Published on April 20th, 2020 by Harvi Sadhra

Korean gaming company Gravity is first on this list of the top NASDAQ gaming stocks of 2020. With a gain of close to 400 percent over the course of the year, it has enjoyed major momentum.

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  • The company’s stock is down 16% year-to-date. However, Greff predicts a rebound for Boyd based on its “localized/regional footprint predominantly focused on a drive-to, leisure gaming customer.”.

This is a guest contribution by Harvi Sadhra of Hashtag Investing. Hashtag investing is an exclusive community for active investors to get real-time feedback and discover compelling stocks and strategies any time.

At the height of COVID-19, gaming stocks are making new highs. As the world is locked indoors due to the pandemic, more people are joining the gaming world.

While gaming stocks are typically not the type of high quality dividend growth stocks we cover on Sure Dividend, they have performed especially well as of late.

Gaming stocks like Zynga (ZNGA) and Activision Blizzard (ATVI) recovered from the March sell-off and rose more than 20% and 12% YTD (year-to-date), outperforming the S&P 500 Index, which fell 14%.

Welcome To The Lucrative World Of Gaming

Best Gambling Resorts

Even before the pandemic, the video game industry was lucrative, growing 7.2% YoY (year-over-year) in 2019. Video games are gradually becoming the preferred form of entertainment. Data from Newzoo and Comscore shows that global video game revenue of $148.8 billion surpassed worldwide movie box office collection of $42.5 billion in 2019.

The significant change in the technology and business models of the gaming industry is driving growth. Video games have expanded beyond consoles to PCs and mobile. Thanks to high-speed internet, game developers have gone digital. Instead of buying video game packages, gamers can download games, subscribe to cloud gaming services, and make in-gaming purchases like new missions and player skins to enhance their gaming experience.

Similar to other physical sports, video games have sporting events called esports, where professional gamers compete in front of millions of viewers. According to Newzoo, 443 million people watched esports in 2019, and this number is expected to reach 495 million in 2020. The secret to succeeding in gaming is developing games that generate a loyal fan base for sequels, prequels, and merchandise goods.

2020 – A Good Year For Gaming

2020 is a good year for gaming stocks. We bring to you the top five NASDAQ gaming stocks which you should have in your portfolio. The stocks were selected based on their liquidity, growth, and fundamental strength.

Top Gaming Stock #1 – Activision Blizzard

Activision Blizzard is the world’s largest pure-play video game company with $6.5 billion in annual revenue and $51.8 billion market capitalization. It earns revenue by selling video games and services for game consoles (30%), PCs (26%), mobile devices (34%), and others (10%). Game services include in-game purchases and merchandise while the others segment includes proceeds from esports events.

Activision Blizzard has one of the most robust franchisee catalogs including World of Warcraft, Call of Duty, StarCraft and Bubble Witch, Diablo, and Overwatch. It earns 76% of its revenue from digital channels and 24% from retail and other sources. Activision Blizzard also broadcasts professional Overwatch matches on Disney’s (DIS)ABC networks, the Disney Channel, and ESPN.

In 2019, Activision Blizzard’s revenue fell 13.5% YoY, while its free cash flow rose 3.4% YoY to $1.7 billion. With a net cash position of ~$3.2 billion, it is well-placed to withstand the crisis and pay a dividend. The stock is making a new 52-week high of $67 amidst the pandemic.

Top Gaming Stock #2 – Electronic Arts

Electronic Arts (EA) is another video game giant with annual revenue of $5.5 billion and a market cap of $32.8 billion They offer games and services for consoles, mobile, and PC, and earn ~75% of revenue from digital channels. However, EA is more dominant in game console sales, earning 70% of its revenue from here. It earns 15% revenue each from PC and mobile games, and is witnessing increasing growth in mobile games.

EA has some of the best sports game franchises like Madden NFL, NCAA Football, NBA Live, and FIFA, and it is monetizing these games on esports. It also has an exclusive agreement with Disney for the rights of the Star Wars franchise. The franchisee licenses limit EA’s scope for merchandise sales. Its largest source of revenue is live services like in-game purchases, extra content, subscriptions, and esports. EA plans to monetize its games like Apex Legends and Battlefield through esports.

EA has a stronger cash position than Activision Blizzard. EA generates a higher free cash flow of $1.76 billion and has a more substantial net cash position of $4.6 billion. Its stock rose 5.7% YTD to its 52-week high of $114.47.

Top Gaming Stock #3 – Take-Two Interactive

Unlike EA and ATVI, Take-Two Interactive (TTWO) is a smaller player with estimated annual revenue of $3 billion and a market cap of $14 billion. However, similar to EA, Take-Two has a larger exposure to game consoles, which contribute to 85% of its revenue. It earns the remaining 15% revenue from PC and other platforms. It has less exposure to esports but has the potential to expand.

