DoubleDown Interactive Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

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August 11, 2026

Key Takeaways

  • Positive Sentiment: DoubleDown reported Q2 revenue of $94.3 million, up 11% year over year, while adjusted EBITDA rose 17% to $39.3 million and the margin expanded to 41.6%.
  • Positive Sentiment: Cash generation remained strong, with operating cash flow increasing 25% year over year to $24.6 million in the quarter and reaching $71 million for the first half; the company ended June with approximately $521.3 million in net cash.
  • Positive Sentiment: Direct-to-consumer sales reached a record 52% of social casino revenue, up from 44% in Q1 and just over 15% a year earlier, supporting profitability by reducing platform fees. Management said it expects further DTC growth through investments in owned channels, CRM, and payment infrastructure.
  • Neutral Sentiment: SuprNation’s iGaming revenue grew 10% year over year to $17 million, but the higher U.K. gambling tax led the company to reduce player-acquisition spending and moderate sequential growth. Management said product, marketing, and expense adjustments have largely mitigated the tax impact and expects company-wide marketing spending to remain near its recent run rate.
  • Neutral Sentiment: The special committee continues to evaluate DoubleU Games’ non-binding $11.25-per-ADS cash proposal to acquire unaffiliated shares, but management provided no update or expected timeline for a decision.
AI Generated. May Contain Errors.
Earnings Conference Call
DoubleDown Interactive Q2 2026
00:00 / 00:00

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Operator

Good afternoon, and welcome to DoubleDown Interactive's earnings conference call for the second quarter ended June 30th, 2026. My name is Liz, and I will be your operator this afternoon. Prior to this call, DoubleDown issued its financial results for the second quarter of 2026 in a press release, a copy of which is available in the investor relations section of the company's website at www.doubledowninteractive.com. You can find the link to the investor relations section at the top of the homepage. Joining us on today's call are DoubleDown's CEO, Mr. In Keuk Kim, and its CFO, Mr. Joe Sigrist. Following their remarks, we will open the call for questions. Before we begin, Joe Jaffoni, the company's investor relations advisor, will make a brief introductory statement. Mr. Jaffoni.

Joe Jaffoni
Investor Relations Advisor at JCIR

Thank you, Liz. Before management begins their formal remarks, we need to remind everyone that some of management's comments today will be forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. We hereby claim the protection of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are statements about future events, and include expectations and projections, not present or historical facts, and can be identified by the use of words such as may, might, will, expect, assume, believe, intend, estimate, continue, should, anticipate, or other such similar terms. Forward-looking statements include, and are not limited to, those regarding the company's future plans, mergers and acquisition strategy, strategic and financial objectives, expected performance, and financial outlook.

Joe Jaffoni
Investor Relations Advisor at JCIR

Forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially and adversely from what the company expects. Therefore, you should exercise caution in interpreting and relying on them. We refer you to DoubleDown's annual report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC on March 31st, 2026, and other SEC filings, for a more detailed discussion of the risks that could impact future operating results and financial condition. These forward-looking statements are made only as of the date of this call. The company does not undertake and expressly disclaims any obligation to update or alter the forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by law. During today's call, management will discuss non-IFRS financial measures, which management believes to be useful in evaluating the company's operating performance.

Joe Jaffoni
Investor Relations Advisor at JCIR

These measures should not be considered superior to, in isolation, or as a substitute for the financial results prepared in accordance with IFRS. A full reconciliation of these measures to the most directly comparable IFRS measure is available in the earnings release issued this afternoon. In addition, on April 29, 2026, DoubleDown issued a press release acknowledging the receipt of a non-binding expression of interest from DoubleU Games, its controlling shareholder, to acquire all the outstanding DoubleDown common shares, including ADRs not currently owned by them, at a price of $11.25 per ADS in cash. As noted in that press release, the company has formed a special committee to evaluate and negotiate with the controlling shareholder and determine the next steps that would be in the best interest of the company and its unaffiliated shareholders.

Joe Jaffoni
Investor Relations Advisor at JCIR

As a result of this ongoing process, the company has no additional updates or further comments to discuss on today's call. I would like to remind everyone that today's call is being recorded and will be made available for replay via a link in the investor relations section of DoubleDown's website. Thank you for your patience with that, and it is now my pleasure to turn the call over to DoubleDown's CEO, I.K. Kim. Please go ahead.

