Gaming Realms hails mobile as revenue jumps in first half

Gaming Realms has cited its ‘Grizzly’ mobile platform and the acquisition of social gaming assets from Real Networks as the main reasons behind financial growth in the six months to June 30.

Revenue in the first half rocketed 109% on a year-on-year basis to £16.6 million (€19.5 million/$22 million).

The Grizzly platform generated £10.2 million in real-money gambling revenue, up 143% on last year, while the Real Networks assets were responsible for £3.8 million of social gaming and licensing revenue.

The firm reported a year-on-year decline in adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation – down 24% to a loss of just under £3 million – citing front-loaded growth investment in marketing of £9.5 million related to investment in slingo.com, the launch of ‘Britain's Got Talent’ games and scaling of other real-money sites and mobile applications.

However, Gaming Realms did report an increase in average monthly depositing players, with this total jumping 257% to 55,387, while the number of new players was also up 269% to 143,282.

Patrick Southon, chief executive of Gaming Realms, said: “The group has delivered an excellent first half as a result of focusing on our proprietary technology and games publishing and licensing.

“We have seen strong growth on our proprietary Grizzly platform, which has been achieved through the development of unique content, investment in player acquisition and improved use of CRM on mobile.

“We continue to see lower player costs per acquisition than the industry average; our revenue per active real money player in H1/16 has increased by 56% to £110 v H1/15.

“At the same time, we have streamlined the business through the disposal of our third party platform bingo sites and marketing agency.

“The integration of the social games teams in Seattle and Vancouver Island has been successful and the group is now producing content through a combined road map for both real-money and free-to-play apps.

“In addition, we continue to sign strategic partnerships and licensing deals for our content, IP and platform with blue chip partners, which underlines the long term growth prospects of the group.”

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