Gaming Realms is targeting growth internationally through licensing its Slingo games content, after recording a fall in revenue of 19 per cent in a year in which its sold its affiliate marketing arm and part of its B2C real-money gaming business.
The affiliate sale brought in £2.4m and the sale of the part of the B2C business to River iGaming £8.4m with half of that sum deferred. Gaming Realms’ profit for 2018 stood at £0.9m (2017: £8.2m loss) and continuing revenue fell to £6.2m (£7.6m).
Total adjusted EBITDA represented a loss of £0.5m (2017: £0.8m profit) and continuing adjusted EBITDA was a loss of £0.1m (2017: £2.8m loss).
Licensing revenue increased by 167 per cent to £2.2m (£0.8m), in a year in which the firm launched 19 new games, also launching with 13 new partners for its Slingo Originals content.
In Q1 of 2019, Gaming Realms announced the proposed sale of its remaining B2C real-money gaming business to River for £11.5m, including the deferred £4.2m sum.
With 42 per cent of licensing play outside the UK – where the regulatory environment is described as “difficult” – recent deals have been signed with Scientific Games, giving access to up to 200 new worldwide customers, and Relax Gaming, opening up the Nordics with access to 80 potential new customers.
As such, the business is targeting becoming cashflow positive by Q1 2020.
Patrick Southon, Gaming Realms’ CEO, said: "We began our licensing business in 2017 as part of the strategy to fully capitalise on the strength of our games development operations. In a period of 24 months we have developed, licensed and launched 34 games via major gaming partners such as GVC and 888 and captured over 3.5 per cent market share in New Jersey. As a result, and post the imminent completion of the sale of the remaining B2C RMG business, we are looking forward to focusing solely on increasing the cadence of game development and licensing delivery as more B2B partners come online.
"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."
