Gaming Realms to cut staff by 60% amid licensing pivot

Gaming Realms (GMR) will reduce its staff headcount by around 60% once it completes the sell-off of its B2C assets and rationalises its social gaming business, the firm has announced.

The London-listed business has been repositioning itself as a content provider/licenser over the last year, selling off its affiliate arm, and its B2C business to River iGaming.

The River deal is expected to be completed imminently, and Gaming Realms announced today in its FY18 report it was also looking to sell off or rationalise the social casino business to complete the pivot to content.

Chairman Michael Buckley said the two processes would see a “dramatic reduction” in overall company costs, with a decrease in employees of more than 60%.

“The group will then concentrate on game development and international licensing using primarily its Slingo brand, and this division, which is experiencing heathy growth, will become its main focus,” Buckley said.

Gaming Realms delivered an adjusted EBITDA loss for 2018 of £0.5m, although Buckley said the loss masked the “excellent progress” made by the licensing division, where revenue increased by 167% to £2.2m with an EBITDA surplus of £1m.

Group continuing revenue was also down by 19% to £6.2m

GMR CEO Patrick Southon added: “The success to date in licensing our Slingo content illustrates a clear market opportunity to grow our revenue and profitability on an international level.

“This view has been further reinforced by the recent deal with Scientific Games to distribute of all our Slingo games via its global platform, which we expect to start contributing revenue in the latter part of 2019.”

GMR shares were down 11% Friday morning.