Gaming Realms
Written by
Gaming Realms |
Brand building starts to pay off |
Interim results |
Travel & leisure |
14 September 2016 |
Share price performance
Business description
Next events
Analysts
Gaming Realms is a research client of Edison Investment Research Limited |
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We take three key messages from Gaming Realms’ interims: strong growth in real money gaming, significant progress with major blue-chip licensing partners and management’s belief that the group will be EBITDA positive for 2016. The latter implies maiden EBITDA profits of over £3m in H216 underpinning our unchanged EBITDA forecast of £6.9m for 2017. More importantly, this suggests that the group has passed a tipping point in its development, which is not yet reflected in the 2017 EV/EVITDA of only 7.2x.
Year |
Revenue (£m) |
EBITDA* |
PBT* |
EPS* |
DPS |
P/E |
EV/EBITDA |
12/14** |
11.2 |
(7.8) |
(8.4) |
(5.0) |
0.0 |
N/A |
N/A |
12/15 |
21.2 |
(4.1) |
(5.0) |
(2.1) |
0.0 |
N/A |
N/A |
12/16e |
37.1 |
0.3 |
(1.7) |
(0.6) |
0.0 |
N/A |
N/A |
12/17e |
54.3 |
6.9 |
4.9 |
1.7 |
0.0 |
11.2 |
7.2 |
Note: *Normalised (and diluted EPS), excluding amortisation of acquired intangibles, exceptional items and share-based payments. **15-month period.
Building real traction in RMG and social gaming
With its proprietary Grizzly platform scaling nicely, Gaming Realms has been able to focus on marketing its real money gaming (RMG) brands, with over 143k new depositing players in H116 (H115: 39k), revenue growing to £10.2m (H115: £4.2m) and 84% of depositing players using mobile. It is also ready to begin licensing its games to selected partners on a B2B basis. The Slingo social gaming brand (acquired in August 2015) has successfully crossed over into RMG but, more importantly, is attracting blue-chip licensing partners. Gaming Realms has already launched Britain’s Got Talent, X Factor and Deal or No Deal Slingo-based games sites and we expect more to come, including product launches from its US licensing partners Zynga (Slingo-branded social casino slot game), Scientific Games (Slingo-branded land-based slot machines) and Pala Interactive (New Jersey online bingo).
Investment in marketing weighted to H116
H116 revenues more than doubled to £16.6m (H115: 8.0m), partly on the back of a high level of marketing spend (£9.5m, up from £5.1m in H115), which left the H116 EBITDA loss at £3.0m (H115: £2.4m), slightly more than we expected. However, the marketing investment was front-end loaded and the momentum in RMG and growth in licensing revenues underpins management’s belief that it can achieve EBITDA profits for the year. We trimmed our forecast from £0.8m to £0.3m, but this would still imply H216 EBITDA of £3.3m. Our 2017e EBITDA of £6.9m is unchanged.
Valuation: Payback in sight
Gaming Realms’ management has invested heavily to create a proprietary platform and innovative games, with the directors supporting equity raises and currently holding 16.7%. Aside from the financial momentum, we believe the blue-chip names being added as licensing partners are a clear sign of confidence and that, as it moves into profit at the EBITDA level, the group has passed a tipping point in its development, which is not yet reflected in the 2017e EV/EVITDA of only 7.2x.
Operational progress
B2C RMG – growing portfolio of branded games
RMG revenues more than doubled in H116 to £10.17m (H115: £4.18m). Gaming Realms is continuing to achieve good growth from its longer established brands Spin Genie and Pocket Fruity, which contributed 61% of H116 RMG revenues (c £6.2m) implying roughly 45% growth over H115. Gaming Realms recently announced a three-year partnership and revenue-share agreement with Bauer Media to promote Spin Genie across media channels including its Heat and Closer magazines and Heat, Kiss, Magic and Absolute radio stations. The other 39% of H116 RMG revenues came from slingo.com (first RMG version launched autumn 2015) and bgtgames.com (Britain’s Got Talent) which is licensed from Freemantle (which receives a royalty income). The Deal or No Deal games site (also licensed from Freemantle) was launched in April, while the X Factor games site (licensed from Endemol) should contribute materially in H216 (the latest TV series began at the end of August). Each site features Slingo games (attractive to partners as they are seen as soft gaming), other Gaming Realms games and a range of third-party slots and games.
