Everi to win if casinos go cashless amid pandemic: analyst

Jul 13, 2020 Newsdesk Latest News, Top of the deck, World  

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Roth Capital Partners LLC has initiated coverage of Everi Holdings Inc, a gaming equipment supplier with interests including financial technology (fintech). Roth argues the Covid-19 crisis has stimulated casino-industry interest in cashless technology, which will play to Everi’s product strengths.

Everi had a “leading fintech casino-market share,” that was “worth multiples its current share price,” and this tied up with a “Covid-19-accelerated regulatory/consumer push” toward a “truly cashless casino environment,” wrote analyst David Bain in a 40-page report on Friday.

Referring to the casino-equipment supply sector as a whole, the Roth report added: “Peers lack fintech, have less earnings visibility (heavier weighted toward one-time sales) and most have less upside” in earnings terms.

On June 2, Everi reported it had swung to a first-quarter net loss of US$13.5 million, compared to recording net income of US$5.9 million in the prior-year first quarter.

Michael Rumbolz, the group’s chief executive, had said in commentary with the quarterly numbers that the group’s overall business had been going well during the first two months of 2020 prior to the public health emergency.

There had been a 21 percent increase year-on-year on the daily win per unit of Everi’s installed base of gaming machines, and a 17 percent increase year-on-year in the total number of cash access transactions in the fintech segment.

The American Gaming Association said in a policy paper on casino payments modernisation publicised in June, that its recent research indicated nearly six out of 10 casino visitors had expressed interest in using digital or contactless payment in their everyday lives due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Innovations in casino gaming technology – including in payments – require the agreement of regulators even if consumers are keen to try them.

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