Scientific Games Corp. announced plans Friday for a long-anticipated public listing of its social games business, filing a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for SciPlay Corp.
The number of shares to be offered and the price range for the offering have not yet been determined, the Las Vegas-based gaming equipment provider said, adding the shares would be listed on the Nasdaq under the symbol SCPL.
Social gaming is considered free-to-play games played on mobile devices or a computer. Customers often pay nominal fees to acquire “tokens” or “chips” to increase a virtual bankroll. Last year, Scientific Games’ revenue from social gaming grew to $416.2 million from $361.4 million in 2017.
In the fourth quarter, Scientific Games said its revenue from social gaming grew 19 percent to $113.7 million.
Shares of Scientific Games were up almost 12 percent in trading Friday morning on the Nasdaq following news of the planned IPO. The shares closed the day at $21.85, up $1.22 or 5.91 percent.
Scientific Games officials discussed a potential IPO for the social games business last year, as way to “provide greater flexibility to pursue additional growth initiatives” and “unlock additional value” for its stakeholders.
The company said it would pay down a portion of its nearly $9 billion in debt with proceeds from the IPO.
“For our rapidly growing social business, an IPO would give us greater flexibility to pursue growth for the business and drive value for stakeholders,” Scientific Games CEO Barry Cottle said in November. “We remain focused on delivering for our customers and running our business efficiently and effectively to drive revenue, reduce costs and continue to build momentum across the company.”
According to Seeking Alpha, competitors in the social gaming space include Zynga, DoubleU, and Playtika.
Howard Stutz is the executive editor of CDC Gaming. He can be reached at hstutz@cdcgamingreports.com. Follow @howardstutz on Twitter.
