Scientific Games posts 62% Q4 growth as WMS acquisition pays off
Social casino drives interactive revenues up 1927% to $28.4m for the quarter " US accounts for almost half of lottery business
Scientific Games saw Q4 net revenues jump 62% to US$401.9m (£240m) year-on-year with social casino driving record revenues of $28.4m (£17m) for the quarter from its interactive division following its $1.5bn acquisition of WMS Industries in October.
Interactive revenues grew 1929% or $27m compared with Q4 2012, with $26m of the increase coming from Williams Interactive and significant growth in its Jackpot Party Social Casino, which recorded 1.2m average daily users over the period.
“Average daily active users increased to 140% and average revenue for daily active user or ARPDAU was slightly down year-over-year at $0.26,” Jeffrey Lipkin, Scientific Games CFO, said.
“The DAU increase reflected growth in total users on both desktop and mobile while the slightly lower ARPDAU due to the overall broadening of the player base,” Lipkin added.
Williams Interactive recently launch its Gold Fish social casino and signed a deal to supply Gamesys with its remote game server for its real-money operations in New Jersey.
Revenues from instant games grew 8.5% compared with 2012, with US sales of $80.6m and its lottery business increased 58.4% for the quarter to $79.7m, with the US accounting for $33.5m of the total.
Some of the growth was attributed to the Delaware State Lottery launching its Scientific Games-powered egaming platforms in November, with Williams Interactive real-money slot content due to go live in the state shortly.
“During this year we look forward to launching our real money games in the regulated jurisdictions of Delaware and New Jersey,” David Kennedy, Scientific Games CEO, said.
“The launch of the online casino operations in the State of Delaware was a collaborative effort between our lottery and gaming business and demonstrates what our combined businesses can achieve,” Kennedy added.
Group EBITDA was $130.5m for Q4, leading to a net loss of $500,000. Full-year revenues were $1.09bn for the period ended 31 December 2013 with Attributable EBITDA of $382.5m, leading to a net loss of $25.6m.