Brightstar Lottery–the world’s biggest lottery tech provider, formerly known as IGT and now owned by mega investment funders BlackRock–has reported a seven percent, year-on-year, rise in revenue to US$629 million (£480.89m) for its third-quarter, driven by pure-play growth across its dominant markets.
With income from continuing operations rising to US$95 million (£72.62m), compared to a loss of -US$46 million (-£35.16m) in the same quarter, ending September 30, last year, IGT’s divestiture of non-lottery products has appeared to have paid off big time for Brightstar’s executive leaders, CEO Vince Sadusky and CFO Max Chiara.
Adjusted EBITDA rose 11 percent to US$294 million (£224.73m) for Brightstar, who supply the UK’s National Lottery and most of the U.S. Powerball states with most of their lotto tech.
Revenue growth was underpinned by an impressive 3.9 percent increase in instant ticket and draw sales, including a 6.1 percent rise in Italy and 1.6 percent in the U.S.
Powerball
The period also benefited from elevated U.S. multi-state jackpot activity, including a US$1.8 billion (£1.37bn) Powerball draw.
These gains were partially offset by reduced non-wager-based service revenue in Europe and the transition of its U.K. Lotto service contract.
Adjusted diluted earnings-per-share from continuing operations increased to US$0.36 cents from a -US$0.02 cents loss in Q3 2024.
Year-to-date revenue stood at US$1.84 billion (£1.4bn), broadly in line with 2024, while adjusted EBITDA totalled US$818 million (£625.15m), compared to US$880 million (£672.53m) in 2024.
Net debt also decreased to US$2.6 billion (£1.98bn) from US$4.8 billion (£3.66bn) at year-end 2024 – thanks in large part to the US$4 billion (£3.05bn) generated by off-loading IGT’s non-lottery verticals.
Nascent Brightstar has since allocated around US$2 billion (£1.52bn) of these proceeds toward debt reduction, alongside a US$3-per-share special dividend and a US$250 million (£191.05m) accelerated share repurchase as part of its US$500 million (£382.1m) buyback programme.
The company declared a fourth-quarter dividend of US$0.22 cents-per-share, a 10 percent increase from prior levels.
And Brightstar reaffirmed its Full-Year 2025 guidance, projecting revenue of approximately US$2.5 billion (£1.91bn) and adjusted EBITDA of US$1.1 billion (£840.7m).
Milestones
“We achieved many milestones in Q3: closing the IGT Gaming sale for US$4 billion in cash, executing our shareholder return plans, and completing the refocusing of the company as a lottery pure play,” underlined CEO Sadusky.
“The better-than-expected Q3 revenue and profit results reflect a significant acceleration of same-store sales across all geographies.
“For nearly 50-years, our innovative products and services have helped our customers excel.
“The financial targets we are introducing today reflect a stronger organic growth profile that we believe will drive compelling, incremental value over the next few years,” he affirmed.
Brightstar CFO Chiara added: “With US$1.6 billion (£1.22bn) of cash and cash equivalents and net debt leverage of 2.3x at the end of Q3, we are well-positioned to execute on our strategic objectives.
“We expect to generate over US$7 billion (£5.35bn) in gross cash in the 2025-2028 period, mostly allocated to funding organic growth, with US$1.7 billion (£1.29bn) expected to be returned to shareholders over the same timeframe.”
