Gaming Realms cuts losses as revenue jumps 65.2% in 2020
Total revenue from continuing operations in the 12 months to 31 December amounted to £11.4m (€13.1m/$15.8m), up from £6.9m in the previous year and in line with initial forecasts published by Gaming Realms in February.
Revenue from the developer’s licensing segment was up by 82.9% year-on-year to £7.5m, primarily due to an increase in the number of operators across Europe, the US and Latin America, and the addition of new content.
During 2020, Gaming Realms went live with an additional 26 partners, including DraftKings in the US, and Flutter Entertainment’s Sky Betting and Gaming and Paddy Power Betfair in Britain and Europe. After the end of the year, the developer added a further nine new operators to its network, including Sisal and Goldbet in Italy.
Gaming Realms also added 10 new Slingo games to its content portfolio in 2020, opening up more gaming options for customers and their players.
The developer noted particular success in the US market in terms of its licensing business, with revenue in the country rising 41.2% to £2.4m, representing 32% of segment revenue. This, Gaming Realms said, is likely to increase further, having secured a new licence in the state of Michigan, while an application is pending in Pennsylvania.
Turning attention to the social publishing arm and revenue here increased by 32.3% to £3.9m. This area of the business focuses on providing freemium games in the US market.
“By securing 26 new licensing and distribution partners throughout the year, of which many were tier one operators, and adding 10 new games to our hugely popular Slingo portfolio, we successfully increased the number of unique players playing our games by 140% and saw increased international demand for our content,” Gaming Realms’ executive chairman Michael Buckley said.
Looking at costs for the year, Gaming Realms noted an increase in spending across all core areas. Administrative expenses were the main outgoing at £6.0m, up 5.3%, while operating costs jumped 46.7% to £2.2m and marketing spend 67.3% to £355,394.
Despite higher costs, adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) was up from a loss of £355,116 in 2019 to a positive of £2.9m. After accounting for £499,422 in costs related to the impairment of financial assets, £372,344 in share option and related charges, EBITDA improved from a loss of £781,755 to a positive of £2.0m.
Gaming Realms noted a number of finance-related charges, including £2.8m related to the amortisation of tangible assets, £216,323 in depreciation of property, plant and equipment, and £882,032 in finance expense.
After this additional spending, the supplier’s loss before tax stood at £1.6m, compared to £4.7m in 2019. The developer benefitted from £48,229 in tax credit, meaning loss for the year amounted to £1.5m, an improvement on the £5.3m loss posted in the previous financial year.
When accounting for £226,666 in exchange loss from translation of foreign operators, this left an overall loss of £1.5m, still significantly lower than the £5.4m loss posted in 2019.
“The group made excellent progress in FY20, producing a maiden adjusted EBITDA profit of £3.3m and increasing revenue by 66%,” Buckley said. “This underscores the success of the company’s strategy to focus on its core licensing business segment, as well as its social publishing division.
“We remain committed to the expansion of our global footprint, particularly in the US and European regulated markets, through increasing and strengthening our network of distributors, operators and licensors.
“With further planned launches in the US, Denmark, Spain, Canada and Portugal, and a strong pipeline of new and exciting branded Slingo games, the board is confident in the future prospects of the business and looks forward to keeping its shareholders updated on progress.”