GCIGfinity Esports revenues soar as R&D investment bears fruit
( ), an esports and gaming solutions provider, announced unaudited results for the 6 months ended 31 December 2022 (1H23), reporting revenues of £4.1m, up 26% year-on-year and up 106% half-on-half. Gfinity's Esports arm generated £2.5m of revenue, up 70% year-on-year, from £1.5m in 1H22.
Investment in Gfinity-owned IP, particularly Athlos Gaming Technology, resulted in an increase in adjusted operating expenditure of £2.7m, compared to £2.4m in 1H22. The adjusted operating loss widened to £0.8m from £0.4m in 1H22, but improved 47% half-on-half.
It had £1.7m in cash and cash eq at period end, supplemented by a post-period placing that raised a further £2m in February 2023 in an oversubscribed placing.
Gfinity further developed and deployed its Athlos proprietary esports technology in 2022. A pilot programme was extended into a 3rd year with the platform reaching 22 million gamers across 3 titles in 2022. Post-period end, a deal was announced with Playgendary to integrate Athlos into its titles, with Gfinity's remuneration linked to number of users of the platform each month.
Gfinity Digital Media average monthly active users stood at 13.1m in 1H23 with annualised revenue per monthly user of 22p. Revenue was £1.4m, a reduction of 11% year-on-year, but a 20% increase half-on-half. Gfinity Digital Media appointed a new commercial partner effective April 2023, expected to materially increase advertising rates.
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Gfinity had a strong first half, with recovery momentum carrying into calendar 2023. That suggests its R&D is bearing fruit after a wider deployment of Athlos last year reached 22m gamers, and a deal with Playgendary post-period end is expected to bring in fresh revenue.
Athlos has proven a significant opportunity to create scalable, recurring revenues as two-thirds of games industry revenues now come from in-game sales. Likewise, Gfinity's Digital Media added a new commercial partner in 2023, which is expected to boost advertising revenue.
The audience for esports continues to grow, with 2.5bn people now aware of esports and 261m gamers identifying themselves as esports enthusiasts. Gfinity is funded for growth and its R&D investments have positioned it well in the rapidly expanding sector.
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