SOUTH AFRICA – Gaming and hospitality company Sun International, has recorded a 9% earnings growth for the half-year period ending June 30, with revenues of its gaming platform SunBet increasing significantly over the same period.
The hotel, gaming, and entertainment group has reported robust performance from its online gaming and food business wings, boosting income by 5% for the period under review.
Revenues of SunBet, the group’s sports betting and gaming platform rose sharply by 71.8% for the reported period. The gaming platform had seen a 72.2% rise in unique active players, a 111.6% increase in first time depositors, and a 74.2% increase in deposits.
In an official statement, Sun International’s CEO Anthony Leeming reiterated that SunBet showed significant potential for future growth, describing the gaming and betting platform as a rapidly growing wing of the company.
“With this in mind, we continue to invest in our people and invested in a new website front-end look and feel that is more user-friendly, with a marketing campaign tying in the iconic Sun City to complete its brand relaunch,” Leeming said.
“The improvements to the registration, customer deposit, and withdrawal processes, as well as an overhaul of the customer contact centre, means our customers interact with us seamlessly.”
Sun International exceeded its growth projections during the reported year, driven by its successful online gaming expansion and its omnichannel strategy integrating its various gaming and leisure experiences across different platforms and channels.
This omnichannel strategy integrates physical casinos, online gaming, mobile gaming, limited payout machines, and hospitality, which have been instrumental in driving the company’s growth.
Gaming income, which constitutes 77.4% of Sun’s total income, increased by 3.4%.
It had also participated in a strategic share buy-back, in which it bought back 3,871,138 Sun International ordinary shares in the open market.
The proposed acquisition of Peermont, which was overwhelmingly approved by shareholders on 4 March 2024, was progressing well, the group revealed.
Sun International has already received funding for the acquisition and was awaiting Competition Commission and gambling regulatory approval, which it was expecting by the first quarter of 2025.
Income from urban casinos was up 0.5%, with some growth from larger properties, although regional casinos were down 1.6%.
Another key point of its results was hospitality income (excluding casinos) from resorts and hotels, which has risen sharply by 12.3%. Sun City and the Table Bay, it said, benefited most from the return of local and international leisure travel.
Conferencing was down slightly, which Leeming attributed to uncertainty around the elections and the winter period. He told Daily Maverick that they managed to grow the top line strongly at both Sun City and Table Bay, although Sun City was partly affected by the elections.
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