Pre-tax profits at the sports tech firm that decides questionable points in top GAA games and is behind the controversial VAR technology in football this year increased by 19 per cent to £20.28 million (€24.08m).
New accounts for Hawk Eye Innovations Ltd show that the business recorded the increase in pre-tax profits as revenues increased by 27 per cent from £62.05m to £78.74m (€93.1 million) in the 12 months to the end of March this year.
The pre-tax profits of £20.28 million this year followed pre-tax profits of £16.99 million in the prior year.
The Hawk-Eye score detection technology has become an integral part of the big GAA match occasions at Croke Park over the last number of years and the directors state that revenue growth of 27 per cent was driven by new and expanded contracts, World Cup events that took place during the financial year and the introduction of new, innovative products.
Operating profits decreased marginally from £17.09 million to £16.99 million and the directors state that inflationary pressures and competitive market conditions have driven an overall reduction in gross margin.
Pre-tax profits increased to £20.28 million due to a contingent consideration gain of £4.28 million offset by net interest charges of £993,000.
Research and development costs this year more than doubled from £2.97 million to £7.3 million and directors state that “the investment in R&D is a conscious business decision to help drive longer term growth”.
The directors state the Hawk-Eye business renewed and expanded several strategic partnerships with major sports organisations and rights holders in Europe, the Middle East and North America.
The directors state that Hawk Eye “is now proud to work with 23 of the top 25 sports leagues globally”.
At GAA games, Hawk-Eye operates on the basis of four cameras at either end of the ground, which capture and track the movement of the ball.
In the year under review, the score detection system was stood down for the Derry-Cork and Dublin-Mayo All-Ireland football quarter-finals in July of last year as a result of operator error during the Monaghan-Armagh football quarter-final.
The company’s revenues have been boosted in recent years with football leagues introducing, Hawk-Eye the controversial VAR technology around the world.
This is reflected in the new accounts showing that revenues from football were the main driver behind increasing revenues.
The accounts show that football revenues increased by 29pc from £45.7 million to £58.97 million and this year accounted for 75 per cent of company revenues.
The income from GAA’s hurling and Gaelic football represents only a small fraction of Hawkeye’s revenues and is included in ‘other sports’ where revenues this year declined from £2.57 million to £1.45 million.
The accounts for the Sony-owned firm show that revenues for the ‘UK and Ireland’ this year decreased from £16.2 million to £15.85 million.
Europe is the company’s largest market with revenues totalling £36 million or 46 per cent of total revenues this year.
The firm’s two other major revenue generators were tennis at £8.69 million and cricket at £6.02 million.
Hawk-Eye Innovations Ltd this year paid out a dividend of £12.95m following a dividend payout of £8.54m in the prior 12 months.
Numbers employed by the company this year increased from 529 to 589 as staff costs increased by 25 per cent from £26.94 million to £33.8 million.
The profit this year takes account of non-cash depreciation costs of £8.4 million. The company recorded a post-tax loss of £15.92 million following a corporation tax charge of £4.35 million.
Shareholder funds totalled £55.29 million.
