Australian gaming giant Aristocrat Leisure Ltd has reported a net profit after tax of AU$692.7 million (US$461 million) in the six months to 31 March 2023, up 23.2% over the same period last year thanks to the strong performance of its North American operations and an increase in global outright sales.
Releasing its 1H23 financial results this morning, Aristocrat said it booked a 12.2% increase in revenue to AU$3.08 billion (US$2.05 billion) despite continued supply chain issues and mixed operating conditions across key markets.
Growth included an AU$59.5 million increase in post-tax profit in the Americas thanks to a 27% increase in outright unit sales, while the company’s Class III Premium and Class II Gaming Operations installed base grew 9% to exceed 61,000 units. International Class III growth was driven by operating conditions in Europe, together with benefits from churn across Asia, while Aristocrat said it maintained market-leading ship share in Australia and New Zealand amid a “challenging operating environment”.
Social casino arm Pixel United also delivered a “resilient performance in a challenging environment,” the company explained, outperforming the global mobile games market and continuing to grow market share despite segment revenues falling by 6.5% to US$891.3 million (US$593 million).
Aristocrat’s online RMG business, Anaxi, “delivered on its initial market entry commitments and built solid foundations for accelerated growth,” Aristocrat added.
Group-wide EBITDA of AU$1.03 billion (US$686 million) was 5.7% higher than in 1H22.
Aristocrat CEO and Managing Director Trevor Croker said, “Aristocrat delivered a quality result over the period, demonstrating the ongoing resilience, competitiveness and diversification of our portfolio, as we navigated challenging market conditions and continued to invest fully behind our successful Group growth strategy.
“The benefit of our investment to grow and diversify Aristocrat’s revenue base was particularly evident in our ability to deliver solid revenue growth and stable EBITDA in constant currency at Group level over the half year, with a continued strong performance from the Aristocrat Gaming Americas business more than offsetting the challenging mobile gaming market conditions for Pixel United.
“We continued to invest to grow into attractive adjacencies and verticals, as we build further resilience in our operating portfolio, including through executing our ‘build and buy’ strategy in Online RMG.
“Our newest operating business, Anaxi, delivered on its initial market entry commitments and established sound foundations for growth. With content agreements signed with partners representing over 55% of the iGaming market in the US, we are comfortably on course to exceed our target of penetrating at least 70% of regulated jurisdictions across North America over the next five years.
“Our teams faced into considerable economic and political uncertainty during the half, including the continuation of the conflict in Ukraine, and I am tremendously thankful for their efforts. Looking ahead, we will continue to navigate challenges with a focus on portfolio performance and capturing the significant strategic opportunities in front of us including delivering on our online RMG strategy with the proposed acquisition of NeoGames announced earlier this week.”
