Light & Wonder has recorded double digit growth for a ninth consecutive quarter as the supplier managed to avoid being significantly hindered by the removal of Dragon Train terminals across North America.
The firm revealed that of its approximately 2,200 units of Dragon Train-themed games, 95% have been removed or converted with another game from its portfolio of game franchises. It anticipates that Dragon Train 2 will be released in the near future.
Positive performance for the firm in North America played a key part in it landing a gaming revenue increase to $537m, up 15% compared to the prior year period. This was also fuelled by a global Gaming machine sales growth of 38%, whilst igaming revenue increased by 6% to $74m.
Matt Wilson, President and CEO of Light & Wonder, said: “Our results once again reflect the relentless collective efforts of the talent across our organisation underpinned by our robust and scalable R&D platform. At G2E and AGE, we showcased a wide array of products that demonstrated the diversity and strength of our portfolio and franchises.
“We will continue to execute on our cross-platform strategy focused on innovative content and products as a leading global end-to-end gaming technology solutions provider. Our team is committed and engaged as we stay on course through the execution chapter of our journey to reach our target.”
Meanwhile, SciPlay revenue was bolstered to $206m, a 5% increase from the prior year period, at the heart of this growth was the company’s social casino business. Furthermore, this was enhanced by the continuation of delivering ‘consistently high player engagement and monetization, leveraging game content, dynamic Live Ops through the SciPlay Engine and effective marketing strategies’.
Nonetheless, net income suffered a slight dip to $64m from $80m, with the company citing the impact of higher restructuring and other costs ‘related to certain legal matters’.
Free cash flow also saw a dip to $83m from $123m, as a result of negative shifts in working capital.
Oliver Chow, Chief Financial Officer of Light & Wonder, added: “The highly cash generative nature of our business, combined with a healthy balance sheet and strategic capital allocation program, has proven to be a strong framework to create shareholder value.
“We plan to further accelerate this value creation flywheel through continued R&D and capex investments, as well as through financial means such as our share repurchase program. We stay highly convicted to our strategy and roadmap as we reaffirm our 2025 $1.4bn Consolidated AEBITDA target(1) and look to remain a compounder of growth for years to come.”
LiveScore Group has announced that it will undergo an internal restructuring process which is expected to impact over 100 existing roles across multiple business locations, including London.
Described as a “difficult yet important step”, the group – which operates LiveScore, LiveScore Bet and Virgin Bet – said in a statement that the changes will “create improved structures and a pathway to long-term sustainable growth”.
The news follows LiveScore announcing earlier this month the withdrawal of LiveScore Bet operations from the Netherlands market due to the Dutch Government’s planned gambling tax increase.
The group said that the restructuring process includes those impacted by this market exit.
LiveScore stated that “all impacted employees have been informed and are now subject to a confidential consultation process”.
In addition, the group noted that there will be “no other customer impact in respect of any of the remaining LiveScore, LiveScore Bet or Virgin Bet sites globally”.
Sam Sadi, CEO of LiveScore Group, said: “On behalf of all Directors of LiveScore Group, and the relevant subsidiary companies, we are saddened by the difficult decision to commence an internal restructure of the business, a process which impacts a significant number of our people.
“Whilst we celebrate our recent period of significant and exciting growth, we must now future-proof the organisation and ensure our internal structures allow us to achieve long-term and sustainable success.
“This is a hard time for all our people, as we say goodbye to colleagues who have played an important role in our journey across recent years.”