In Keuk Kim
In Keuk Kim
CEO at DoubleDown Interactive

Thank you, Joe. Good afternoon, everyone. We are delighted to be with you today to discuss DoubleDown Interactive's second quarter 2026 results. Key highlights include delivering revenue consistency and resiliency as we cut on our growth and geographical diversification strategies marked by solid contributions across both social casino and iGaming. Delivering a record contribution of over 50% of our total social casino revenue from direct-to-consumer payer activity, and delivering another quarter of strong profitability and significant free cash flow generation. These results further reinforce our confidence in our business model as we drive operational excellence across our portfolio. Let's start with the financial results. This afternoon, we reported second quarter consolidated revenue of $94.3 million, up approximately 11% year-over-year. This top-line growth helped drive second-quarter adjusted EBITDA of $39.3 million, marking 17% year-over-year growth.

In Keuk Kim
In Keuk Kim
CEO at DoubleDown Interactive

In Q2, we extended our track record of driving a high conversion of revenue to profit and cash flow. Net cash flow from operations was $24.6 million in the quarter, up 25% from the same period one year ago. As a result, we generated a total of $71 million in net cash flow from operations for the first half of 2026. Our social casino segment remains the primary engine of DoubleDown's profit and cash flow generation. In the second quarter, social casino revenue grew 11.5% year-over-year to $77.3 million, driven by the contribution from WHOW Games, as well as the strong performance of DoubleDown's traditional social casino business. A key highlight this quarter is the continued growth of our direct-to-consumer, or DTC component, a major contributor to our strong growth in profitability.

In Keuk Kim
In Keuk Kim
CEO at DoubleDown Interactive

In the second quarter, DTC accounted for 52% of total social casino revenue, compared to just over 15% in second quarter of 2025, and 44% in the first quarter of 2026. At the same time, industry analysts at Eilers & Krejcik recently forecast that the global social casino market will decline over 5% in 2026. That said, our focus continues to be on outperforming the overall market through precise execution of our product development initiatives around player and payer retention, optimization of marketing and live ops activities to maximize payer conversion and purchasing activity, and continued maximization of the direct-to-consumer opportunity. Turning to our iGaming business, SuprNation's Q2 2026 revenue was $17 million, an increase of 10% year-over-year. Our newest iGaming casino title, Las Vegas, again contributed to the strong SuprNation result in the quarter.

In Keuk Kim
In Keuk Kim
CEO at DoubleDown Interactive

During the second quarter, the SuprNation team did an excellent job in managing around the recently introduced higher U.K. gambling tax rate through a combination of product changes, marketing adjustments, and expense controls. This allowed our iGaming business to effectively mitigate much of the impact of tax increase. Our second quarter results highlight how prudent targeted investments are uncovering growth opportunities, which is enabling DoubleDown to extend our long-term record, our strong profitability, and cash flow generation. We are successfully integrating previous acquisitions while optimizing our core DoubleDown business. M&A remains a strategic priority as we continue to evaluate opportunities in online gaming and mobile entertainment that meet our criteria to enhance long-term shareholder value. Now, I turn the call over to our CFO, Joe Sigrist, to walk us through the financials before providing my closing remarks. Joe?

Joe Sigrist
Joe Sigrist
CFO at DoubleDown Interactive

Thank you, I.K., and good afternoon, everyone. To review, revenues for the second quarter of 2026 were $94.3 million. This compares to total company revenues of $84.8 million in the second quarter of 2025, and $94.1 million in Q1 of 2026. Our social casino segment grew 11.5% from the second quarter of 2025 to $77.3 million, reflecting the inclusion of revenue from WHOW Games, which we acquired in July of last year. iGaming revenues grew by $1.5 million or 10% year-over-year to $17 million. Regarding our overall social casino KPIs, we previously mentioned that the metrics from WHOW Games are somewhat different from those of DoubleDown Casino. Specifically, WHOW Games experiences a higher payer conversion rate and lower average monthly revenue per payer.

Joe Sigrist
Joe Sigrist
CFO at DoubleDown Interactive

With this in mind, overall social casino KPI highlights for the second quarter include the payer conversion rate, which is the percentage of players who pay within the social casino apps, increased to 9.4% in Q2 2026, compared to 7.0% in Q2 2025. The average revenue per daily active user, or ARPDAU, of $1.42, up from $1.33 in Q2 2025. An average monthly revenue per payer at $218 in Q2 2026, down from $286 in the prior year period. In the second quarter of 2026, operating expenses were $57.8 million, compared to $52.4 million in the second quarter of 2025. The increase primarily reflects the inclusion of WHOW Games expenses. Sales and marketing expenses for the second quarter of 2026 were $13.9 million, compared to $13.1 million in the second quarter of 2025, which again, did not include WHOW Games.

