Germany-headquartered live events and ticketing company DEAG has reported an 18% YoY increase in revenue for 2024.
In an earnings report issued on Friday (April 25), DEAG said it had reached revenues of “roughly” EUR €370 million (USD $400.4 million at the average exchange rate for 2024) in 2024, up from €313.5 million in 2023.
The company sold around 11 million tickets in 2024, up around 10% from the year before, and forecast it would sell around 12 million in 2025.
DEAG said that, as of the release of the earnings report, it had already sold around 4 million tickets for events to be held in 2025. It was the second year in a row that the company achieved record advance ticket sales.
A “steady and strongly growing share” of tickets to DEAG’s events are coming from its own ticketing platforms, the company said. Those platforms include myticket.de, myticket.at, myticket.co.uk, gigantic.com and tickets.ie.
The Live Touring segment, which includes DEAG’s subsidiary ticketing companies, saw revenues jump 20.2% YoY to €206.8 million ($223.8 million), while the Entertainment Services division saw a 39.3% YoY jump in revenue to €185.2 million ($200.4 million).
However, DEAG posted an operating loss of -€2.4 million (-$2.6 million) in 2024, compared to an operating profit of €13.3 million the year before. EBITDA saw a 45% YoY drop to €14.4 million ($15.6 million), which the company said was due to a “conscious and strategic” decision to divert capital towards projects that will ensure long-term growth.
Among those are a digitization initiative and charges associated with a restructuring of the Executive Board. Last year saw the departure of DEAG Co-Founder Peter L.H. Schwenkow from the role of Chairman of the Executive Board, while Wolf-Dieter Gramatke stepped down as Chairman of the Supervisory Board. Additionally, DEAG faced additional expenses from “weather-related challenges” to open-air events in Europe, the company said.
DEAG says its EBITDA margin, which was 4% in 2024, will “increase significantly” this year.
“We consciously invested in these strategic measures, despite the considerable expenses involved, which temporarily led to a decline in earnings,” Group CEO Detlef Kornett wrote in a note to investors.
“We have consistently implemented our growth strategy and made a conscious decision in 2024 to make above-average investments in our sustainable business development in order to secure our future and position ourselves in the best possible way,” Kornett added in a statement.
“Successes are already visible. We started the current year with tailwind and our ticket sales are at record levels. Our event pipeline is excellently filled and we expect 2025 to be a much stronger year with a significant increase in profitability.”
The company continued its “Buy & Build” strategy in 2024, entering the Italian market with the full acquisition of event organizer MC² Live and a majority stake in Germany’s black mamba Event & Marketing GmbH.
DEAG also expanded its role in the UK – the company’s second-biggest market after Germany – with the acquisition of How To Academy and live entertainment organizer ShowPlanr. The How To Academy acquisition also strengthened DEAG’s Spoken Word & Literary Events segment, which the company notes now accounts for 10% of its revenue, three years after its launch.
The company also aims to increase the share of revenue coming from its own events. To that end, it recently launched EDM festivals SPUTNIK SPRING BREAK and Gestort, aber Geil….
“This is helping to ensure that a growing number of tickets are sold via the Group’s own ticketing platforms,” Kornett wrote.
“We consciously invested in these strategic measures, despite the considerable expenses involved, which temporarily led to a decline in earnings.”
Detlef Kornett, DEAG Group
The company simultaneously released its Q4 2024 earnings, showing a 17% YoY increase in revenue to €117 million ($124.7 million at the average exchange rate for the quarter).
“The last three months of the financial year were characterised by strong Christmas business and high advance sales for live events in 2025,” DEAG said in a statement.
In January of 2024, DEAG announced its intention to list on the Frankfurt stock exchange, having delisted in 2021 due to the “massive negative impact” of the Covid pandemic on live events. However, the company announced the following month that it was delaying the move to a “later date.”
The latest earnings report didn’t provide an update on DEAG’s relisting plans.Music Business Worldwide
