London-based developer Gaming Realms has released its financial data for 2022, revealing a 54% increase in profit.
Since its inception in 2001, the company has been a prodigious buyer and seller of rival businesses, completing the acquisition of Blueburra Holdings and GameHouse in 2014 and 2015, respectively, and offloading its B2C subsidiary in 2019. Gaming Realms is now eying an expanding US base.
Licensed Properties
Gaming Realms’ most famous acquisition to date is arguably Slingo, a game made by a real estate developer in 1994 that’s popular with people who play bingo online. Slingo, which melds traditional slots gameplay with bingo, was sold to Real Networks in 2013 before finally ending up at its current location, Gaming Realms, two years later. Today, it’s the source of a majority of the company’s income from licensing.
Now thirty years old, Slingo’s longevity has much to do with how adaptable it is. Gaming Realms frequently releases new Slingo variants, some of which are branded with the names of TV game shows and other pop culture properties. For instance, Slingo Shark Week and Slingo Who Wants to be a Millionaire? are already a part of Gaming Realms’ catalog, with a Tetris-themed version of the game due out in 2023.
Thanks to this saleability, Gaming Realms posted a pre-tax profit of £3.5m last year, an increase of 224% over 2021’s £1.1m. In total, the iGaming giant earned £18.7m in 2022. As expected, Gaming Realms’ licensed properties made up the bulk of revenues, providing 35% of all the money that came through its doors. AccessWire notes that Gaming Realms now has a cash balance of £2.9m.
Share Price
Obviously, Gaming Realms can’t attribute such a huge hike in profits to a single asset, especially one that has been around for almost three decades – so, what’s going on? The biggest change in the company’s fortunes has been in the appetite for iGaming-style entertainment in the United States. Due to a much friendlier landscape, Gaming Realms has been able to expand its list of partners to include 56 operators.
Expanding on those numbers, company chief Mark Segal explained in a press release that Gaming Realms has already launched 13 new games in 2023. This is (presumably) in addition to the 65 titles that the developer had at the end of 2022. In response to Segal’s statement, which came on April 4, Gaming Realms’ share price increased 5% to 27p, slightly lower than its 33.4p peak a year ago.
As for the future, Gaming Realms is in a strong position. In addition to North America, the company also set up shop in a trio of European markets in 2022. As the iGaming sector is almost synonymous with growth at the moment (the US market set a record of $54.9bn in revenues in 2022), Gaming Realms would appear to have plenty of opportunities for fresh income.
While it usually takes brand-new markets a couple of years to mature to full strength, the iGaming niche is worth keeping an eye on.