VEGAS INC coverage
Las Vegas-based International Game Technology reported its third-quarter earnings Tuesday.
Company: International Game Technology (NYSE: IGT)
Revenue: $579 million (up 8.7 percent from third quarter of 2012). The increase was attributed to growth in North America machine sales and social gaming. Social gaming revenue through the company’s DoubleDown online free-play casino, acquired early last year, increased 105 percent to $61 million.
Earnings: $65.7 million (up 40 percent from third quarter of 2012). Third-quarter operating expenses were up 3 percent due to added employees for the company’s expanding social gaming presence and advertising expenses for online social gaming.
Earnings per share: 25 cents a share (up 56.2 percent from third quarter of 2012).
Quote: “Our momentum continues and is bolstered by our focused attention on the execution of our business strategy and positive leverage from the broad distribution of our best-in-class content.” — IGT CEO Patti Hart
What it means: IGT’s expansion into social gaming offset a 4 percent revenue decline attributed to lower Megajackpots play. Average revenue per unit per day in the quarter was $47.96, down 4 percent over the prior year's quarter and down 3 percent from the second quarter this year.
Revenue increased 12 percent to $259 million in North American sales, centered primarily around the Canadian machine replacement cycle. The average machine sales price declined 3 percent compared with the prior year's quarter due to an increased mix of lower-priced video lottery terminals.
DoubleDown, the world’s largest virtual casino, has more than 30 slot machine and table games and is one of the top five Facebook games. It averages 5.4 million visits per month.