Gaming Realms reported a 10% jump in full-year 2025 revenue to £31.4m, as the Slingo supplier quietly goes about its growth journey. Adjusted EBITDA was up 15% to £15m, too. The supplier, which is listed on the AIM in London, is headed up by long-term CEO Mark Segal. The boss, alongside CFO Geoff Green, speak to EGR following the publication of the earnings report, which showed a 13% leap in North American revenue.
UK revenue was down 10%, but the bosses insisted this has been offset by growth elsewhere, namely in Canada (+26%) and Italy (+31%). The £5 slots stake cap that came into play in April saw management tinker with Slingo mechanics, while the remote gaming duty hike to 40% this April could have a further impact.
In fact, analyst consensus puts adjusted EBITDA at £14.7m for full-year 2026. However, pro forma basis would have seen 2025 adjusted EBITDA come in at £13.3m compared to the £15m recorded. Growth, it seems, remains, despite the headwinds.
EGR: Strong full-year 2025 with revenue and adjusted EBTIDA both up. Can you reflect on the past 12 months for us?
Mark Segal (MS): We had great success in North America. That grew 13% and it’s now 63% of our group revenue. We’re very focused there and we’re very well set up for when more states come online because we know what we’re doing. The UK was a bit more difficult with staking limits coming in, but we worked our way through that very well. We’ve had good success in Italy [and] Canada and we also spent the year getting ready for 2026 as well. We went live in South Africa right at the end of 2025 and we’ve gone live in Peru since.
We’ve increased our investment in new games so we should be bringing more games out this year. We’ve started a new game studio brand called Lucky Lunar to do slightly different type of games. We’re really well set up. The one thing we’re waiting for is to see the results from what’s going to happen next week with the new taxes coming into the UK. But the way we prepared ourselves is by making the UK a much smaller portion of what we do.
EGR: On the UK tax increases, how are those mitigation conversations going with operators as they look to save costs?
MS: Our deals are always down after tax. I think that’s the equitable way to do it. We’ll have some new and better games come to market this year which will really help. I think some of the larger operators may feel they’ve got a bit of an advantage now because they’ve got the scale. There’ll also be some operators leaving the market. There’s been some discussion about lower RTPs for some operators. We can work and do things on that front with them. Others want to maintain the value to players.
EGR: The earnings reports mentioned an adjustment to Slingo games to factor in the UK online stake limits. Can you explain in some more detail how this worked?
MS: The issue with Slingo is not that it’s high-staking game or a VIP-led game. It’s actually not. It’s just the games are probably 90 seconds or two minutes long, so it’s the way the stakes are accumulated. As you get closer to winning a full house, you get offered a price for an additional game within that, and those can be higher than the staking limits.
We’ve been able to have a tool in there which essentially allows the games to continue but capped at the staking levels. Players are now staking like they were [prior to the cap]. Unfortunately, the games needed to be recertified and it just took a process of time to get the volume back out.
EGR: The US a growing portion of the business – what is key to this continuing? Is it more state openings? Or is there enough growth in the market as it stands?
MS: The markets we are in are growing; maybe by another 60% by 2029. We’ve built some bespoke games for certain operators in the market, which has given them something different. We’ve been licensing some big IP. We’re licensing the top games from IGT and Light & Wonder. We have Inspired Entertainment titles in there as well. We’re able to launch and produce some real top games for the market, which is attracting more and more players. We have started in the last couple of years to bring other third-party studios in through our platform because we have such good distribution in the US. That’s a smaller percentage of what we’re doing, but it’s building up.
EGR: Italy and Canada both reported strong year on year increases. What’s working there?
MS: We launched in British Columbia during 2025 which has helped with the growth. We also have a great partnership with the lottery in Quebec. Italy is an interesting one. At the end of 2024, we licensed a top slot in Italy called Fowl Play and built the Slingo version. That has really helped drive market share. We’ll hopefully bring out a sequel this year which will help again in Italy.
EGR: What’s the thinking behind new studio brand Lucky Lunar given the slots market remains very competitive?
MS: Slingo is such a big piece of IP and a big brand. So, it’s how we can bring elements of Slingo into different types of games. We’ll bring out a series of games to see how we can bring Slingo into them as well. We’re not moving away fully from Slingo. We’re not slowing down Slingo either.
EGR: Why does the business view share buybacks as the best use of capital at the moment, as opposed to something like M&A?
Geoff Green (GG): I think there’s a balance. We announced the £6m buyback. We completed £2.8m in 2025 and we’ve completed the remaining £3.2m in Q1. We then announced another £5m buyback. As well as doing that, we’ve increased our capital investment in the business. We’re growing our Slingo output, growing Lucky Lunar, increasing our bespoke content and our aggregation business.
We do keep an eye on M&A opportunities. We’re not in a process at the moment, but we do keep an eye out for interesting opportunities that might come up. It’s not that it will never happen, but we balance it.
MS: We are debt free, so we’re still in a good position to dip into M&A if we see the right opportunity.
EGR: What might that right opportunity look like?
MS: It could be a number of things. It could be IP. It could be a really good studio that could benefit from our distribution.
EGR: Stock is down around 16% in the past year. Is this something that concerns you or you look to rectify?
MS: I think the macroenvironment has a lot to do with it. There are some exceptions but I think the sector is generally down. I think the markets are generally down as well. And we’re on the AIM market in the UK, which is tough.
We’re very focused on growth and building real value in the business. We do have to keep a look out. It’s part of the reasons why we’re participating in a share buyback programme at the moment because we see value in the stock and we can return some value back to shareholders that way.
EGR: Looking ahead to 2026, how do you see the year shaping up for Gaming Realms?
MS: We’re well positioned. We have the obstacle of the UK this year, but we have the general growth trajectory outside of that to absorb the majority of it. We’ve got good cash balance. We’ve got a lot more products to come this year and more markets we’re in, so we’re pretty positive.
The post Q&A: Gaming Realms boss on UK taxes and M&A opportunities first appeared on EGR Intel.
CEO Mark Segal says the Slingo supplier is in a strong position thanks to continued growth in North America, with UK headwinds being managed by geographic spread
The post Q&A: Gaming Realms boss on UK taxes and M&A opportunities first appeared on EGR Intel.