Scientific Games interactive revenues up 380% in 2014
Growth driven by social gaming arm which now accounts for 90% of total interactive revenues
Scientific Games revealed interactive revenues grew 380% to $144.5m (£97m) in its full year results released yesterday, with its social gaming arm now accounting for almost 90% of the total.
The results include 40 days of contributions from Bally Technologies’ interactive operations after SciGames completed its $5.1bn acquisition of the firm in November, plus Williams Interactive which it acquired in 2013.
Social gaming, which included Bally’s Dragonplay business, attracted revenues of $126.6m (£85m) during the 12 months ended 31 December 2014, while real-money gaming brought in $17.9m (£12m) during the period.
Operating income was up 50% to $1.2m (£0.8m) despite the firm spending $7.1m (£4.8m) on employee termination and restructuring costs, compared to $1.9m (£1.3m) in 2013.
“Once again, we generated strong interactive revenue growth largely due to the continued player appeal of our Jackpot Party Social Casino,” Gavin Isaacs, Scientific Games CEO, said.
“The growth of the newer Gold Fish Slots app, the addition of Dragonplay results and higher revenue from real money gaming,” Isaacs added.
Scientific Games reported its social gaming sites attracted an average of 1.5m daily active users during the period, with an average spend per user of $0.22 (£0.15)
But Isaacs said the gaming giant would now spend more time focusing on rolling out its real-money gaming products.
“One of the things that we’re investing in right now is the roll out of the real money gaming part of interactive, and so we’re spending a bit more there that’s having an impact on the overall margin of that business,” he added.
Scientific Games saw group revenues increase 63% year-on-year to $1.8bn (£1.2bn) leading to a 45% rise in EBITDA to $556.4m (£373.8m).
However, overall the company posted a net loss of $234.3m (£157.4m) primarily due to costs associated with its acquisition of Bally Technologies.