Playtech posted adjusted EBITDA of €162.5 million for the first half of 2026, a 77% year-over-year increase from €91.6 million, as rapid growth in North America and higher investment income pushed earnings up. Group revenue rose 10% to €425.1 million, while adjusted profit after tax went from €16.6 million to €95 million.
B2B revenue grew 14% to €394.8 million, or 17% once you strip out the effect of Playtech’s revised agreement with Caliente Interactive. Adjusted EBITDA from that division climbed 75% to €128.1 million, with the margin widening from 21% to 32%. Regulated markets made up 83% of B2B revenue and grew 21% on an underlying basis.
US and Canadian revenue jumped 161% to €56.9 million, or 176% at constant currency, driven mainly by the Hard Rock Digital partnership. The Past Motor Racing product with Hard Rock Bet in Florida did much of the work there, while Playtech also expanded with Fanatics, FanDuel, DraftKings, bet365, and Ember Casino across several regulated US states. It now operates in six regulated US iGaming states after entering Connecticut earlier this year.
That Florida contribution should fall to a more sustainable level in the second half, once the first-to-market advantage on Past Motor Racing wears off. Playtech had already warned in July that H2 adjusted EBITDA would come in below the first half, pointing as well to continued investment in a planned Brazilian partnership and the full six-month hit from the UK’s higher Remote Gaming Duty. Full-year adjusted EBITDA is still expected to clear €270 million.
Latin American revenue rose 29% on an underlying basis, helped by Mexico and Colombia and by customer acquisition around the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Playtech’s 30.8% stake in Caliente Interactive produced €30.1 million in associated income over the period, and Caliente paid out another €37.4 million in pre-tax dividends that sit outside adjusted EBITDA. Colombian revenue more than doubled year over year, while Playtech kept investing in its Brazilian operations and a strategic partnership it expects to sign later in 2026.
Investment income grew 73% to €34.2 million, with Caliente responsible for most of it. Playtech also collected €4.4 million in dividends from Hard Rock Digital, and the estimated fair value of that stake rose to €246.7 million from €178.8 million at the end of 2025. The original investment in Hard Rock Digital, made in 2023, was around €80 million.
UK B2B revenue dropped 8% to €59 million after Remote Gaming Duty went from 21% to 40% in April and one customer took some self-service betting terminal operations in-house. What remains of the B2C business kept shrinking too, with revenue down 22% to €32 million as Sun Bingo dealt with lower player value and activity and HAPPYBET continued winding down in Germany. B2C adjusted EBITDA still improved, moving from a €1.5 million loss to a €200,000 profit.
Free cash flow hit €101 million during the half, already more than triple the €29.5 million Playtech generated across all of 2025. The company ended June with €39.2 million in net cash after spending around €25 million buying back 1.8% of its issued share capital, which takes total buybacks since September 2025 to roughly €100 million and 10% of issued shares.
Playtech’s current shape dates to the €2.3 billion sale of Snaitech to Flutter Entertainment in April 2025, after which it returned €1.8 billion to shareholders and moved back toward a predominantly B2B model. Investment income now gets reported separately alongside B2B and the remaining B2C operations, which makes returns from holdings like Caliente and Hard Rock Digital a far bigger part of group earnings than they were before the disposal.
Medium-term targets sit at €250 million to €300 million in adjusted EBITDA and €70 million to €100 million in annual free cash flow. First-half free cash flow has already gone past the top of that range, while the €162.5 million EBITDA result covers roughly 60% of current full-year guidance, even with management expecting a weaker second half.