When Sun International issued its trading statement earlier this month, it showed that the direction of travel was clear. The actual results, presented today, filled in the numbers and confirmed something that would have been almost unimaginable five years ago. 

The group's online gaming arm Sunbet has grown so rapidly that its adjusted EBITDA now exceeds that of GrandWest, historically Sun International's single most profitable asset and the cornerstone of South African gaming for three decades.

Group income for the year ended 31 December 2025 rose 7.1% to R12.9 billion, while adjusted EBITDA grew 2.8% to R3.4 billion. Adjusted headline earnings per share landed at 565 cents, up 6.4% and within the guidance range of 554 to 572 cents flagged in the trading statement.

Headline earnings per share, which benefits from the reversal of prior-year impairments and the second Dreams S.A. contingent consideration payment, came in at 692 cents, a 38.7% improvement on the 499 cents of 2024. 

Total dividend payments reached 424 cents per share, up 6.5%, with the board also declaring a 100 cent special dividend funded by the proceeds of the Dreams S.A. settlement.

Sunbet Income surged 75.9% to R2.1 billion, adjusted EBITDA more than doubled to R744 million, and one million new players signed up during the year, against 648,000 in 2024. 

Average daily cash deposits reached R27.2 million, up 102.2% on the prior year. Within that income figure, the online gaming vertical drove virtually all of the growth, with slots gross gaming revenue alone expanding 115.6%.

The second half showed particular acceleration, with H2 income 79.8% above H2 2024 as product investment and increased operational intensity began compounding. The business added approximately one percentage point of market share across the year.

To place this in context, GrandWest, which houses 2,095 slot machines and 58 tables across its Cape Town complex, generated adjusted EBITDA of R530 million in 2025.

Sunbet, operating entirely in digital channels, generated R744 million. GrandWest's EBITDA has been declining, down 14% on the year as income fell 6% to R1.85 billion. 

That divergence between the physical flagship and its digital challenger within the same group is perhaps the most striking structural signal in these results.

The urban casinos overall produced income of R6.5 billion, a 2.7% decline, while adjusted EBITDA fell 8.7% to R2.1 billion as capex intensity rose, the cluster spent R516 million on maintenance and refurbishment, pushing capex as a percentage of income from 6.2% to 7.9%.

 Market share nonetheless ticked up approximately 0.7 percentage points to 46%, which suggests the revenue decline is more a function of broader consumer spending pressure than competitive loss.

Sun Time Square held up best among the major urban properties, with income essentially flat at R1.46 billion and EBITDA marginally lower at R457 million. Sibaya and Carnival City both saw modest income and EBITDA reductions in the low to mid-single digits. 

The fourth quarter brought some relief, with GGR up 4% across the estate, pointing to a momentum shift heading into 2026.

Sun City delivered a genuinely encouraging year. Full-year income grew 7.9% to R2.2 billion, with net average daily room rate rising 7.7% and December income alone up 14.2% on the prior year. 

H2 gaming turnover at Sun City was 9.9% above 2024, and the Sun City EBITDA edged up 1% to R485 million, a solid result given the R280 million capital programme underway on the main hotel and a further R121 million being deployed on the Vacation Club Reserve. 

The resort's ability to generate earnings growth while absorbing that level of renovation spend is a sign of underlying demand resilience. Wild Coast Sun remained under pressure, with income down 6% to R546 million and EBITDA collapsing 44% to R55 million, partly explained by once-off items that the group expects to normalise.

Sun Slots, the limited payout machine business, produced income growth of 2% to R1.4 billion with EBITDA of R334 million, broadly steady, with the portfolio now down to 5,095 machines across 929 sites as management culled underperforming locations.

Capital intensity fell sharply, from 9.5% of income in 2024 to 5% in 2025. The Western Cape Type B site rollout, which allows Sun Slots to operate in certain licensed locations outside traditional casino complexes, reached five sites by December 2025 with seven more planned for 2026.

 That rollout represents a new geographic frontier for the LPM business in South Africa's wealthiest province.

On the financial architecture, the group generated R3.5 billion from operations and converted 54.7% to free cash flow after tax and maintenance capex. Group debt fell to R5.0 billion from R5.2 billion, with a leverage ratio of 1.5 times, well inside the 2.5 times bank covenant and interest cover of 7.9 times against a covenant floor of 3.0 times. 

Available liquidity stood at R2.3 billion. The forward capex envelope has been guided at R900 million to R1.2 billion annually, a meaningful step up from the R1.19 billion invested in 2025, reflecting the board's conviction that the portfolio requires sustained capital to realise its digital and hospitality growth potential.

Three senior appointments made during the second half of 2025 depict the operational seriousness of the transformation ambition. Mark Sergeant joined as COO of Gaming, Nomzamo Radebe as COO of Hospitality, and Leslie Peters as Chief Technology and Product Officer, the latter role a new creation that reflects how central technology has become to the group's omnichannel identity. 

The combination of a dedicated gaming operations chief, a hospitality professional, and a technology officer reporting into the CEO represents a significant upgrade in leadership depth across the three value pools that underpin the strategy.

The group disclosed two regulatory matters worth tracking. The Western Cape Gambling and Racing Board decision affecting a potential casino relocation is under review, a process that could affect the long-term positioning of the GrandWest asset. 

The group is also monitoring the Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Control Bill, which if enacted would restrict smoking in casino venues and carries potential income implications for an estate that historically accommodated smokers at premium gaming positions.

Non-core assets include the Swaziland property, the Carousel casino in the North West, and the residual Dreams S.A. contingent consideration. The R54 million goodwill impairment relates to Eazibet, now rebranded Sunbet Africa Holdings, acquired in September 2022 for its online licences across various African territories.

 Those licences have not yet generated recoverable value in their current non-operational state, a write-off that speaks honestly to the difficulty of executing regulated digital gaming rollouts across sub-Saharan Africa.

The 2026 year-to-date performance, excluding the one-off Table Bay Hotel lease impact, is running in line with H2 2025. 

Given that H2 2025 showed the strongest momentum across all four business units, that is an encouraging baseline rather than a warning. Sun International enters 2026 with a leaner debt structure, a growing digital earnings engine, a refurbished Sun City, and a management team built for the next phase of the business.

 The transformation from a property-led gaming company to an omnichannel operator is showing up in the segment income lines.