Inspired Reports Third Quarter 2023 Results
Inspired Entertainment, a leading B2B provider of gaming content, technology, hardware and services, reported financial results for the three-month period ended September 30, 2023.
Lorne Weil, Executive Chairman of Inspired, said: “We have completed the financial restatement process and as of today, all amended filings are complete. For the first half of 2023, the net impact to Adjusted EBITDA from the restatement was effectively zero, with a $1 million decrease in previously reported results in Q1 offset by a $1 million increase in Q2. The impact to our Adjusted EBITDA for the full year 2022, was a decrease of $0.6 million, from $99.6 million to $99.0 million, or less than 1%. Adjusted EBITDA margin for the third quarter was 27%, but excluding Low Margin Gaming Hardware sales, the margin was 36%, compared to 37% in the prior year quarter.”
Weil continued: “For the quarter, our aggregate digital business, which includes our Virtual Sports and Interactive segments, grew Adjusted EBITDA 9% to $16.4 million from $15.0 million. Year to date, our digital business generated 58% of Adjusted EBITDA contribution compared to 50% in the prior year period. This performance reinforces the shift in our strategic focus towards our higher margin, scalable digital business and we continue to invest in premium content creation for these segments. At the same time, our Adjusted EBITDA for the third quarter was impacted by the timing of several one-time sales moving into the fourth quarter. Excluding one-time product sales, Adjusted EBITDA grew 4% year-over-year during the third quarter. As we look forward, we expect our fourth quarter Adjusted EBITDA to be in-line with consensus. Additionally, our fourth quarter Adjusted EBITDA would have been nearly $2 million higher if not for the ransomware attack on our IT systems impacting results.”
Weil added: “Our digital business third quarter results were led by the Interactive segment where revenue and Adjusted EBITDA increased 28% and 55% year-over-year on a constant currency basis, respectively, underscoring both the growth and scalability of the business. Interactive results reflect another quarterly record as we continue to benefit from an increased footprint through new customer launches, the consistent deployment of new content and increased promotional activity through exclusive deals with tier-one customers as well as revenue growth from existing customers. In our Virtual Sports segment, we generated $13.4 million of revenue during the quarter compared to $14.4 million during the prior year. The year-over-year decline was driven by a major customer’s optimizing of their customer base, with a partial offset due to increased retail revenue. In the last two to three years, we’ve seen extraordinary growth in our Virtual Sports business, driven by new products and market expansions. We believe we are heading into another strong growth phase, driven by our exciting new content partnerships with the NFL and NBA. We have two major markets with substantial growth opportunity, North America and Latin America. In addition, we’ve recently launched Hybrid Dealer, a revolutionary new iGaming product. We are proud to have partnered with BetMGM to launch this innovative new product. With all of this recent progress, we are more convinced than ever that we are in the early stages of an expanding global opportunity with our digital business that will continue to exhibit a high margin and low capital intensity profile.”
Weil continued: “In our land-based operations, which includes our Gaming and Leisure segments, we’ve completed the deployment of our new ‘Vantage’ cabinet across two of our largest licensed betting shop customers, recording another $22.7 million of low margin terminal sales in Q3. We continue to see approximately 11% year-over-year revenue per machine increases with these new terminal deployments. In our pubs business, we’ve deployed ‘Vantage’ across approximately 20% of our customer estate and have experienced approximately 20% year-over-year growth in revenue per machine. This gives us confidence that we are seeing a reacceleration across our land-based businesses.”
Weil concluded: “Fundamentally, our business remains very strong, which was reflected in our repurchase of $1.5 million of our stock during the third quarter. We are optimistic about the compelling digital growth dynamics of the business, as a wider audience engages with online betting and gaming while new jurisdictions continue to launch. Combined with a resilient land-based business, our diversification and expansion ability reinforce our omni-channel strategy combining our high-margin, capital efficient digital businesses with our steady land-based businesses.”
