Gamesys sees income fall despite revenue growth in 2019

Gaming operator and content developer Gamesys Group has reported a 34.7% year-on-year rise in gaming revenue for 2019, but also experienced a decline in net income for the year due to higher spending and foreign exchange fluctuations.

Gaming revenue for the 12 months to 31 December 2019 amounted to £415.1m (€456.1m/$506.1m), up from £308.2m in the previous year.

On a proforma basis, assuming Gamesys had been incorporated into the business for the full year, revenue would have been up 14.7% at £565.3m.

The UK remained Gamesys’ core market in 2019, with revenue from this region coming in at £214.6m, up 30.9% from £163.9m in the previous year. Gamesys also noted year-on-year growth in Asia, with revenue rocketing by 137.2% to £122.4m.

However, it was not such good news for Gamesys in Europe, where gaming revenue fell 13.5% to £68.6m, while rest of world revenue also slipped 29.1% to £9.5m for the year.

The business began 2019 as JPJ Group, but rebranded as the Gamesys Group in September after it completed the £490m acquisition of a number of assets from its long-term technology partner.

Focusing on costs and expenses for the year, total spend amounted to £381.4m, up 47.6% year-on-year, with Gamesys seeing higher spending across a number of areas.

Distribution costs, the main outgoing for the business, amounted to £214.2m, up from £149.9m as Gamesys spent more on selling and marketing, licensing fees, gaming taxes and processing fees.

Administrative expenses jumped 40.7% year-on-year to £147.4m as the group saw an increase in spending relating to compensation and benefits, professional fees, amortisation and depreciation, and general and administrative.

Gamesys also noted a significant increase in transaction-related costs, with this rocketing by 573.9% from £1.9m to £15.8m for the year, primarily related to the acquisition of Gamesys assets in September.

In addition, Gamesys attributed a £23.2m spend to financial expenses in 2019.

Significantly higher spending across the business meant net income for the year was down 41.4% to £8.5m. However, when taking into account the effects of currency exchange, net income stood at £2.0m, down 85.4% from £13.7m in 2018.

For the latter of these income figures, Gamesys noted a £9.3m unrealised loss on cross currency swap, in addition to a £1.2m loss on interest rate swap.

However, these were partially offset by a £2.7m gain on foreign exchange forward and also a £1.3m foreign currency translation gain on retranslation of overseas subsidiaries.

“I am delighted with Gamesys Group’s strong financial performance in 2019, particularly given the significant work undertaken around the acquisition and integration of the legacy Gamesys business,” chief executive Lee Fenton said.

“It was particularly pleasing to see the UK return to moderate growth in 2019 as we annualised the introduction of enhanced responsible gambling measures and we expect to see similar trends in 2020.

“We are confident that our approach of multiple trusted brands, player centricity and a focus on the quality, rather than quantity, of content will leave us well-positioned to make market share gains.”

Analysts from Regulus Partners also picked up on this UK success, saying that Gamesys should be able to maintain its growth in the UK despite challenging market conditions.

In addition, Regulus highlighted Gamesys’ activities in Japan, saying that the business is “clearly making Japan work extremely well operationally”.

However, Regulus also said that Gamesys should seek to broaden its product and geographic exposure in order to ensure long-term growth.

Publication of the full year results comes after Gamesys earlier this month also announced that it had made a repayment of £40m towards its debt balances, reducing total outstanding debt by 7%.

The first debt paydown represented over 15% of the operator’s outstanding GBP debt, as well as a significant portion of total debt.

This followed a fourth quarter in which revenue grew 15.2% to £153.1m, up 82.2% year-on-year. Distribution costs climbed to £78.3m, while administrative expenses rose to £27.6m, and impairment charges to £3.9m.

After these expenses were stripped out, Gamesys' adjusted EBTIDA for the year amounted to £43.4m, down 4.1%.