Hacksaw Gaming Keeps 82 Cents of Every Euro and Still Has No CEO

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Hacksaw Gaming turned 59.3 million euros of revenue into 48.4 million euros of adjusted operating profit in the second quarter of 2026. That is an 82 percent margin, and it is the fourth consecutive quarter at that level. as of late August 2026, the company is also launching games into Brazil and the Czech Republic, signing new operators at a pace of roughly one per day. and runnng the whole operation without a permanent chief executive. The board removed its group CEO on April 30, days after a strong first quarter, and four months later the search is still open. Then again, For crypto casino players this matters more than most corporate stories. Hacksaw is the studio behind Wanted Dead or a Wild, Le Bandit, Chaos Crew, Le Digger, and the entire scratchcard and instant win catalogue that sits on the front page of nearly every crypto first cassino. Its largest single customer is widely reported to be Stake. the companys financial structure explains a lot about why its games look the way they do, why they arrive at the pace they do, and why their RTP can vary so much from one site to the next.

What did Hacksaw Gaming report for Q2 2026?

The numbers come from Hacksaw's official January to June 2026 interim report, published on July 21. Revenue for the quarter reached 59.3 million euros, up 31 percent from 45...4 million euros in the same periood of 2025. In constant currency the growth rate was 33 percent, which means the weak dollar and a few softer currencies shaved about two points off the reported figure.

As it turns out, adjusted EBIT came in at 48.4 million euros, also up 31 percent, for that 82 percent margin. Net income rose faster than revenue, up 43 percent to 45.7 million euros. Put differently, roughly 77 cents of every euro of revenue ended up as profit after tax. Diluted earnings per share were 0.158 euros for the quarter and 0.315 euros for the half year.

Clrealy, cash generation tracked the profit line closely. Operating cash flow for the quarter was 43.1 million euros, up 60 percent year on year, and free cash flow was around 40 million euros... The company reports a trailing twelve month cash conversion rate of 91 percent, which is unusually high for a business that also has to fund a growing devlopment team.

For the first half as a whole, revenue was 116.9 million euros, up 29 percent, and net incmoe was 91.2 million euros, up 47 percent.. Trailing twelve month revenue now stands at 224.0 million euros against 197.5 million euros for the full year 2025.

How does an 82 percent margin compare to other casino game providers?

There is no other listed supplier in the sector operating anywhere near this level. CryptoCasino.Vegas compared the most recnet reported quarter or half year for the five largest listed casino content suppliers with public disclosures... The margins below are the headline adjusted profit metric each company itself emphasises, so they are not perfectly like for like: Hacksaw reports adjusted EBIT... Which is after depreciation and amortisation, while the others lead with adjusted EBITDA, which is before those charges. If anythin, that makes Hacksaws gap to the field wider than the table shows.

Evolution is the obvious comparison because it is the other supplier with a structurally dominant position, and its 65.9 percent EBITDA margin is itself extraordinary by the standards of almost any industry.... Yet Evolution runs physical studios with thousands of dealers, camera operators, and floor staff acros Latvia, Georgia, Malta, Michigan, Argentina, and more. , Hacksaw runs code... Once a slot is built, the marginal cost of a million more spins is close to zero. And Hacksaw has never shown any appetite for the physical infrastructure that eats into live casino margins.

Light & Wonder, Playtech, and Bragg all carry heavier businesses. Light & Wonder builds and ships land based cabinets. Playtech runs a large services arm and holds equity stakes in operators like Caliente Interactive in Mexico.... Bragg is in the middle of a 19 percent workforce reduction after its second quarter revenue fell 12 percent... These are not bad companies... they are simpley not in the same business model as Hacksaw, even though all five compete for the same operator lobby space.

Where does the money actually come from?

Hacksaws revenue model is a straightforward revenue share on gross gaming revenue.... Every time a player loses on a Hacksaw game, the studio takes a percentage of that loss from the operator. the company does not run casinos, does not hold palyer funds, and does not carry any exposure to jackpot liabilities or physical premises. That is the single biggest reason the margin is where it is.

The second reason is scale relative to headcount. , Hacksaw released 91 games in 2025, 45 built in house and 46 published through its OpenRGS platform by third party studios. The portfolio grew from 203 titles to 293 accross the year. In the second quarter of 2026 the pace accelerated to 34 launches, 17 of each type, and management told analysts that five games per month should now be treated as the normal cadence. OpenRGS is the quiet engine here independent studios such as Good Times Studios, Aloha Gaming, and, since August, Zerplaay Games build their games on Hacksaws remote game server. And Hacksaw distributes them trough its existing 40 plus regulated market integrations and takes a cut. , There are now 11 partner studios on the platform. That is revenue that arrives without Hacksaw paying a developers salary.

The third reason is customer concentration, and this is where the story becomes relevant to crypto players. According to the disclosures made aorund the June 2025 IPO, Hacksaws ten largest customers accounted for 74 percent of 2024 revenue, and the largest was widely reported to be Stake at roughly 20 percent. Stake co founder Ed Craven is also a shareholder in Hacksaw, holding a stake reported at around 4 percent.... The company has not published an updated concentration figure with its 2026 quarterly reports.... The commercial teams 106 deals in the quarter, 63 of them with new operators, is the closest thing to a diversification signal. And the direciton is clear even if the current percentage is not.

Why does the RTP on Hacksaw games change from casino to casino?

