Sun International has declared a special dividend of R256 million on top of its ordinary final payout, bringing total dividend distributions for the second half of its 2025 financial year to R900 million, as the Sandton-headquartered gaming and hotels group reported steady full-year earnings growth driven by a near-doubling of its online betting income and a partial recovery at Sun City.
The group declared a final cash ordinary dividend of 252 cents per share, lifting the total ordinary dividend for the full year to 424 cents per share — a 6.5% increase on the 398 cents paid in 2024. The final gross cash ordinary dividend alone totals R644 million.
Group income, excluding the Table Bay Hotel — shuttered for several months during a R1 billion refurbishment by V&A Waterfront — rose 7.1% to R12.9 billion. Including the Table Bay, group income grew 3.2% to R13 billion. Adjusted headline earnings per share increased 6.4% to 565 cents, and the group maintained a net debt to adjusted ebitda ratio of 1.5 times, well within its stated target of below two times — a balance sheet position that provided the headroom for both the special dividend and continued investment in Sunbet’s digital infrastructure.
The context for the special payout is the group’s decision in late 2024 to terminate its proposed R7.3 billion acquisition of Peermont Holdings after regulatory delays extended the approval timeline beyond what the board considered acceptable. The collapse of the transaction returned capital that had been earmarked for the deal and sharpened the group’s focus on organic growth and shareholder returns. CEO Ulrik Bengtsson, who joined Sun International in mid-2025 with a background running William Hill, described 2025 as a transitional year in which he and the board agreed a five-year value creation plan, the details of which were presented at a Capital Markets Day held on the same day as the results release. That plan organises the group around an omnichannel model — connecting land-based casinos, online gaming, resorts and hotels and the Sun Slots division into a unified customer platform.
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The performance of Sunbet, the group’s online betting operation, was the defining feature of the full year. According to iGaming Business, Sunbet’s income grew 70.7% in the first half of 2025 alone to R874 million, with unique active players up 70.6% and total deposits more than doubling. For the full second half, Sunbet income grew 79.8% compared to the same period in 2024, with active player days rising more than 70%. The platform has now delivered four consecutive years of material income and earnings growth, and has reached a scale comparable in profit terms to GrandWest in Cape Town — historically the group’s most profitable single casino asset. Online betting now accounts for approximately 70% of South Africa’s total gaming industry by gross gaming revenue, up from a 17% share in 2010 when physical casinos dominated, a structural shift that Bengtsson has identified as both a challenge to Sun International’s traditional floor-based business and the central opportunity for Sunbet’s continued expansion.
The land-based casino portfolio told a more mixed story. South Africa’s broader casino market contracted 6.3% in gross gaming revenue terms during 2025, reflecting continued migration of players to online platforms and a constrained consumer spending environment. Sun International’s own comparable gross gaming revenue declined 2.6% — but the group outperformed the market by sufficient margin to grow its land-based casino market share by 0.6 percentage points to 46%, reinforcing its position as the dominant physical casino operator in the country. The strongest quarterly performance came in the final three months of the year, when gross gaming revenue grew 4% against a continued market-wide decline — the group’s highest quarterly growth rate since the second quarter of 2023.
Sun City, the North West flagship resort, showed meaningful recovery in the second half after a subdued first half, with both gaming and hospitality revenues improving materially. Resorts and hotels revenues excluding the Table Bay grew 6.9% for the full year, supported by a rebound in conferencing and events activity. As noted on Sun International’s investor relations page, the group also undertook a substantive executive refresh during 2025, strengthening the leadership team through senior appointments designed to accelerate the digital and commercial transformation Bengtsson has outlined. Sunbet Botswana, launched in February 2025 following the award of the first licence issued by the Botswana Gambling Authority, represents the first step in a selective international expansion strategy that the group intends to pursue in regulated African markets as domestic momentum matures.
BEFORE YOU GO – Meet Sun International’s Incoming CEO Ulrik Bengtsson