International Game Technology (IGT) posted a sobering set of Q1 financials this week for the period ended March 31, 2020. The company declared a tough opening to 2020 trading, reporting that COVID-19 restrictions have impacted ‘all business segments operating all primary revenue streams’.
The headline figures, hardly unsurprising given the industry-wide damage inflicted by COVID-19, represented dire reading matter as the firm recorded an 18% decline in group revenues to $940m (Q12019: $1.14bn.
Moreover, the report also revealed that although partly offset by higher non-terminal revenue, the organisation also made fewer sales of gaming products in North America and Internationally.
Marco Sala, CEO of IGT, stated: “After a solid start in the first two months of the year, we quickly shifted our focus to the global COVID-19 health crisis in March. The safety and well-being of our people, customers, and communities have been our highest priority since day one.
“We implemented robust business continuity plans and maintain service levels at our normal, high standards. I am grateful for the passion and perseverance the entire IGT team has demonstrated during these unprecedented times and I am confident IGT is well positioned to emerge from the crisis a stronger, even more competitive organization.”
Regarding its lottery services revenues, IGT posted losses of 16% in North America to $201m when compared to Q1 2019’s figures of $240m. The group also continued to lose revenue in the international lottery market, marking up losses of roughly 10% from last year’s $70m to $62m.
In the Italian market, IGT continued to feel the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak with the group seeing total gaming revenue fall 22% from $437m in the year prior to $329m.
Max Chiara, CFO of IGT, commented: “We’ve taken swift actions across all non-essential costs and are now switching our focus to structural cost savings initiatives. At the same time, we have adopted strict measures to preserve liquidity in the current environment.
“Given the uncertainty created by COVID-19, we are withdrawing our previous financial outlook for 2020, but we are confident that with $2.2 billion of liquidity, we are geared with sound financial flexibility to weather the storm caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.”
For lotteries in general the Q1 2020 figures posted by IGT showed that its revenues have fallen 20% to $412m.