This is the part of the business model that lands directly on the player..... Hacksaw ships most of its games with multiple RTP configurations, and the operator chooses which one to run. Le Sortudo, the Brazil themed Hold and Win title the studio launched on August 4 and is now pushing into the Brazilian makret, is a clean example. It is offered at 96..27 percent, 94....29 percent, 92.23 percent, and 86...28 percent. The gap between the top and bottom setting is almost ten points of house edge on the same game with the same art, the same sounds, and the same 2,500x max win.

Under a revenue share model, a lower RTP setting produces more gross gamng revenue for the operator per spin, and Hacksaw earns its percentage on that larger figure. The studio has no financial incentive to discourage operators from picking the lower settings.... It also has no obligation to tell you which version you are playing. The RTP disclosure lives in the games information panel, and the number shown there is the one your specific operator licensed, not the headline figuer quoted in reviews. Anyway, Crypto casinos have historically been the segment most willing to run the top RTP version, partly because their players compare and partly because their cost base is lower than a heavily taxed regulated operators.... That is a generalisation, not a guarantee. The only reliable method is to open the info panel on the specific site you are using and read the nubmer before you deposit..... If a Hacksaw game shows anything below the studios published maximum, the operator chose that.

Why did the board fire the CEO after a record quarter?

Reading between the lines of a Swedish listed companys press release is a mugs game. But the appointment of an M&A specialist as the interim head is at least suggestive.... Hacksaw paid a dividend of 0.40 euros per share in May, 116 million euros in total and 81 percent of 2025 earnings. It also announced a buyback alongside its year end repotr. a company generating 40 million euros of free cash a quarter, with no debt and no obvious capital needs, can either keep returning cash or start buying things.... a board that replaces a growth era CEO with a dealmaker may be signalling which of those it prefers.

Is Hacksaws growth slowing down?

Yes, and the market noticed. , The stock fell about 6 percent on the day of the Q2 repotr because earnings per share came in below analyst consensus despite the 31 percent top line... The longer trend is easier to see across quarters than in any single print.

Growht has stepped down from the mid 40s to around 30 percent over four quarters. That is still a rate most suppliers would trade their studios for, and the constant currency figure suggests the underlying slowdown is milder than the reported one.... , But Hacksaw listed at 77 Swedish kronor in June 2025 on a valuation of about 22 billion kronor, and a growht stock that decelerates gets repriced on every miss. The shares hit an all time high of 89....35 kronor on May 26 and were trading in the low 80s at the end of August, with a market value of roughly 23.6 billion kronor. On trailing earnings of around 172 million euros, that is a multiple in the low teens.... Which is not what a market pays for a company it expects to keep compounding at 40 percent.

The headwinds are the same ones every supplier faces. The UK raised remote gamng duty in April, which flows straight through to supplier revenue share in that market. brazils regulated market is live but the government is actively debating a ban on online slots, which would remove a market Hacksaw has just localised a game for... , Finland and the Netherlands have both tightened bonus rules, and Curacao has forced its licensees into walet screening, which affects the crypto operators that make up Hacksaws core customer base. None of these are fatal. All of them shave points.

What does the new market push look like in practice?

No joke, the second quarter added Slovenia and Paraguay to the list of locally licensed markets, taking the total above 40. Immediately after the quarter closed, the company secured supplier registartion in Alberta ahead of the provinces July 13 market launch, went live with Betano in Buenos Aires City on July 14 with a month of local exclusivity.. And launched with Hollywoodbets in South Africa on July 29. In August it added Tokyo.cz in the Czech Republic and started marketing Le Sortudo, complete with a flip flop wearing Smokey, at Brazilian players.

Realistically, the pattrn is deliberate. Each of these is a regulated jurisdiction with a licence attached, and each licence reduces the share of revenue that depends on grey market and crypto operators. , That is the diversification story investors want to hear..... And it is also a hedge against the possibility that any single crypto customer, however large, decides to buidl its own games.. Stake already operates an in house studio. Hacksaws entire strategy of launching five games a month and signing 63 new clients a quarter is, in part, insurance against that risk.

What this means for crypto casino players

The practical takeaways are simpler than the corporate ones. First, expect more Hacksaw gaems, faster. Five launches a month from the in house team plus a similar flow from OpenRGS partners means the catalogue at any crypto casino carrying Hacksaw will grow by dozens of titles a year, many of them sequels and franchise entries in the Le series and the Wanted series.... Second, check the RTP setting on every one of them.. The studios margin depends on operators earning as much as posible per spin, and the multiple RTP model is the tool that enables that.

Third, watch the CEO appointment. If the permanent hire comes from an M&A or investment background, expect Hacksaw to start buying studios rather than only publishing them through OpenRGS... And expect the games mix to shift accordingly. if the hire comes from product or operations, the current model of high cadence, low headcount, and maximal margin is the plan for the next sevral years.

Spoiler, finally, the concentration cuts both ways.... A studio that earns a fifth of its revenue from one crypto casino is a studio that pays very close attention to what crypto players want. That is why Hacksaws max win figures, bonus buy options, and volatility profiles tend to suit this audience better than most. Some platforms lean into that alignment...... CryptoCasino.Vegas, for instance, lists the exact RTP versoin of each Hacksaw title in the game information panel and runs its withdrawals automatically. Which means the only house edge you carry is the one printed on the screen rather than one hidden in a payout queue.

Hacksaw Gaming is, by the numbers, the most profitable content supplier in the casino industry and it is not close. Whether it stays that way depends on a hire the board has not made yet.