Accel Entertainment closed 16 underperforming locations during the fourth quarter of 2024 and 54 for the year, helping “right-size” the company’s operations, CEO Andy Rubenstein said during Thursday’s earnings call.
“The pruning is really the very bottom of our portfolio,” Rubenstein said. “There will always be that need to prune. And we have confidence in our ability to either reignite poor performing locations that we think will be decent performers, or (get rid of) the owners of facilities that aren’t committed to gaming, and therefore we’re not getting the returns that we need. That part of our business will always be a process.”
Accel Entertainment reported revenue of $317.5 million for the fourth quarter, up 6.9% year-over-year. Net income was $8.4 million, down 47.5% compared to the fourth quarter of 2023. Adjusted EBITDA was $47.4 million, up 6.2% compared to the fourth quarter of 2023.
For 2024, Accel posted record revenue of $1.2 billion, up 5.2% compared to 2023. Net income was $35.3 million, down 22.6% compared to 2023. Adjusted EBITDA reached $189.1 million, up 4.2% year-over-year.
At the end of 2024, Accel had gaming machines in 4,117 locations, up 3.9% compared to the fourth quarter of 2023. The company ended the year with 26,346 gaming terminals, a year-over-year increase of 5%.
Rubenstein said Accel is aware of some increases in tax rates and is always cognizant of the possible influx of igaming in jurisdictions. But he’s confident that there will little, if any, effect on Accel’s markets.
“I don’t think it’s likely to be in some of the route gaming markets,” Rubenstein said of igaming. “I think it’s more like to appear in markets that don’t have route gaming or have minimal casino presence. In Illinois, with extensive brick-and-mortar and route gaming, I wouldn’t say it would be the first market that would pass (igaming) legislation, nor would Nevada. But we’re constantly monitoring it and we try to educate lawmakers that the route gaming market is a much better solution with much more regulation and consumer protection.”
In 2024, Accel closed on its acquisition of Toucan Gaming in Louisiana in early November and on the acquisition of Fairmount Park, the owner of the FanDuel Sportsbook & Horse Racing in Collinsville, Illinois, in early December. Both figure heavily in Accel’s strategy in 2025.
A temporary operation is scheduled to open in the second quarter of 2025 at Fairmount, with a permanent facility to open at the end of 2027.
In Louisiana, Rubenstein noted that the market has been around for nearly 30 years, but “it’s not that sophisticated and well developed.
“You still have an incredibly fragmented market,” Rubenstein said. “And there’s two markets that we’re looking at closely in Louisiana: the truck stops – there’s like 197 truck stops in the state – and even more fragmented is the bar market. Most bars in Louisiana are utilizing very old legacy equipment, 20-plus years old. We see the opportunity to improve our truck stops. We’ve done that pretty well so far, and we’re evaluating what needs to be done with the routes we’ve purchased.
“I believe that will grow organically over time.”