Social games and licensing
Social and licensing H116 revenue was £3.77m versus only 53k in H115, RealNetworks having only been acquired in July 2015. The £3.77m was 52% higher than the H215 figure and Gaming Realms reported that it reached a monthly run rate of over $1m in June 2016, implying annualised revenues of over £9m. RealNetworks’ main asset was the Slingo range of social games (monetised via a freemium model) including Slingo Adventure and Slingo Shuffle. It also brought in a Hidden Artifacts game, which has proved popular (in July 2016 Gaming Realms acquired 62.5% of its developer Hullabu for $500k, with the consideration being applied to further develop the game). More importantly, RealNetworks brought in a relationship with US gaming equipment manufacturer Scientific Games, whereby Scientific Games produces Slingo-branded physical scratch card lottery tickets in certain markets. During H116 this relationship was extended with a five-year agreement whereby Scientific Games has exclusive rights to produce and distribute Slingo-branded, land-based slot machines to casinos and gaming venues worldwide, with a minimum guaranteed royalty stream payable to Gaming Realms in the first two years. We do not yet know when machines will be launched, but believe the upside potential is considerable.
During H116 Gaming Realms also entered into US licensing deals with Zynga and Pala Interactive. The deal with Zynga is to bring a new Slingo-branded game to the social casino market and includes a minimum guaranteed royalty stream with recoupable upfront royalty payments (based on net revenue) over a three-year term. In March 2016 Gaming Realms was granted a transactional waiver in New Jersey, US to allow it to supply a new bingo game to PalaBingoUSA.com, and the game has already been soft-launched.
Remote game server – new B2B opportunities
Gaming Realms is looking to leverage its game portfolio (both RMG and social) and proprietary platform with the launch of its remote game server (RGS) post the period end. The RGS allows it to license its games to selected partners, which would generate incremental revenue at almost a 100% margin. Likely partners might be sports betting operators or international casino operators looking to extend their product ranges; we assume that Gaming Realms would be less likely to want to license to UK-facing B2C gaming competitors.
Interim results and full year estimates
Overall revenues for H116 were £16.6m, up from £7.95m in H115. In addition to RMG and social gaming and licensing (discussed above), there were £2.7m of marketing services revenues including revenues from the Dragonfish ‘skins’ and QTM up to their disposals in March and June respectively (QTM was injected into a larger agency, Ayima, in which Gaming Realms has a 10% stake worth c £0.5m). We have left our full year and 2017 revenue estimates unchanged.