Joe Sigrist
Joe Sigrist
CFO at DoubleDown Interactive

Conversely, sales and marketing expenses in the second quarter were down from Q1 2026, primarily due to a reduction in player acquisition spending at SuprNation in light of the revised iGaming tax rate in the U.K. Profit excluding non-controlling interests for the second quarter of 2026 increased 50% to $32.9 million, or earnings per fully diluted common share of $13.27, or $0.66 per ADS in the second quarter of 2026. Compared to profit for the interim period of $21.8 million, or earnings per fully diluted common share of $8.82 or $0.44 per ADS in Q2 2025. The increase primarily reflects higher revenue, the lower cost of revenue attributable to a higher proportion of DTC revenue, and a higher unrealized gain on foreign currency, partially offset by higher overall operating expenses, primarily due to the inclusion of WHOW Games and increased costs associated with revenue growth from SuprNation.

Joe Sigrist
Joe Sigrist
CFO at DoubleDown Interactive

Adjusted EBITDA for the second quarter of 2026 rose to $39.3 million, compared to $33.5 million for the second quarter of 2025, and $38.2 million for Q1 2026. Adjusted EBITDA margin was 41.6% for Q2 2026, as compared to 39.5% in Q2 2025, and 40.6% in Q1 2026. Net cash flows provided by operating activities in Q2 2026 were $24.6 million, compared to $19.7 million in Q2 2025, due to higher profit and lower income tax paid. As I.K. mentioned, net cash flows provided by operations were $71 million for the first half of 2026. Inclusive of Q2 2026's meaningful cash generation, at quarter's end, we had $553.8 million in cash equivalents, and short-term investments, with a net cash position of approximately $521.3 million, or approximately $10.52 per ADS. I'll turn the call back to I.K. for closing remarks.

In Keuk Kim
In Keuk Kim
CEO at DoubleDown Interactive

Thank you, Joe. DoubleDown Interactive, powered by our core social casino and iGaming businesses, delivered another quarter of strong profitability and cash flow. Building on our solid first half of 2026, we remain committed to innovation and disciplined high ROI investments, and to drive DTC revenues, which collectively optimize social casino margin. Finally, our strong balance sheet and cash position provides us the financial flexibility to pursue strategic growth opportunities as well as additional value-building initiatives and transactions for our shareholders. We are now happy to take your questions. Liz?

Operator

If you'd like to ask a question at this time, please press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. Our first question comes from Eric Handler with ROTH Capital.

Jack Weisenberger
Jack Weisenberger
Analyst at ROTH Capital

Hey, guys. This is Jack Weisenberger on for Eric. Thanks for taking our question. I want to focus on iGaming. Is there anything in particular that drove down the quarter-over-quarter decline? Could have been related to user acquisition costs, maybe the U.K. tax changes. Anything on that would be helpful.

Joe Sigrist
Joe Sigrist
CFO at DoubleDown Interactive

Yeah, sure, Jack. That's fine. Q2 was down very slightly. It's essentially flat from Q1. We certainly, in Q1, as I.K. earlier expressed, had to, as we started Q2, deal with the significant increase in the tax rate starting on April 1 in the U.K. We made certain product adjustments and marketing adjustments. As I think I mentioned, we spent significantly less in player acquisition investment in Q2, as we wanted to see how the various larger competitors played out as they also dealt with the U.K. tax change. All that put together certainly moderated our sequential growth in revenue.

Joe Sigrist
Joe Sigrist
CFO at DoubleDown Interactive

But at the same time, we're quite pleased with the impact on player retention and how we remained, I think, very cost-conscious during the quarter, recognizing the increase in the tax rate so that, as I think was earlier mentioned, we were able to mitigate, at least on the expense side and certainly on the profit side, the impact of the tax increase.

Jack Weisenberger
Jack Weisenberger
Analyst at ROTH Capital

That all makes sense. Also on free cash flow, you had nice year-over-year improvement in the first half. I know you mentioned some income tax timing, or maybe there is some seasonality as well. Should we see more of a headwind due to that income tax timing year-over-year in 2H? How should we think about free cash flow for the year?

Joe Sigrist
Joe Sigrist
CFO at DoubleDown Interactive

Yeah. Q2 generally is when we have tax payments due. So it really is, I guess you could call it seasonality. We've seen this over the last few years that from a cash flow generation standpoint, because of tax payment timings, Q2 tends to be kind of a low water mark when it comes to quarterly cash flow.

Jack Weisenberger
Jack Weisenberger
Analyst at ROTH Capital

Got it. Thank you very much, guys.

Joe Sigrist
Joe Sigrist
CFO at DoubleDown Interactive

Thanks, Jack.

