Light & Wonder secures 16th consecutive quarter of growth
For the first quarter ended March 31, 2025, Light & Wonder delivered another solid quarter, achieving its 16th consecutive quarter of year-over-year consolidated revenue growth, expanding margins across all three of its businesses and generating strong cash flow, while continuing to execute on our robust content roadmap and cross-platform strategy.
Gaming revenue increased to $495m, up four per cent compared to the prior year period, primarily driven by growth across all lines of business, including nine per cent growth in Table products and five per cent growth in both Gaming systems and Gaming operations. The growth was fueled by the success of our diversified portfolio of game franchises and gaming solutions, resulting in Gaming Operations North American premium installed base growing for 19 consecutive quarters, 30 per cent growth year-over-year in North American unit shipments, and maintaining #1 ship share in Australia.
SciPlay revenue was $202m, a decrease of two per cent compared to the prior year period, but continued to outpace the social casino market with strong payer metrics. AEBITDA increased three per cent, while margin expanded 200 basis points, driven by a growing direct-to-consumer platform, while we continued to invest in high return marketing initiatives to fuel future growth. The social casino business continued to deliver consistently high player engagement and monetization, with ARPDAU increasing by five per cent to $1.06.
iGaming revenue increased four per cent to $77m, and AEBITDA increased eight per cent with margin expanding by 100 basis points, primarily reflecting continued momentum in the US and expansion of our partner network.
Matt Wilson, President and Chief Executive Officer of Light & Wonder, said: “Our R&D investment, vast array of product offerings and comprehensive content strategy continue to deliver success in game deployment and franchise expansions. We continue to see our omni-channel strategy prosper with enhanced game development and performance fueling our existing businesses, and further opportunity to extend this strategy with the pending Grover Charitable Gaming Acquisition. 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. We are committed to executing off the strong foundation of world class talent and game portfolio that we have built for long-term success.”
Oliver Chow, Chief Financial Officer of Light & Wonder, added: “This quarter is a further testament to our commitment to value creation as we generated strong cash flow coupled with another meaningful quarter of share buyback. Our solid performance continues to be underpinned by a focus on streamlining and optimizing our business to enhance margins as reflected in the quarter across the three business units and corporate functions. The initiatives and processes that we have in place enable us to remain nimble and adaptable to a dynamic environment and positions us well to be a sustainable compounder of growth well into the future.”
With regards to the impact of recent trade tariffs, Light & Wonder said: “In April of 2025, the US government and many foreign countries imposed a series of new trade tariffs. 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. We have evaluated various mitigation strategies, including but not limited to, supplier diversification, adjusting supply chain operations, supplier pricing negotiations and cost control initiatives, among other measures. Over the past several quarters, through margin enhancement initiatives, we have successfully executed meaningful operational efficiencies. While we expect recent tariffs and trade policies to create incremental cost pressures in the near term, our realized and ongoing operational efficiency initiatives coupled with other measures are expected to mitigate these effects.”
In terms of a Dragon Train litigation update, Light & Wonder said: “Our external experts have now completed a review of all hold and spin games released from 2015 to the present to determine whether any of these games present issues with respect to Aristocrat math values similar to those identified with Dragon Train and Jewel of the Dragon, both of which were hold and spin games. Our experts found no evidence that Aristocrat math values were used in any of these games.”
