Yggdrasil's Strong Performance for Q4 and 2018 has CEO Elmqvist Positively Beaming
Published March 1, 2019 by Lee R
The business model at Yggdrasil is paying dividends, and readers should take not of the organisation's growth.
Yggdrasil's Q4 and full 2018 reports have been released, and CEO Fredrik Elmqvist could not be happier.
Highlight Numbers
He praised the solid growth and revenues, which reached all time high levels of MSEK ~274, for a robust 62% year-on-year jump.
He also celebrated the healthy underlying profit whilst being in high growth mode, with EBIT amounting to MSEK ~70.
Investment Profile
Elmqvist further lauded the important investments effectively made for the future bringing “more development projects in the pipeline than ever before.”
Manpower Growth
Organisational gains include total employees increasing to 295, for a jump of almost a full 100% from the previous year.
GGA
Elmqvist also pointed out the significance in 2018 of GGA (Global Game Availability), which empowered Yggdrasil to manage all new games in all environments including regulated ones at the same time.
YGS Masters
Yggdrasil Gaming also started YGS Masters to provide opportunities to emerging startups by selecting leading independent studios to develop and distribute gaming content on Yggdrasil’s platform.
The signing of three new studios according to Elmqvist has the program set to provide the best games and end player user experience in the industry.
New Games
Yggdrasil also most importantly launched 18 new games, including the third game in the immensely successful Vikings series, Vikings Go To Hell, as well as Yggdrasil's first branded game in collaboration with Nitro Circus.
Clientele Growth
New operator clients were also in abundance in 2018, as evinced by the signing of several notable customers during the year including Paf, Veikkaus, 888 in addition to Svenska Spel and ATG, with the latter two being key additions in light of the new era of Swedish regulation launched this year.
Employee Kick-off Fun
The enhancement of strategic alignments kicked off in Krakow, Poland with the gathering of all employees for Yggdrasil's annual kick-off during three “action-packed” days in October.
Organizational Growth Approach
Elmqvist is looking forward in 2019 to the challenges and opportunities that 2019 has to offer through organisational prioritisation of growth with a three-pronged focus consisting of “commercial expansion, technological consolidation and global collaboration.”
Outlook
How this well-developed strategy plays out over the course of the year will be fascinating to watch.
