Casino equipment and online games provider Light & Wonder Inc reported first-quarter 2025 revenue of US$774 million, up 2.4 percent from a year earlier, according to a Wednesday announcement.
Light & Wonder said its net income remained flat year-on-year, at US$82 million.
The firm’s consolidated adjusted earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) stood at US$311 million in the opening quarter of 2025, up 10.7 percent from a year earlier.
Analysts Donald Carducci and Michael James of JP Morgan Securities Australia Ltd, said in a Thursday memo: “Light & Wonder requires circa 13 percent growth” to reach a stated US$1.4 billion adjusted EBITDA target for 2025, which would need “an acceleration on the approximately 11 percent EBITDA growth in the first quarter”.
They added: “Cost control (or cost out / initiatives) looks to be critical to achieving the US$1.4 billion; evidenced by the makeup of the first-quarter results (sales up 2 percent year-on-year; EBITDA up 11 percent).”
The company said the first quarter of 2025 marked the group’s “16th consecutive quarter of year-over-year consolidated revenue growth, expanding margins” across all three of its businesses.
The firm has three main segments: land-based gaming; the digital games unit, SciPlay; and iGaming.
Light & Wonder also discussed in its latest results announcement the potential impact on its operations of the recent trade tariffs announced by the U.S. government against a number of countries.
“These tariffs place additional duties on imports, and we currently source a portion of the raw materials and components for our gaming business from China and across Asia,” the firm noted.
It added: “While we expect recent tariffs and trade policies to create incremental cost pressures in the near term, our realised and ongoing operational efficiency initiatives coupled with other measures are expected to mitigate these effects. We remain on track to deliver our 2025 consolidated adjusted EBITDA target of US$1.4 billion.”
JP Morgan noted in its memo: “Tariff uncertainty may continue to weigh: however the company is confident it will be able to mitigate/offset any near-term cost pressures.”
International new unit shipments down y-o-y
Revenue from the gaming segment at Light & Wonder increased by 4.0 percent year-on-year to US$495 million, “primarily driven by table products growth of 9 percent, gaming systems growth of 5 percent, and gaming operations growth of 5 percent,” said Light & Wonder.
Gaming adjusted EBITDA were US$254 million, up 9.5 percent compared to the prior-year period, “primarily driven by revenue growth in the period, as well as margin expansion of 200 basis points” to 51 percent.
The company shipped 9,770 new gaming machine units in the three months to March 31. First-quarter 2025 shipments included 4,001 units sold in the international market, including Asia Pacific, down 23.9 percent compared with 5,259 units a year earlier.
Revenue in the iGaming segment grew by 4.1 percent year-on-year to US$77 million, while SciPlay revenue declined by 1.9 percent compared to the prior-year period, to US$202 million.
Matt Wilson, president and chief executive of Light & Wonder, was cited as saying of the first-quarter performance: “We continue to see our omnichannel strategy prosper with enhanced game development and performance fuelling our existing businesses, and further opportunity to extend this strategy.”
He added: “We remain confident in the various avenues of growth that we see for 2025 with continued execution on our robust product roadmap driving performance across the business.”
The results announcement also quoted Oliver Chow, Light & Wonder’s chief financial officer, as saying: “Our solid performance continues to be underpinned by a focus on streamlining and optimising our business to enhance margins as reflected in the quarter across the three business units and corporate functions.””
Light & Wonder’s latest announcement also included information on the firm’s ongoing acquisition of the charitable gaming assets – known as Grover Charitable Gaming – of U.S.-based Grover Gaming Inc and G2 Gaming Inc. The company said the transaction was expected to close during the second quarter of 2025, subject to required regulatory and other approvals and customary closing conditions.
Light & Wonder said it had repurchased approximately 1.9 million shares of its common stock at an aggregate cost of US$166 million during the three months ended March 31.
The principal face value of debt outstanding was US$3.9 billion as of March 31, translating to a net debt leverage ratio of 3.0 times, the firm said.