Exhibit 1: Half-yearly results and estimates
£m |
H115 |
H215 |
2015 |
H116 |
H216 |
2016e |
2017e |
Real money gaming (RMG) |
4.18 |
6.62 |
10.80 |
10.17 |
13.33 |
23.50 |
32.70 |
Social gaming & licensing |
0.05 |
2.49 |
2.54 |
3.77 |
5.23 |
9.00 |
20.00 |
Marketing services |
3.72 |
4.12 |
7.84 |
2.69 |
1.89 |
4.58 |
1.60 |
Revenue |
7.95 |
13.26 |
21.21 |
16.63 |
20.45 |
37.08 |
54.30 |
Marketing expense |
(5.05) |
(6.46) |
(11.51) |
(9.52) |
(5.48) |
(15.00) |
(18.10) |
Marketing % revenue |
63.5% |
48.7% |
54.3% |
57.3% |
26.8% |
40.4% |
33.3% |
Operating expense |
(2.40) |
(3.33) |
(5.73) |
(4.29) |
(5.35) |
(9.64) |
(14.80) |
Operating expense % revenue |
30.2% |
25.1% |
27.0% |
25.8% |
26.2% |
26.0% |
27.3% |
Admin expense |
(2.93) |
(5.15) |
(8.08) |
(5.81) |
(6.29) |
(12.10) |
(14.50) |
Admin % revenue |
36.9% |
38.8% |
38.1% |
35.0% |
30.7% |
32.6% |
23.0% |
Adjusted EBITDA |
(2.43) |
(1.68) |
(4.11) |
(3.00) |
3.34 |
0.34 |
6.90 |
Adjusted EBITDA margins |
-30.6% |
-12.6% |
-19.4% |
-18.0% |
16.3% |
0.9% |
12.7% |
Source: Gaming Realms accounts, Edison Investment Research
Gaming Realms is still building its business and brands and marketing is its biggest expense; indeed, we view one of management’s core skills as the ability to flex marketing rapidly to maximise returns. 2016 marketing spend is reported to have been front loaded to the first half, with spend of £9.5m (57% of revenue), including TV advertising as well as online. Operating and admin expense ratios declined slightly as the group scaled up, but the high level of investment resulted in an EBITDA loss of £3.0m. Normalised PBT was a loss of £3.9m (H115: loss of £2.7m).
Management believes that it will be EBITDA positive for the full year, which will be a considerable achievement; we forecast H216 EBITDA of £3.34m to give £0.34m for the year, implying a second-half margin of just over 16%. We have left our 2017 estimates unchanged. We allow for marketing to fall to about 33% of revenue as licensed sites provide increasing brand visibility, and the admin ratio should also decline. However, we allow for a slight increase in the operating expense ratio to accommodate the extension of remote gaming duty (POC) to free bets from August 2017 (its exact method of implementation is currently the subject of an HMRC consultation).
Our normalised PBT estimates are for a loss of £1.7m in 2016 and profit of £4.9m in 2017 (Exhibit 2), slightly below our last published £0.4m loss and £5.8m profit (respectively) as we have adopted a more conservative treatment of amortisation and now charge all amortisation relating to development costs, software and domain names (but exclude that relating to acquired customer databases and intellectual property).
Net cash of £2.6m at 30 June
Cash (net of player balances) increased slightly in the half year to £2.59m (December 2015: £2.34m). Gaming Realms has continued to invest heavily in its games, platform and player acquisition, including £1.9m of capitalised development costs in H116. It raised £1.525m via the issue of 7.6m shares (at 20p) on 2 March and £1.2m from the sale of the Dragonfish ‘skins’ (Blueburra) on 4 March. Since the period end it has raised £2.5m via the issue of 12.5m shares (at 20p) on 27 July, which part-funded the first deferred consideration payment of $4m (£3.1m) to RealNetworks. We expect year-end net cash of around £1.15m and for the group to turn cash positive in 2017, with net cash rising to c £4.3m by end 2017.
