Playtech Swings to €113m Pre-Tax Profit on Americas Surge
Playtech's first half of 2026 flipped a €59m pre-tax loss into a €113m pre-tax profit. That's the headline. Roughly a €172m swing, year on year. Revenue at the LSE-listed technology group rose 10% to €425m from €387m, and growth showed up across every core metric management tracks.
The Americas did the heavy lifting. US and Canada revenue climbed 161% to €57m, while Latin America added 14% to reach €100m, or 29% on what the company calls a consistent underlying basis. CEO Mor Weizer pointed to regulated-market momentum and singled out the Hard Rock Digital partnership in the US and the revised Caliente Interactive agreement in Mexico. Playtech's content now runs with FanDuel, Fanatics, bet365 and DraftKings across New Jersey, Michigan, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Delaware and Connecticut.
Hard Rock Digital keeps paying off. Dividends from the minority stake rose to €4.4m from €2.1m, and the carrying value of Playtech's holding moved from €178m to €246m. That's more than triple the roughly €80m originally invested. The Florida exclusive, tied to the Seminole Tribe's gaming network, is described as delivering exceptional returns, and management expects those to normalise in the second half.
Group adjusted EBITDA jumped 77% to €162m from €91m. The margin expanded from 24% to 38%, a 14-point gain. Inside that, the B2B unit lifted adjusted EBITDA 75% to €128m from €73m, while income from key partnerships added €34m, up from €20m. That figure bundles €30m from the 30.8% Caliente Interactive stake, the €4.4m Hard Rock dividend and a €2.1m gain on a partial disposal of a listed investment, net of losses on smaller holdings. The remaining B2C assets, Sun Bingo and HappyBet, contributed €200,000, reversing a €1.5m loss.
Adjusted profit before tax rose 259% to €111.9m. Adjusted post-tax profit went from €17m to €95m. Reported profit after tax landed at €98.1m, against a €78m loss a year earlier. Net cash from continuing operating activities reached €55m, compared with a €68m outflow in 2025, and free cash flow swung from €6.6m to €101m, helped by higher EBITDA and €35.6m in net cash dividends from Caliente. The net cash position improved to €39.2m at 30 June from €28.5m at the end of 2025, even after €24.6m of share buybacks. Two drags are worth flagging: a €27.2m capital-gains tax payment tied to the Snaitech disposal, and €36.3m of incentive-related payments.
None of that comes without caveats. Playtech warned that H2 adjusted EBITDA will fall below the exceptional first-half number as certain North American revenue streams normalise and UK tax headwinds bite harder. UK B2B revenue dropped 8% to €59m, hurt by customer-specific changes and April's Remote Gaming Duty increase from 21% to 40%. The same duty hit Sun Bingo, where lower marketing spend, declining player value and fewer active players cut revenue by €4.5m. Management said the new rate has caused a material deterioration in Sun Bingo's long-term profitability outlook. Total B2C revenue fell 22% to €32m, though cost cuts and the wind-down of HAPPYBET pushed the division back to positive adjusted EBITDA. Only three months of the half reflected the new duty rate. The second half gets the full six.
Brazil is the next capital commitment. Playtech expects to sign a major strategic partnership there towards the end of 2026, and it's already onboarding clients and expanding local capabilities. The São Paulo live casino studio is complete, staffed by Portuguese-speaking dealers and running locally tailored content.
Full-year adjusted EBITDA guidance sits above €270m. Management also expects to hit the upper end of its medium-term targets, €250m to €300m in adjusted EBITDA and €70m to €100m in free cash flow, sooner than planned. Weizer said the balance sheet remains strong enough to fund investment and return capital. The number to watch next is H2 adjusted EBITDA, because that's where the Florida normalisation and the full weight of the UK duty increase will show up.