Konami Gaming Revenue Jumps 41% on Slot Demand
Konami's casino arm grew revenue 41.3% in the six months to September 30. Gaming & Systems booked JPY 25.1 billion ($159 million), against the same stretch a year earlier.
Profit rose faster than the top line. Segment profit reached JPY 2.41 billion ($15.3 million). That's a 154.4% jump. Operating leverage of that order says the slot floor and the systems contracts are both pulling. Neither one is carrying the other.
Most of the money comes from North America and Australia. Conditions in both markets held steady, casinos opened, and operators running older cabinets came back to buy replacements. Konami singled out the Solstice 49C slot machine, which operators have taken to. The BOMBERMAN series keeps performing in North America. In Australia, Dragon Rush and Bull Rush Stampede are posting encouraging results.
Then there's SYNKROS. The casino management system gets less attention than the cabinets, and it probably matters more. Over 150,000 slot machines now run on the platform. Properties keep signing up. Carnival Corporation's cruise ships are widening their use of it as well. Systems revenue is stickier than cabinet sales: once a floor is wired to SYNKROS, pulling it out is a project, not a purchase order. For those of us on the affiliate side, that should mean a steadily widening Konami content pipeline as more properties standardise.
Competition hasn't gone anywhere. Rival suppliers keep rolling out new equipment, Konami said, plainly enough, and it intends to answer with new slot titles, more game content and added SYNKROS features. Cruise ships get a specific mention as a growth lane, along with casinos that have already picked the system.
The wider company had a strong half too. Consolidated revenue climbed 37% year on year to JPY 308 billion ($1.95 billion). Profit attributable to owners of the parent rose 70.5%, to JPY 79.2 billion ($501 million). Digital Entertainment, Arcade Games and Sports all chipped in next to Gaming & Systems. No segment dragged.
Most players know Konami for video games. The casino arm is doing real work in the group numbers regardless. The figure to watch next is the SYNKROS installed base. Keep it climbing past 150,000 machines, keep stacking up those cruise installations, and the gaming division ends up with a recurring revenue floor beneath it that cabinet cycles alone can't match.