Shares in developer and licensor of mobile games company Gaming Realms (GMR:AIM) spun 8.3% higher to 37.9p on Monday after reporting 50% growth in first-half revenue to £7.7 million.
Strong growth was driven by a 73% increase in licensing revenue to £5.8 million as 26 new partners went live through 2020 and a further 11 in the first half of the year, while four new Slingo games were released.
Around half of the increase (£1.3 million) was due to an increase in brand revenues with the rest split between increased content and organic growth from existing partners.
Meanwhile the group’s social publishing business grew revenues by 7% to £1.9 million.
UNIQUE GAMING GENRE
Gaming Realms operates a business-to-business revenue model selling its unique Slingo game genre and other games through major gaming distributers, operators, and consumer brands. Slingo dates to the mid-1990’s and is a mash-up of bingo and slots.
The company runs a tight ship and can expand into new territories while keeping a lid on costs. For example, fixed costs increased only increased 8% to £3.3 million and represent just over two thirds of expenses.
This means that the company is operationally geared as shown by the 169% increase in EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation) to £2.7 million.
GROWTH OPPORTUNITIES
The opening up of the US market to gambling represents a significant opportunity for the company with gross gaming revenues expected to grow by a compound annual growth rate of 21.5% a year over the next four years.
The firm is targeting further US states such as Connecticut while the Ontario state of Canada is expected to regulate its iGaming market by the end of the year and has the potential to be a bigger market for Gaming Realms than any of the US states that have regulated so far.
Ivor Jones, analyst at Peel Hunt commented: ‘Gaming Realms continues to demonstrate that it can develop compelling games content, grow market share and add licensees and geographic markets while keeping a lid on its cost base.
