Lottery technology broker Lottery.com narrowed its net loss by more than 43.0% in the third quarter, despite reporting a decline in revenue for the period.

Lottery.com, which has had a turbulent few years, reported third-quarter revenue of $285,523 (£225,800/€261,703). This was a 59.9% decrease from the $711,477 reported in the three months to September 30 last year.

The company did not elaborate on third-quarter sales trends Form 10-Q. However, information on expenses was outlined, including that cost of sales fell 73.4% to $72,171.

Operating costs were also reduced by 47.7% to $3.4 million following savings across the board. The main expense for Lottery.com was depreciation and amortization of $1.4 million, which decreased 6.7% year-over-year.

Higher interest costs caused other expenses to increase from $4,571 to $246,529. Combined with operating costs, this meant a pre-tax loss of $3.4 million, compared to $6.1 million in the third quarter of the previous year.

Lottery.com paid no taxes but noted a negative currency conversion impact of $34,256. In addition, $72,277 of income from non-controlling interests was accounted for. As a result, the net loss in the third quarter was $3.4 million, an improvement from $6.0 million last year.

Lottery.com has been drastically reducing costs since the beginning of the year

Year to date, revenue fell 74.2% to $1.6 million in the nine months ended September 30. However, this also meant lower cost of sales of $203,001, down 95.1% year-over-year.

Operating expenses were also reduced by 78.0% to $11.9 million during the period, while other costs fell by 91.4% to $346,166. This resulted in Lottery.com posting a pre-tax loss of $10.9 million, which contrasted with last year’s loss of $56.4 million.

No taxes were due for this period, but Lottery.com recorded a negative currency translation of $182,607. The Company also recorded income from non-controlling interests of $212,064.

Thus, the net loss for the nine-month period was $10.8 million, a significant improvement from the loss of $56.1 million last year.

Concerns remain for Lottery.com

While the narrower net loss will provide some respite for Lottery.com, concerns about its future remain as 2023 will be another turbulent year for the company.

Key developments include Mark Gustavson being fired as CEO in July, despite only taking over the role in February. Matthew McGahan took over the management of the company on an interim basis.

Gustavson had been appointed as Sohail Quraeshi’s successor. Incidentally, Quraeshi also only held this position for a few months after he was appointed permanent CEO after an interim period in October 2022.

Meanwhile, Lottery.com said in May that it was facing “significant weaknesses” due to accounting noncompliance. This was in light of an ongoing class action lawsuit that was served in August 2022 on behalf of investors and former senior employees.

The lawsuit alleges the company made “materially false or misleading statements” and failed to disclose that the company did not have adequate internal accounting controls.

Additionally, in March, Lottery.com was served with a lawsuit from John Brier and Bin Tu, founders of lottery data company TinBu, alleging the company failed to pay them promised compensation after acquiring the company.

A few glimmers of hope?

However, amidst this turmoil, there was some good news for Lottery.com. In April, the company announced the resumption of ticket sales to support affiliate partners through its Texas retail network.

In its first week of operation, Lottery.com said it sold more than seven million lottery game tickets in Texas. The company also signed an exclusive partner agreement with the International Gaming Alliance (IGA) to supply Texas lottery tickets to the Dominican Republic.

More recently, Lottery.com regained compliance with Nasdaq Stock Market rules after a one-year violation. In September, Nasdaq’s Listing Qualifications Department confirmed that the broker had demonstrated compliance with minimum bid price requirements.

Nasdaq Listing Rule 5450(a)(1) states that common shares may not fall below $1.00 for the last 30 consecutive business days. Nasdaq contacted Lottery.com in August last year and informed it that it had violated this rule.

Lottery.com shares closed yesterday (November 30) at $1.75.