DoubleDown eyes further M&A as real-money gaming spurs Q2 revenue growth

Acquired for $36.5m in November last year, the SuprNation deal marked the expansion of DoubleDown into real-money gaming. Q2 was the second full quarter that SuprNation was part of the business.

For the three months to 30 June, group revenue increased 17.3% year-on-year to $88.2m (£68.9m/€80.7m). SuprNation made a $7.9m contribution in Q2, down 4.8% quarter-over-quarter. Social gaming alone generated revenue of $80.3m in the second quarter, up 6.7% from Q2 2023.

The real-money brand is licensed in Malta, Sweden, the Isle of Man and Great Britain and runs sites such as VoodooDreams, NYSpinz and Duelz across Western Europe.

DoubleDown could be tempted to enter M&A fray again

Speaking during DoubleDown’s Q2 earnings call, chief financial officer Joseph Sigrist hinted at further M&A activity across both igaming and social casino. However he was keen to stress it would remain a diversified business.

“We continue to look at opportunities across those categories and more in some of the non-casino oriented mobile gaming categories,” Sigrist said. “And certainly, there are categories where we have been playing in the past, but which are still very large categories and have incredible power from a payer perspective.

“So, we really haven’t crossed anything off the list. When we announced we were buying SuprNation, we said that we were excited about igaming, but certainly aren’t turning ourselves into solely an igaming company.”

Average revenue per daily active user (ARPDAU) across the business increased from $1.04 to $1.33, while average monthly revenue per player improved from $235 to $288. This was despite a decline in average MAUs, which fell 23.0%, while average daily players fell 16.3%.

DoubleDown CEO Keuk Kim said driving further growth in monetisation would be a key factor in assessing M&A opportunities, as the business looks to strengthen its balance sheet.

Real-money gaming costs up, but profit grows in Q2

Operating expenses in Q2 were 9.0% higher at $52.0m, which DoubleDown attributed to SuprNation’s operations.

However revenue growth meant operating profit increased by 31.6% to $36.2m. DoubleDown also felt the impact of $6.4m in additional income from both foreign currency transactions and interest income. In addition, the business saw adjusted EBITDA rise 34.1% to $37.0m.

This meant pre-tax profit was up 33.5% to $42.6m. The business paid $9.4m in tax, discounted $88,000 in net profit from non-controlling interests and noted $2.1m in foreign currency loss. 

This meant it ended Q2 with a net profit of $31.1m, up 28.5% year-on-year.

DoubleDown revenue up 15.5% in H1

As for the first half, the SuprNation deal meant this made for similar reading. Revenue was up 15.5% to $176.4m.

Operating costs climbed 9.2% to $109.1m, with operating profit up 27.0% to $67.2m. After accounting for $13.7m in other income, pre-tax profit was $81.0m, a rise of 30.0%.

DoubleDown paid $17.4m in tax, took off $141,000 in profit from non-controlling interests and referenced a $5.1m foreign currency loss. This meant a net profit of $58.5m, up 25.5%, while adjusted EBITDA increased 30.0% to $68.9m.