Everi has reiterated a commitment to R&D and its product development roadmap in driving expansion into next year and beyond, as the group also basks in the success of recent acquisitions in establishing a “foundation for new avenues of growth”.
In addition, the developer has also stressed that it remains on track to enter new markets, including the video lottery terminal category, UK mobile gaming and other new international markets through 2024 and into 2025.
Randy Taylor, Chief Executive Officer of Everi, explained: “We are making progress in the integration of our recent acquisitions to establish the foundation for new avenues of growth both in games, such as for bingo, historical horse racing and video lottery terminal market categories, and in fintech where we look to extend our digital neighbourhood to bring new value to casino operators through our on-premise mobile gaming offering and an enhanced mobile wallet, as well as to expand into non-gaming sports and entertainment venues and other global gaming markets.”
These comments came as the group reported a one per cent revenue uptick through the year’s third quarter to $206.6m (2022: $204.3m), driven by growth in the fintech segment and M&A activity. Acquisitions completed since July 1, 2022, contributed $8.1m through the quarter.
The aforementioned division saw revenue increase four per cent to $95.1m (2022: $91.8m), with gains across software and financial access services offset by hardware sales.
This, Everi noted, was compared to strong sales in the previous year related to new casino openings and expansions.
However, the group’s games segment declined fractionally to $111.5m (2022: $112.5m), as a five per cent uptick in gaming operations, including bingo, digital gaming, and HHR, was wiped out by a 12 per cent drop from equipment and systems sales.
Despite the above, Everi saw group-wide net income and adjusted EBITDA fall 9.52 per cent and 0.4 per cent to $29.4m (2022: $26.6m) and $96.2m (2022: $96.6m).
“We continue to execute on our operational and product roadmap to drive long-term profitable growth in both our games and fintech businesses,” Taylor stated.
Adding: “Our third quarter results reflected the near-term headwinds in our games segment including the impact from lower unit sales and lower daily win per unit.
“Despite these challenges, we continue to generate strong free cash flow which totaled $122.1m for the first nine months of the year.
“This level of free cash flow has allowed us to aggressively return capital to our shareholders as reflected in our $74m of share repurchases so far in 2023 and to continually reinvest in our product portfolio.
“We believe our investment in R&D, our deep pipeline of innovative new cabinets and content, and the positive feedback received for our newest product introductions at this year’s G2E position us well to return to growth next year and beyond.”
In addition, adjusted EBITDA is expecting a fall in line with the prior year, while net income earnings per share, free cash flow and adjusted EPS are anticipated to be in the lower end of guidance as a result of lower operating income being offset by lower net interest expense, taxes, and full year capital expenditures.