Exhibit 2: Financial summary
£'m |
2014 |
2015 |
2016e |
2017e |
||
September/December |
IFRS |
IFRS |
IFRS |
IFRS |
||
PROFIT & LOSS |
||||||
Revenue |
|
|
11.23 |
21.21 |
37.08 |
54.30 |
EBITDA |
|
|
(7.82) |
(4.11) |
0.34 |
6.90 |
Operating Profit (before amort. and except.) |
|
(8.33) |
(4.94) |
(1.66) |
4.90 |
|
Amortisation of acquired intangibles* |
(0.80) |
(1.46) |
(1.50) |
(1.00) |
||
Exceptional items |
(0.23) |
(0.32) |
0.27 |
0.00 |
||
Share based payments |
(0.44) |
(1.05) |
(1.25) |
0.00 |
||
Operating Profit |
(9.80) |
(7.76) |
(4.14) |
3.90 |
||
Net Interest |
(0.04) |
(0.01) |
(0.03) |
0.00 |
||
Mov't in deferred consideration |
0.00 |
(0.37) |
(0.75) |
0.00 |
||
Profit Before Tax (norm) |
|
|
(8.38) |
(4.95) |
(1.69) |
4.90 |
Profit Before Tax (FRS 3) |
|
|
(9.85) |
(7.78) |
(4.17) |
3.90 |
Tax |
0.09 |
0.34 |
0.15 |
(0.20) |
||
Profit After Tax (norm) |
(8.28) |
(4.62) |
(1.54) |
4.71 |
||
Profit After Tax (FRS 3) |
(9.75) |
(7.44) |
(4.02) |
3.71 |
||
Average Number of Shares Outstanding (m) |
165.2 |
215.7 |
263.0 |
272.4 |
||
EPS - normalised (p) |
|
|
(5.0) |
(2.1) |
(0.6) |
1.7 |
EPS - normalised fully diluted (p) |
|
|
(5.0) |
(2.1) |
(0.6) |
1.7 |
EPS - (IFRS) (p) |
|
|
(5.9) |
(3.4) |
(1.5) |
1.4 |
Dividend per share (p) |
0.0 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
||
EBITDA Margin (%) |
-69.6 |
-19.4 |
0.9 |
12.7 |
||
Operating Margin (before GW and except.) (%) |
-74.2 |
-23.3 |
-4.5 |
9.0 |
||
BALANCE SHEET |
||||||
Fixed Assets |
|
|
17.06 |
29.27 |
27.35 |
27.54 |
Intangible Assets |
16.76 |
28.93 |
27.01 |
27.00 |
||
Tangible Assets |
0.30 |
0.34 |
0.34 |
0.54 |
||
Investments |
0.00 |
0.00 |
0.00 |
0.00 |
||
Current Assets |
|
|
6.24 |
6.55 |
6.05 |
9.80 |
Stocks |
0.00 |
0.00 |
0.00 |
0.00 |
||
Debtors |
2.22 |
4.02 |
4.50 |
5.00 |
||
Cash |
3.99 |
2.20 |
1.15 |
4.30 |
||
Other including player balances |
0.02 |
0.34 |
0.40 |
0.50 |
||
Current Liabilities |
|
|
(5.26) |
(9.32) |
(8.10) |
(8.50) |
Creditors |
(5.25) |
(9.32) |
(8.10) |
(8.50) |
||
Short term borrowings |
(0.01) |
0.00 |
0.00 |
0.00 |
||
Long Term Liabilities |
|
|
(2.43) |
(3.71) |
0.00 |
0.00 |
Long term borrowings |
0.00 |
0.00 |
0.00 |
0.00 |
||
Other long term liabilities |
(2.43) |
(3.71) |
0.00 |
0.00 |
||
Net Assets |
|
|
15.61 |
22.80 |
25.30 |
28.84 |
CASH FLOW |
||||||
Operating Cash Flow |
|
|
(8.02) |
(3.83) |
(0.66) |
5.35 |
Net Interest |
(0.04) |
(0.21) |
(0.21) |
0.00 |
||
Tax |
0.05 |
0.34 |
0.00 |
0.00 |
||
Capex |
(0.69) |
(1.87) |
(2.00) |
(2.20) |
||
Acquisitions/disposals |
(4.12) |
(7.66) |
(1.90) |
0.00 |
||
Financing |
11.81 |
12.00 |
3.60 |
0.00 |
||
Dividends |
0.00 |
0.00 |
0.00 |
0.00 |
||
Net Cash Flow |
(1.01) |
(1.23) |
(1.17) |
3.15 |
||
Opening net debt/(cash) |
|
|
(5.02) |
(3.98) |
(2.34) |
(1.15) |
HP finance leases initiated |
0.00 |
0.00 |
0.00 |
0.00 |
||
Other |
(0.03) |
(0.41) |
(0.02) |
0.00 |
||
Closing net debt/(cash) |
|
|
(3.98) |
(2.34) |
(1.15) |
(4.30) |
Source: Gaming Realms accounts, Edison Investment Research
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