Scientific Games Plans Emerging Markets Advance, Sees Revenue Rise to $845M in H1

Software developing giant, Scientific Games, has publicly discussed future plans regarding the conquest of up and coming markets, coinciding with the consistent positive financial results of this year’s first half.

The company’s focus for the future will be capturing share across digital markets that are emerging, as well as strengthening its core business. As for growth, SG’s officials have claimed that it was achieved across three of four operational segments.

All Good, Except Gaming

The second quarter’s revenue amounted to $845 million…

…which is virtually the same as last year’s Q2, with the difference being that this year it resulted in a small increase for the first half to $1.68 billion. Lottery, SciPlay and digital have leveraged gaming performance which was down on annual level.

Scientific Games’ lottery segment rose 12% to $231 million, while SciPlay was boosted 33% from $100m to $118m. Digital rose to $69 million, whereas gaming segment took a nine percent tumble to $427m.

The said decline is chiefly down to a smaller amount of casino openings and systems launched in comparison with previous year. Lower replacement sales are also to blame.

A Clear Path Forward

CEO and President, Barry Cottle, gave a thorough remark of this result by saying:

“We are pleased with the growth we are continuing to see across lottery, digital, and SciPlay while also stabilising gaming operations driven by the successful launches of several new games. The second quarter really highlights the diversity of our business and the many avenues we have to generate revenue across the globe.

The entire organisation is laser focused on strengthening our core business and capturing market share in emerging digital markets, while making our business more efficient. These key focus areas will allow us to deliver the greatest returns for our stakeholders, set ourselves up for profitable growth, and generate significant cash flow to continue on our deleveraging path.”

Chief Financial Officer, Michael Quartieri, added:

“This quarter, we paid down another $155m in debt bringing our year to date total to $300m, and the SciPlay IPO proceeds will continue to enable us to make substantial payments on our debt as we work toward our deleveraging goal.”

Remaining Figures

The first half of the net loss amounted to $75 million, which is vastly more than prior year’s $6 million…

…but this is primarily driven by a debt of $60 million which is financing expense related to successful notes offering, as well as a $3 million remeasurement of Euro denominated debt against a $34 million gain.

Adjusted and consolidated EBITDA declined 1% to $335m from $340m in last year’s same period.

In July, SG struck a deal with Blue Ribbon regarding the company’s Foundation Innovation platform jackpots offering and Open Gaming System content aggregation platform.

Source:

“Scientific games sees revenue rise and losses shorten in first half”, igbnorthamerica.com, August 2, 2019.