Take-Two’s biggest franchise Grand Theft Auto has the potential to become an esports game. Its other popular franchises include Red Dead Redemption, NBA 2K, and WWE 2K. Unlike EA that earns more than half its revenue from live services, Take-Two earns only 37% of its revenue from live services. Its major source of income is full game spending.

Take-Two Interactive is estimated to have a free cash flow of over $500 million and a net cash position of over $2 billion in fiscal 2020.

Top Gaming Stock #4 – Zynga

Another smaller player in the video game space is Zynga (ZNGA), which widely caters to the mobile platform. All its mobile games are free and it earns most of its revenue from in-game purchases and other live services. Some of its biggest franchisees are Mege Dragons, Empire & Puzzles, and Slots. It draws 90% of its revenue from mobile and 10% from advertising.

In 2019, Zynga’s revenue rose 46% YoY to $1.32 billion, and free cash flow rose 52.5% to $239 million. It has a net cash position of $790 million. Zynga is a high-growth stock increasing 21% YTD and has a market cap of $7.12 billion.

Top Gaming Stock #5 – NetEase

Adding to the above four American companies is Beijing-based NetEase (NTES), which develops PC and mobile games and also distributes games of Activision and Microsoft’s Mojang in China. NetEase largely caters to China, Japan, and other Southeast Asian markets. It has franchises like Westward Journey, Knives Out, and Identity V. Apart from gaming, it offers other online services like advertising, email, e-commerce, and music streaming.

NetEase revenue rose 15% YoY to $8.4 billion and generated free cash flow of $1.95 billion in 2019. NTES stock rose 6.1% YTD and has a market cap of $46.2 billion.

Good Gaming Mix

The above list is a mix of large players such as ATVI, EA, and NTES, high growth stock ZNGA, and a mid-cap stock TTWO. ATVI, EA, and TTWO peaked in Q3 2018 and then came crashing down as China froze gaming license approvals. These three stocks performed in line with the S&P 500 Index in 2019. Now, they are on a growth spree and have the potential to reach their 2018 levels as the covid situation, and regulatory environment works in their favor.

On the other hand, ZNGA and NTES outperformed the market in 2019 and see strong growth momentum in 2020 as well.

Best Gambling SharesAllstar Gambling USA / News / Top 5 Gambling Stocks 2020Allstar GamblingJanuary 18, 2020TwitterFacebookWhatsApp

The Supreme Court of the United States of America in a landmark judgment given in May 2018 declared that the Federal law that allowed gambling of legalized sports in the country no longer stands constitutional. It was held that the law is violative of the 10th amendment. It was now declared that gambling in sports could now only be sanctioned and approved by states and is not under the purview of the Federal Government. This only resulted in a predictable sports insurgency.

History

In October, New Jersey had over $250 million involved in betting and this was a significant increase in 41% on betting as compared to how it was just a month before. Many other states are following the same pattern as gambling in legal sports reaches a new high. These include The Garden State, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Delaware and Mississippi among others. It is predicted that by the year 2022, all around the world, sports fans will be having as much as $1 trillion invested in online betting per year.

Five gambling stocks with great potential in 2020

Given below are five gambling stocks that one should keep an eye on in regard to gambling in legalized sports.

1. MGM Resorts (NYSE:MGM)

Betting on a small scale in sports is considered unimportant and insignificant in Las Vegas, USA. This comes into picture when we compare blackjack gains of $1.24 billion to actual gains of $329.1 million as extracted from legal sports. However, the news is that the chief chain of casinos to prime timing. This major casino hand in the United States alone generated over $4 billion of revenue in the city of Vegas. However, it also has its working in the Atlantic City but it overtook a proportion of the Casino Empire in the city of New York. It now has a substantial mark in the betting arena of sports having a rank of $114 million which accounts to be 35% in the betting world. MGM holds a market grab of $13.5 billion. It is utilizing its monetary strength to turn around the sports world when it comes to betting. The casino major has introduced betting in sports in two casinos in the Mississippi and has finally emerged as the “authorized gaming counterpart” of the NBA.

MGM Resorts has finalized deals with the most significant and prime leagues of the country. These include basketball, hockey, and baseball at the professional level. The leagues permit MGM to cross-advertise the casinos belonging to the company and also promoting the app for sports betting. It is important that note that MGM has only been possible in regulating bets in states where the action was previously legal. Till now, the biggest reward lies with the National Football League. MGM presently has a great hold of success and plans of having Philadelphia Eagles and Pittsburgh Steelers involved in sports betting, following which each game will be a fair play.

