ZEAL sets new records for new customers, revenue and EBITDA in its anniversary year 2024

• Milestone of one million new customers per year reached for the first time
• Group revenue grows by 62% to € 188.2 million
• EBITDA almost doubled to € 61.9 million
• Expectations for new charity lottery Traumhausverlosung (English: Dream House Raffle) exceeded
• Squeeze-out of LOTTO24 AG successfully completed

 ZEAL Network SE, the online market leader for lotteries in Germany, published its 2024 annual report today, reporting record figures for several key performance indicators. Group revenue increased by 62% to € 188.2 million (2023: € 116.1 million). At € 61.9 million, EBITDA was almost twice as high as in the previous year (2023: € 32.9 million).

“In our anniversary year 2024, we achieved a record triple in our business development in terms of new customers, revenue and EBITDA. In addition to the biggest growth in our core business since the company was founded, we have established ourselves as a pioneer in the German market with the launch of our Traumhausverlosung (English: Dream House Raffle),” comments Helmut Becker, CEO of ZEAL. “For the third year in a row, our subsidiary LOTTO24 AG has produced more record winners than any other provider in Germany. Our success is also good news for the good cause – with € 382 million in 2024, ZEAL has generated the highest sum in the company’s history for social and community projects.”

“Thanks to targeted marketing measures and very successful new customer acquisition in an exceptionally good jackpot year, we reached the milestones of one million new customers and one billion in lottery billings for the first time. We are proud to have achieved the highest revenue in our company’s history. At the same time, we were able to demonstrate the enormous profitability and scalability of our business model with a record EBITDA,” says Sebastian Bielski, CFO of ZEAL.

Revenue in the German lottery business grows by 59 %

ZEAL’s outstanding revenue performance is largely due to strong revenue growth in lotteries. Due to a very positive jackpot situation and successful marketing measures, the average number of active customers (1,436 thousand) rose by 25%. At the same time, billings from lotteries exceeded one billion euros for the first time at € 1,080.4 million (2023: € 843.3 million). The gross margin rose by 3.1 percentage points to 15.6% due to a price increase in ticket fees in June 2024 and a change in the product mix. The parallel increase in billings and gross margin led to significant revenue growth in the lottery business of 59% to € 168.3 million (2023: € 105.7 million). ZEAL also improved its online market share by 2.4 percentage points from 41.4% to 43.8%.

Earnings almost doubled thanks to marketing efficiency and scaling effects

ZEAL achieved a record 1,259 thousand new customers in 2024, more than double the previous year’s figure (2023: 597 thousand). Thanks to more efficient marketing measures, the successful acquisition of new customers led to a year-on-year decrease in acquisition costs per registered new customer (cost per lead, CPL) of 23% to € 35.16 (2023: € 45.52).

Other operating expenses increased by 58% to € 98.0 million (2023: € 62.0 million). This was largely due to strategic marketing expenses, which rose by 58% to € 56.9 million (2023: € 36.0 million), but at a significantly lower rate than the more than doubling of new customer growth. The growth and diversification of the business led to a 54% increase in the direct costs of business operations to € 18.5 million (2023: € 12.0 million). The increase in indirect operating costs to € 22.6 million (2023: € 14.0 million) was due to external consulting services and a provision of € 2.2 million connected to the squeeze-out of LOTTO24 AG.

Despite the higher costs, ZEAL was able to increase EBITDA disproportionately by 88% to € 61.9 million (2023: € 32.9 million) thanks to efficiency gains and scaling effects of the business model in relation to the strong revenue growth. At € 53.7 million, EBIT more than doubled compared to the previous year’s figure (2023: € 23.6 million).

The Executive Board and Supervisory Board will propose to the Annual General Meeting on May 21, 2025 the payment of a dividend for the 2024 financial year of € 2.40 per share (2023: € 1.10), consisting of an ordinary dividend of € 1.30 and a special dividend of € 1.10. This means a total distribution to shareholders of around € 50.6 million (2023: € 23.8 million).

Dream House Raffle another highlight of the financial year

In 2024, ZEAL has launched the first charity lottery in Germany to raffle off an existing property. The first raffle of a dream house on the Baltic Sea exceeded all expectations for this product innovation and led to around 14 million tickets being sold between August and October. ZEAL was able to generate around € 1.8 million for charitable causes with the first house raffle alone, including more than € 1.2 million for the main charity partner DKMS.

Squeeze-out of LOTTO24 AG completed

With the acquisition of the remaining shares of LOTTO24 AG in 2024, ZEAL reached an important milestone in the optimization of the Group structure. The squeeze-out was completed on October 8, 2024 and the profit and loss transfer and domination agreement between ZEAL Network SE and LOTTO24 AG was entered in the commercial register on 21 November 2024.

Outlook for 2025

For the 2025 financial year, ZEAL plans to further expand its market leadership in Germany as an online provider of lottery products and to further scale its games offering and the Traumhausverlosung (English: Dream House Raffle). Depending on the general conditions and assuming an average jackpot development, the company expects revenue in the 2025 financial year to be in the range of € 195 million to € 205 million and EBITDA in the range of € 55 million to € 60 million.