Despite the worldwide gambling boom, layoffs and job loss are a very real threat to anyone working in the regulated gaming industry; just ask the 300 employees who were recently made redundant at Danish operator Better Collective. Those job losses were recently addressed by company CEO Jesper Søgaard during a recent Q3 earnings report.
Søgaard cited a number of factors in the decision to cut so many jobs, but singled out the sluggish roll out of the newly opened Brazilian market, and slow US growth as the main culprits. “During Q3 we have experienced changing dynamics in the US market, which has changed the outlook. Further, Brazil has seen an increasing slowdown all year heading into the expected regulation. The impact on Q3 and the outlook led us to lower our financial targets for the year, marking the first downgrade since becoming a listed company in 2018. Although the first state in the US has been operational for six years, it is effectively only three years mature for most states. Meanwhile, the Brazilian market is expectedly on the brink of regulation. Young markets bring challenges and opportunities, and we are committed to navigating this, like done historically in more mature regulations.”
While the loss of 300 jobs represents significant pain for the impacted households, it also only represents 15 percent of the staff at Better Collective. Søgaard added that the layoffs would account for around $2.3 million in annual savings.
Better Collective produced around $85.6 million in revenue for Q3 2024, which represents an eight percent increase over Q3 2023.