South African gambling giant is rocking

Sun International delivered a strong performance in its 2024 financial year, as the company positioned itself well to capitalise on the shift from in-person to online gambling in South Africa.

Sun International is a major South African company that operates resorts, hotels, and casinos across the country. Its most well-known resort is Sun City in the North West.

The company also operates the popular online betting platform, Sunbet.

Sun International released its results for the year through December 2024 on Monday,17 March 2025, which revealed a strong performance.

The company’s income rose by 5.05% to R12.58 billion, while its operating profit grew by 5.23% to R2.66 billion.

Net gaming wins drove the largest portion of total income, which rose to R9.59 billion, a 3.62% increase.

The company’s profit for the year was R2.11 billion, up 51.80% from the prior year. Sun International received a boost from the sale of part of its stake in the Tourist Company of Nigeria, which has now been classified as discontinued.

Basic earnings per share from continuing operations grew to 498 cents per share.

Sun International said these results reflect the quality of its operating businesses, the resilience of its omnichannel portfolio, and disciplined strategy execution.

The company also highlighted the strong performance of Sunbet, which saw its income increase by over 60% to R1.2 billion and exceeded its ambitious growth targets.

This included substantial growth in Sunbet’s key performance indicators against 2023, which included –

• Unique active players up 35.0%
• First-time depositors up 47.2%
• Deposits up 63.3%

“Sunbet continues to present the group with tremendous growth potential, being one of the fastest-growing companies in the online market,” the company said.

“We intentionally and strategically leverage the Sun International brand, its broad market presence, and loyalty program to attract new players while retaining our existing customer base.”

The company said its goal is to establish Sunbet as the leading and most trusted online gaming operator in southern Africa. 

“In an industry where commoditization is prevalent, our key differentiator is our ability to enhance our offerings through the vast resources of the group.”

Compared to Sunbet’s impressive performance, the company’s in-person casino results were muted.

Income from the company’s four largest urban casinos increased by a modest 0.7%, while growth in the smaller regional casinos posed challenges. 

However, the company reported that rooms and food and beverage revenue from its resorts and hotels showed excellent growth, rising by 10.9%. 

“The resorts and hotels sector in South Africa has experienced a strong recovery, driven by robust domestic leisure demand, conferencing and a resurgence in international tourism,” the company explained. 

“The booming local tourism market has played a pivotal role in this recovery, while South Africa’s favourable currency exchange rates and attractions have made it a highly sought-after destination for foreign visitors.” 

Sun International said it has capitalised on this positive momentum, with total resorts and hotels income up 7.6% to R3.3 billion, despite the first half of the year being impacted by the national elections.

Conversely, Sun Slots income dropped by 3.1% to R1.4 billion compared to the prior year.

“Management has implemented various initiatives to address this downturn,” it said.

It explained that one of the key factors impacting the industry has been the licensing of online slots in mid-2022, which has negatively affected the Limited Pay-out Machine share of the national gaming market.

“Notwithstanding the foregoing, the scale, breadth and depth of the Sun Slots market offering together with several strategic initiatives implemented, positions Sun Slots to continue to generate attractive returns as well as capitalising on an improving economy,” the company said.

Earlier in 2024, Sun International declared an interim dividend of 161 cents per ordinary share.

Now, the board has also declared a final dividend of 237 cents per ordinary share, up from 203 cents per share in 2023.