2. BRAGG (BRAG. V BKDCF)

The BRAGG Gaming Group was earlier known as Breaking Data Corporation. It has onlookers as large as 31 million virtue of its media asset, Give me Sport (GMS). It even has an internet connected playing the stage that is famous worldwide and is known by the name, Oryx gaming. Through Oryx Gaming aims to influence the GMS viewers into gaining power and emerging as the biggest betting of sports gaming customer record on the planet. The path of online gambling gives surprising levels of profit. Studies show that the gross rewards in the market through gambling in 2018 were $46.7 billion. It is predicted that the amount will go up to $89 by the year 2025.

The Facebook profile of GMS has as much as 26 million active user accounts. If this data is compared with ESPN, we see that even a significant sports brand as ESPN has only 19 million users on its Facebook page while its total worth amounts $28 million. If we talk about Sky Bet, the property was just sold off for %5.7 billion and only had 819,000 people as its audience. This has only led Oryx Gaming Services to introduce a GMS in order to have only one platform focusing on Sports Betting. Once the OGS is launched online it will incorporate the OGS technology with GMS to bring out an amazing experience to all the BRAG’s users.

Today, it is noticeable that BRAGG has two key possessions GMS and Oryx. The former has had an increased revenue earning of over 400%. The per month traffic online has also added by more than 5 million and additional revenue growth of 30%. It is believed that that BRAGG can grab eyes of its possible audience; it can bring to large monetary gains to the company. It can even come out as an important success story of this year.

3. International Game Technology (NYSE:IGT)

After having an unsure revenue through the year where the company had a significant one-year increase of $31 to a decrease of $14 by November. It is only in December that the numbers found an equilibrium at $16. It has a market hold of $3.4 billion and 12,000 employees and is known to be a big company that produces a significant amount of casino playing equipment and machine for slots, more than any other company. But now the company is evolving and embracing betting in sports. Since IGT is a service provider it shall not have to worry about the risks of maintaining books of sports. It merely needs to complete the requirements of companies like MGM and infrastructural construction that help in encouraging sports.

In 2017, IGT was managing money worth $12 billion being used in sports betting. It is advisable for IGT to be safer so that safely all the bets are placed by potential investors in the year 2019. In July 2018, IGL claimed to have started a collaboration with the famous betting company FanDuel. As per the collaboration, IGT will be responsible for bringing FD’s ongoing betting mechanisms to markets in 15 states of the country. IGT will also launch PlayShot that will use FD’S consumer looking and waging technology and provide service to people who bet in sports. FD wishes to use the technology of the very famous IGT to establish a remarkable footing in the world of betting in sports. Hence, it is predicted that after an uneasy year, IGT’s hard work and luck will finally pay off in 2019.

4. BOYD Gaming Corporation (NYSE:BYD)

The company is a significant and huge casino regulator in the United States and is the owner of 29 gaming possessions in 10 states. It is coming out to be a big character when it comes to sports gambling.

The previous decade, Boyd has shown unusual skills that have contributed positively to the company. It has dealt with a lot of sports books in the City of Sin. Since betting is considered legal it is planning to expand to different regions and their markets.

The firm has also come into collaboration with MGM as per which they will be equal partners in online and offline (mobile) gambling mechanisms. MGM is proposing its poker and playing applications for 15 states under sportsbook of Boyd’s. The deal is unexpected and can be the start of a huge gaming monopoly together owned by Boyd and MGM. B’Connect is Boyd’s new application for gaming and is used in 3 casinos. It has also signed a work project with FanDuel and offered to lend out its gaming characteristics for FD’s mobile and internet-abled gambling services. The contract allows for Boyd to have authority over all the states where it possesses licenses for gaming, other than Nevada.

5. Marriot International (NASDAQ:MAR)

Marriot serves as the biggest hotel businesses in the world. The hotel brand has a lot of collaborations with casinos and is even partners with them. Presently, MGM and Boyd wish to collaborate with Marriot to use their customer turn out to their own advantage and attract extra business. Marriot is significant all over the country and has deals relating to license with JW Marriot Resort & Spa located in Las Vegas. Recently, after all the negative publicity the hotel chain is facing, the company gave a statement regarding the building of a casino and resort with 4000 rooms. The negative attraction due to scandalous reported a breach of data. But the company has been patient in moving forward and strategized well to come out and claim over the market all over again.

Another company expected to have increased growth since gaming starts again:

6. Millenial eSports Corporation (OTCQB:MLLLF)

It is a small-scale firm located in Toronto with its main focus on E-Sports and E-Gaming. The company works on all- creation of content, data analysis, media and broadcasting, and, tools for execution. The firm introduced analytics and intelligence in business items for industry relating to e-gaming. It has even started working on the preferences on Aston Martin and McLaren, Motorola G and Formula E which are mainly based on mobile gaming arena.

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