AB Trav och Galopp (ATG) posted a 22% rise in operating profit in Q1 2026, recovering from a sharp deterioration a year earlier, as casino growth and cost discipline offset flat performance across its two other core segments.
Revenue Holds as Mix Shifts
Total revenue for the three months ended 31 March reached SEK1.38bn (€128.3m), up 1% year-on-year. Net gaming revenue came in at SEK1.21bn, also roughly in line with Q1 2025.
The headline stability masks a significant shift in segment performance. Casino revenue rose 20% to SEK172m, lifting the segment’s share of total revenue to 11% from 9% in the same quarter last year. Sports betting revenue fell 11% to SEK176m — ATG attributed the decline primarily to unfavourable sports results — reducing that segment’s contribution to 14% of total revenue from 16%. Horse racing, which remains ATG’s largest segment by a considerable margin, was broadly flat.
Acting chief executive Jörgen Forsberg acknowledged the mixed picture across product lines.
“Casino is the area that is delivering growth in our business at the beginning of the year,” Forsberg said. “Overall, net gaming revenue for the group is on par with the corresponding period last year, as development differs between our product areas.”
On sports betting, Forsberg described Q1 as a weak quarter without elaborating beyond the margin impact of results. The segment’s 11% decline is consistent with the volatility ATG has reported in recent quarters, where sports results have repeatedly driven short-term swings in a segment that contributes a relatively modest share of overall revenue.
Margin Recovery
The more notable story in the Q1 numbers is on the cost side. Operating expenses fell 3% to SEK782m, allowing operating profit to reach SEK326m — up from roughly SEK267m in Q1 2025, when the company reported a decline of more than 30% in operating profit. The operating margin improved from 19% to 23%. Net profit also rose 22%.
ATG paid SEK281m in gambling tax during the quarter. Sweden raised its gambling tax rate — from 18% to 22% — with effect from July 2024, a move that weighed heavily on ATG’s 2025 results. In Q1 2025, the full impact of the new rate contributed to the steep earnings contraction. The Q1 2026 figures reflect a base effect: the comparison period now carries the same elevated tax burden, removing the year-on-year headwind that made 2025 reporting look worse than underlying trends.
ATG put the improvement in earnings down to stable revenues and consistent cost control. The company did not provide specific guidance for the remainder of 2026.
Horse Racing and the Structural Challenge
Horse racing remains the operational and strategic centrepiece of ATG, which is owned 91% by Svensk Travsport and 9% by Svensk Galopp and distributes its surplus to those organisations for reinvestment in Swedish equestrian sport. The flat performance in horse racing in Q1 continues a multi-quarter trend of limited growth in a segment that the company has described publicly as its most significant challenge going forward.
Forsberg was direct on this point in the Q1 commentary.
“We have several challenges ahead of us, the biggest of which is creating growth in horse racing,” Forsberg said. “At its core, ATG is something unique: a gaming company with a mission that extends beyond numbers and balance sheets. The values that horse betting holds — the community, the analysis and the presence in the experience itself — provide direction in our mission: to create revenue for Swedish trotting and galloping sports.”
The horse racing segment’s trajectory matters beyond ATG’s financial performance. Because ATG’s entire surplus flows to its equestrian sport owners, sustained pressure in the core segment has downstream consequences for the funding of Swedish trotting and thoroughbred racing infrastructure. The operator flagged this dynamic explicitly when reporting its full-year 2025 results, noting that lower revenues and higher gambling tax together reduced returns to its owners.
Leadership and Outlook
Forsberg is serving as acting chief executive following the departure of Hasse Lord Skarplöth earlier this year. Skarplöth left as ATG reported full-year 2025 results showing NGR down 2% to SEK5.25bn, a period shaped by the tax rate increase and softer consumer spending across its segments.
The Q1 2026 results suggest the operator has stabilised from that difficult stretch. Casino is now the clearest growth engine — its 20% revenue increase and rising share of total revenue point to continued consumer appetite for online casino products in a market where Sweden’s overall online segment has been the primary growth driver across the industry. Sports betting remains volatile. Horse racing faces a structural growth challenge that the company has not resolved.
ATG is next scheduled to report Q2 2026 results in August. A permanent CEO appointment, when made, will be closely watched for any strategic shift in how the operator approaches the balance between its mission-driven horse racing mandate and the commercial diversification that casino growth is now providing.
Source: AB Trav och Galopp
