Bally's Intralot H1: online surges, UK tax hike costs €34m in Q2 EBITDA

Bally's Intralot posted €544.2 million in group revenue for the first half of the year, driven by its online division. The Bally's International Interactive segment contributed €377.6 million of that total. Group adjusted EBITDA came in at €184.8 million, with €132.8 million from the online business.

But the headline figures mask a heavy regulatory cost. The UK's remote gaming duty jumped from 21% to 40% on 1 April. That change alone took €34 million off the company's adjusted EBITDA in the second quarter.

Bally's Intralot said it mitigated about 65% of that hit through revenue growth and operating cost cuts. Still, the impact was enough to drag Q2 adjusted EBITDA down to €84.6 million from €100.2 million in Q1, despite a 3% quarter-on-quarter rise in group revenue.

The UK online business itself continued to perform. Revenue in the UK reached an all-time high NGR, with 11.6% year-on-year growth in Q2 on a constant currency basis. Spain also delivered strong momentum, with revenue up 9.7% quarter-on-quarter.

Not everything in the portfolio is firing. The legacy Intralot business saw revenue fall to €166.5 million from €182 million a year earlier. Adjusted EBITDA dropped 13.6% to €52.1 million. The legacy B2B segment declined 10.1% to €128.1 million, led by a 11.7% drop in the US on softer lottery activity and lower equipment sales.

On the balance sheet, adjusted net debt stood at €1.62 billion, giving a pro forma leverage ratio of 4.05x. The company described that as temporarily elevated, partly because of an €85 million capex payment for a 15-year electronic gaming machine monitoring licence in Victoria, Australia.

Bally's Intralot is also pushing ahead with expansion. In June it agreed to acquire operator Evoke for roughly £243.1 million. Shareholders representing over 40% of Evoke's capital have already signalled their support. The deal remains subject to regulatory and shareholder approvals.

Evoke's own latest results underscore the same UK tax pressure. The company reported a 12% drop in EBITDA, hit by a £46 million year-on-year increase in gaming duties.

For Malta's iGaming sector, the Bally's Intralot numbers offer a clear warning. A single regulatory change in a key market can shave tens of millions off earnings in a quarter. The ability to respond quickly through revenue growth and cost discipline matters. But not every operator will have that buffer.