Scientific Games claims ‘significant’ progress after Bally deal

Gaming solutions provider Scientific Games has cited the impact of its completed acquisition of Bally Technologies as one of the main reasons behind significant year-on-year growth during the three months through to March 31.

2015-05-08

United States

Reading time 1:21 min

Gaming solutions provider Scientific Games has cited the impact of its completed acquisition of Bally Technologies as one of the main reasons behind significant year-on-year growth during the three months through to March 31.

Scientific Games finalized its acquisition of the online casino games and solutions firm in November last year, with the opening period of 2015 the first full quarter in which it was part of Scientific Games.

The gaming solutions provider has now reported that this full integration has taken effect in the first quarter, with revenue in the period amounting to $658.7 million (€588.5 million), up from $388.1 million last year.

Operating income improved from a loss of $12.1 million in the first quarter of last year to a positive figure of $18.1 million in the opening period of this year.

Elsewhere, attributable earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation was up from $122.8 million to $252.1 million, while total debt reduced slightly to just under $8.5 billion.

However, Scientific Games did note that net cash provided by operating activities was down to $77.8 million while free cash flow slumped from $23.7 million to just $5.7 million.

Gavin Isaacs, president and chief executive officer of Scientific Games, said: “In our first full quarter following our merger with Bally, we made significant progress in our strategies to integrate Bally operations and unify our organization.

“Our focus on developing new player entertainment experiences that engage players and drive growth for our customers is equally matched by our focus on realising expected integration cost savings and increasing our free cash flow.

“The process of integrating Bally and Scientific Games is ahead of schedule.

“Having already implemented actions to achieve approximately $90 million in Bally-related annualised savings through March 31, 2015, we expect to achieve our goal to implement initiatives to generate approximately 80% of the anticipated $235 million of annual cost savings and another $30 million of WMS-related annual cost savings by the end of 2015.

“We are firmly focused on driving revenue opportunities enabled by leveraging the synergies created by our combined strengths in technology and product development.”