Operator

Our next question comes from Aaron Lee with Macquarie.

Aaron Lee
Aaron Lee
Analyst at Macquarie

Hey, guys. Good afternoon. Thanks for taking the question. I am curious to hear more about the U.K. tax increase. Can you just talk a bit about how trends were post the tax increase as you layered on your mitigation? Has there been any change in how you are thinking about mitigation? And maybe to tie it all together, how should we be thinking about the trajectory of SuprNation going forward in terms of both revenues and profits? Thank you.

Joe Sigrist
Joe Sigrist
CFO at DoubleDown Interactive

Yeah, Aaron. No, it is really important to understand that we are trying to balance with a significant change, essentially increase in the cost of doing business in the U.K., trying to balance revenue growth with profit and with returns on the business that we purchased a few years ago. As we look over the last, well, now it has been, what, 4.5 months since the tax increase occurred, and since we are able to observe what, again, some of our larger iGaming competitors are doing in the market, we feel like we have struck a good balance between revenue and profit. We do not want to lose sight of the fact that we are going to still invest in acquiring players, but we are also going to make sure that we appropriately spend the money to get the returns that we need relative to that investment.

Joe Sigrist
Joe Sigrist
CFO at DoubleDown Interactive

Make the right product adjustments, whether it be RTP, bonus rates, those kinds of things, to also kind of balance the revenue and profit equation.

Aaron Lee
Aaron Lee
Analyst at Macquarie

Okay. Got it. That makes sense. With regard to marketing, especially for SuprNation marketing, do you expect to stay at these reduced marketing levels, or do you see opportunities to kind of increase that in the back half? Any general thoughts on how you are thinking about marketing in the second half of the year would be helpful.

Joe Sigrist
Joe Sigrist
CFO at DoubleDown Interactive

Yeah, if you look at our marketing spend over the last few quarters, it has really been fairly constant as a company. We see that being true for the rest of the year, at least. We are looking, again, to kind of balance what we need to invest on our iGaming side versus on the social casino side, and recognizing that we have to invest to acquire new players in both businesses. A lot of what we, as I have mentioned in the past, what we do is make literally real-time adjustments based on the ROIs that we are seeing from various markets with various agencies, et cetera. I do think that our kind of more recent run rate is pretty much where we are going to be for the rest of the year.

Aaron Lee
Aaron Lee
Analyst at Macquarie

Perfect. Thank you very much.

Operator

Our next question comes from Josh Nichols with B. Riley.

Josh Nichols
Josh Nichols
Analyst at B. Riley

Yeah, thanks for taking my question. The direct-to-consumer crossing the 50% threshold stood out. That's well in excess of where you thought you'd be at this time of the year. Is there, I guess, a realistic ceiling in place or a point where you think some of those additional gains may stop dropping to the margin line? Or what's your expectation for where that could wind up by, say, year-end?

In Keuk Kim
In Keuk Kim
CEO at DoubleDown Interactive

Hi, Josh. Let me take the question. Our 50% DTC share is already an industry benchmark, but we see more room for further growth. Our consistent strategy is to migrate, actually, migrate valued users step by step to our own platform while maintaining a healthy balance across mobile app stores. By combining strong in-house DTC-related technology with real-time targeted features, we are not just reducing fees, but deepening users' trust. We have been proactively investing in our DTC capabilities, particularly in owned channel, direct CRM, and payment infrastructure, which allow us to communicate and transact with valued players more efficiently outside of traditional platform constraints. We are not just reducing fees, but deepening users' trust. I expect this focus on DTC integration to drive steady incremental growth and sustain our leadership in the market. Hope this helped. Thanks.

Josh Nichols
Josh Nichols
Analyst at B. Riley

Thanks for the granularity there. Can you break out, you touched on it a little bit, but what is the organic social casino growth if we strip out WHOW? I know you did mention Eilers & Krejcik Gaming is projecting social casino revenue generally to be down 5% this year, but also that you noted that you expect to outperform that. Are you currently trending in line with the industry expectations or a little bit better, or how should we think about that?

Joe Sigrist
Joe Sigrist
CFO at DoubleDown Interactive

Yeah, without quantifying it directly, listen, we are really quite happy with the first half of the year on the social casino side. Both on the traditional DoubleDown side as well as on the WHOW side, we have pretty much been able to more than hold our own relative to what is a declining market, I will say. So, yeah, I think, obviously, the market is contracting based on both what I.K. say, but also what some of our competitors have already publicly reported. But we have been able to do incrementally better, at least so far in the first half of the year.

