Brightstar Lottery will chase stronger cost optimisation throughout the rest of the year after posting Q2 financials impacted by lower YoY toplines.
For the quarter ending 30 June, the company recorded $584m in revenue, down 7% from $631m in the previous corresponding period. This was affected by lower product sales in the quarter, going down 20% from $42m to $34m YoY.
Geo-locked revenue in the US and Canada dropped 2% YoY from $293m to $286m. Rest of World revenue was also down 2%, from $79m to $77m.
Meanwhile, Italy revenue declined by 15%, from $259m to $221m.
The biggest offset was higher service revenue amortization adjacent to the Italy Lotto licence, with the final licence payment going through in April, valued at a total of $1.67bn.
As a reminder, Brightstar is the biggest shareholder (61.5%) in the LottoItalia joint consortium, followed by Allwyn (32.5%), Arianna 2001 and Novomatic Italia.
The licence payment contributed to a negative free cash flow of $1.46bn, compared to the plus $190m in company accounts for the same quarter last year.
Brightstar managed to lower its total net debt for the quarter to $3.8bn, down 28% from $5.2bn in Q2 2025. However, this is still more than the debt incurred by the firm by 31 December 2025, which was at $2.7bn.
Despite the challenges affecting the firm’s revenue during Q2, it was able to remain profitable with EBITDA increasing YoY. The race is now on for the firm to keep this ball rolling while regaining ground on the revenue front in Q3.
Adjusted EBITDA exceeded YoY results, coming in at $286m – up 4% from the $274m in the previous corresponding period. Adjusted EBITDA margin was 48.9% compared to 43.5% in Q2 2025.
Vince Sadusky, Chief Executive Officer of Brightstar, commented: “Better-than-expected second quarter profits were driven by global same-store sales expansion and disciplined operational management, even as we invest in long-term growth initiatives.”
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Despite the decline in lottery product sales, Sadusky has taken confidence from an increase in global iLottery wagers during the quarter. Leadership also highlighted continued expansion of B2C activity in Italy as a positive development during Q2.
Management will keep working towards improving its OPtiMa cost optimisation strategy, with end-of-year outlook placing total revenue at between $2.5bn-to-$2.55bn, incorporating more than 5% in organic growth and around $175m in incremental LottoItalia-related revenue.
Adjusted EBITDA is expected to come at between $1.16bn-to-$1.19bn, with OPtiMa savings set to offset around $50m of investments in growth initiatives.
Max Chiara, Brightstar’s Chief Financial Officer, commented: “Cash generation was strong in the first half of the year, funding important investments in the business. We’re increasing our OPtiMa cost savings target to $100m by 2028 as we further optimize our organization and operations.
“The strength of our balance sheet and financial condition supports our balanced approach to capital allocation, which included returning $140m to shareholders in the year-to-date period.”