IGT is a company who have a passion for gaming and a reputation for providing top quality games for others to enjoy too. IGT is one of the industry leaders when it comes to developing slot games, gaming machines and lotteries across all the leading platforms which includes desktop and mobile. They pride themselves on being innovators in their field and have been very successful by sticking to their ethos.
When it comes to success in such a competitive industry what really matters are the financial figures posted and IGT have just announced their results for the fourth quarter of 2017. The board expected rises across all areas and the latest figures show that IGT hit all their targets after a strong 2017 all round. These positive trends have been mirrored by other entities in the industry like the Kindred Group plc, who is one of the largest online gambling operators in the European market, have more than 21 million active customers and manage established brands like Unibet, 32Red and StanJames.
In spite of meeting all their targets, it can be argued that IGT’s fourth quarter results were quite modest after they saw a year on year rise of just 3% going from $1,321 million in 2016 up to $1,3746 million twelve months later. However, IGT’s adjusted operating income climbed from $268 million to $281 million while the adjusted EBITDA was also up compared to 2016’s fourth quarter figures from $422 million to $452 million.
It’s believed that the performance in the second half of the fourth quarter which was led by the international segment allowed IGT to meet its financial objectives for the year even though the rises were seen across the board were fairly modest. However, looking at the results for the full 12 months tell a bit of a different story. There was a decrease in the total amount of revenue for example going from $5,154 million to $4,939 million.
The CEO of IGT Marco Sala recognised that the company had had a strong finish to 2017 and that they also managed to deliver outstanding results in their lottery business too while also seeing improvements in the gaming side of company. The revenue from the North America Lottery had shot up by 7% to $304 million when comparing the figures to the previous year and there was also strong growth in sales and wagers.
The rises were put down to “disciplined expense management” by CEO Sala. He also reiterated that IGT were still very committed in bringing innovative content and technology to the market and that this remained a cornerstone of their strategy going forward. IGT are hoping that they have now laid the foundations which will allow them to grow even further in 2018 and beyond.
IGT’s CFO Alberto Fornaro also spoke about the figures posted just recently. He was pleased that IGT had managed to meet all of their financial objectives for the year and that they also managed to meet their EBITDA expectations too. They also predicted higher net debt and with it coming in slightly better than expected that is seen as another positive too. He also commented on the results for the fourth quarter of 2017 and their year in general as “highlighting the diversity and resilience of the IGT franchise.”