Josh Nichols
Josh Nichols
Analyst at B. Riley

That is good to hear. Last question from me. I know you are not going to give any commentary on some of the reviews for the special committee, but is there anything you could say about the timeline? I mean, is there a potential resolution expected before the next earnings report?

Joe Sigrist
Joe Sigrist
CFO at DoubleDown Interactive

Yeah. As Joe mentioned up front, we just have nothing to report regarding the work of the special committee on the DoubleU Games proposal. The special committee is working diligently, and we certainly look forward to hearing from them when progress has been made. And certainly, we are committed, obviously, with the special committee to communicate any and all progress when it is appropriate.

Josh Nichols
Josh Nichols
Analyst at B. Riley

All right. Thanks. I will jump back in the queue.

Joe Sigrist
Joe Sigrist
CFO at DoubleDown Interactive

Yeah. Thanks, Josh.

Operator

Our next question comes from David Bain with Texas Capital Bank.

David Bain
Analyst at Texas Capital Bank

Great. Thank you. First, I.K. and Joe, great execution for the quarter. Maybe first a follow-up on Aaron's question. As you saw in 2Q, the industry leader planned to curtail some spend in the back half in terms of promotions, and I am just wondering if that is a sign that the industry generally is becoming more rational, or is it reactive to some sort of new consumer indicator? I know, Joe, you mentioned the run rate for you guys will likely stay the same, but just given the environment, could that be beneficial? Can you lean into that potentially in the back half to acquire users?

Joe Sigrist
Joe Sigrist
CFO at DoubleDown Interactive

I'm sorry, Dave. Do you mean on the iGaming side or social casino?

David Bain
Analyst at Texas Capital Bank

I'm sorry. No, on the social casino side.

Joe Sigrist
Joe Sigrist
CFO at DoubleDown Interactive

Yeah. We've been spending within a certain fairly narrow range on the social casino side for, I think, quite some time. I think I mentioned on the last call that towards the end of Q1, we started to see ROAS, our ROI on acquiring new players, to be getting better, and so we leaned into it a bit. That mitigated a bit as we got into the rest Q2, and so we pulled back a bit. I don't think there's a huge variation from quarter to quarter in social casino, at least from our perspective, in how we view what we do in acquiring new players, because as I said, it's all based on near real-time calculation of returns, right? For 3, 7, 21-day returns on acquiring new players, and that informs our spending.

Joe Sigrist
Joe Sigrist
CFO at DoubleDown Interactive

I would say that I think, in general, we pride ourselves in being quite disciplined in that. I won't compare us to competitors, but I will say that we've always been, I think, very judicious as it relates to acquiring new players, and we'll continue to be that way.

David Bain
Analyst at Texas Capital Bank

Okay. Great. A follow-up on the D2C comments. In social, you guys are higher than the high that has been reported in the past. I am just wondering if you could speak to any sort of balancing act with D2C and revenue growth. We have seen some checks citing smaller operators outperforming larger for the first time in a long time in social. I was wondering if maybe that was some of that leaning into D2C by the bigger players, or are you not seeing any sort of revenue balancing that needs to occur at this point?

Joe Sigrist
Joe Sigrist
CFO at DoubleDown Interactive

Yeah.

David Bain
Analyst at Texas Capital Bank

Revenue growth.

Joe Sigrist
Joe Sigrist
CFO at DoubleDown Interactive

It is a good question, right? To be honest, and I.K. had mentioned this, our growth in DTC, which has been quite dramatic, frankly, is not on the back of just giving more benefits. We have always been very sensitive to not wanting to overly inflate our economy or be too generous in an inappropriate way relative to the offers that we give, and that includes in the incentives that we give for direct-to-consumer. A lot of what we have done is, we think in order to get this kind of growth that we have seen, is to implement DTC really well and to reduce or even near eliminate the friction of the alternative payment path, if you will. Yes, there is some additional benefit to the payer, but it is nothing that we think has, to directly answer your question, really negatively impacted our revenue.

David Bain
Analyst at Texas Capital Bank

Okay. Awesome. Thank you.

Joe Sigrist
Joe Sigrist
CFO at DoubleDown Interactive

Thanks, Dave.

Operator

Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for joining us today. You may now disconnect.

Executives
    • In Keuk Kim
      In Keuk Kim
      CEO
    • Joe Sigrist
      Joe Sigrist
      CFO
Analysts
    • Joe Jaffoni
      Investor Relations Advisor at JCIR
    • Jack Weisenberger
      Analyst at ROTH Capital
    • Aaron Lee
      Analyst at Macquarie
    • Josh Nichols
      Analyst at B. Riley
    • David Bain
      Analyst at Texas Capital Bank
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