Genius adjusts its EBITDA by adding back in a number of line items, including stock-based compensations costs and litigation expenses.
For the full year, the company affirmed its full-year sales guidance of $340 million of revenue and adjusted EBITDA of $15 million for 2022, even with the weaker British pound. Looking ahead to 2023, Genius says it projects sales between $430 and $440 million and adjusted EBITDA of $40 million to $50 million.
Genius is one of the primary providers of sports data and analytics worldwide to sports books and media operators. Its shares have suffered with the rest of the industry as investors entered 2022 balking at high costs and mounting losses throughout the once-hot betting stocks sector. After bottoming at $2.25 at the end of June, Genius shares have been rebounding, rallying more than 75% this month on improving volume, a sign that market sentiment may be turning.
This story has been updated to correct the number of adjusted EBITDA and to accurately reflect the full-year sales guidance.
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