DoubleDown Interactive (NASDAQ:DDI) reported fourth-quarter 2025 results that management said reflected continued growth in its iGaming unit, the first full-quarter contribution from WHOW Games, and a sharp increase in direct-to-consumer (DTC) purchases in its social casino business. Executives also emphasized the company’s ongoing cash generation and profitability, while fielding investor questions on capital returns, marketing discipline, and a goodwill impairment tied to SuprNation.
Quarterly performance and cash flow
For the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, 2025, DoubleDown reported consolidated revenue of $95.8 million, up 17% year over year, and adjusted EBITDA of $40.6 million, up 16%. CFO Joe Sigrist said the company’s adjusted EBITDA was $40.5 million for the quarter, compared with $35.3 million in the prior-year period and $37.5 million in the third quarter of 2025. Adjusted EBITDA margin was 42.3% versus 42.8% a year earlier.
Social casino: WHOW contribution and DTC expansion
Social casino revenue in Q4 grew 9% year over year to $79.7 million, which management attributed in part to the first full-quarter inclusion of WHOW Games. CEO In Keuk Kim said WHOW’s broader payer engagement lifted the company’s overall social casino payer conversion rate to 9.6% in Q4 2025, up from 6.9% in Q4 2024.
Management noted that WHOW payers spend less on average than payers in DoubleDown’s traditional social casino business, contributing to a lower average monthly revenue per payer. Sigrist said social casino average monthly revenue per payer was $198 in Q4 2025, down from $282 in the prior-year period. Average revenue per daily active user (ARPDAU) was $1.35, up from $1.30.
Executives highlighted the company’s push toward DTC purchases, including a step-up in DoubleDown Casino DTC activity during the quarter. Kim said the company launched product features and purchase offers focused on DTC, and as a result DTC revenue exceeded 30% of total social casino revenue in the quarter. Management said WHOW historically has had a higher DTC component due to its web-based player behavior, but also stressed that the largest contributor to the DTC increase was the traditional DoubleDown Casino business given its scale.
Asked to break out WHOW versus DoubleDown Casino revenue and DTC mix, Sigrist said the company plans to continue reporting social casino results on a combined basis and would not specifically quantify WHOW versus the traditional business. He added that both operations “held their own” in what he described as a mature category, and management referenced third-party industry reports indicating the social casino sector was down slightly in 2025.
iGaming: SuprNation growth and marketing discipline
DoubleDown’s iGaming business, SuprNation, posted Q4 2025 revenue of $16.1 million, up 78% year over year and “essentially flat” sequentially from Q3 2025, according to Sigrist. Management attributed the sequential pause to moderating prior increases in player acquisition spending as the company evaluated marketing returns.
Sigrist said DoubleDown closely monitors projected ROI for marketing investment at SuprNation and adjusts spending based on those projections. In response to questions about whether the moderation signaled a strategic shift toward profitability, Sigrist described it as staying “true to our discipline” and said the company had reached a point where it decided not to increase marketing spend further from Q3 to Q4, while continuing to invest in acquiring players.
Kim said SuprNation’s quarterly revenue run rate has more than doubled since DoubleDown acquired the business a little more than two years ago. He also said the company fully launched its first iGaming casino title, Las Vegas, in the U.K. market and is working to optimize its marketing strategy and operations before bringing the brand to additional markets.
Expenses, impairment, and investor debate on capital returns
Operating expenses rose to $65.9 million in Q4 2025 from $47.8 million in Q4 2024. Sigrist said the increase was primarily driven by an impairment loss for SuprNation’s goodwill and higher operating expenses due to the addition of WHOW Games, partially offset by lower R&D expenses.
Sales and marketing expense increased to $16.5 million from $10.4 million a year earlier. Sigrist said the company optimized spending to acquire new players for DoubleDown Casino, increased advertising for SuprNation player acquisition, and absorbed a full quarter of WHOW marketing expenses.
Profit excluding non-controlling interests fell 31% to $24.7 million, which Sigrist said primarily reflected the SuprNation goodwill impairment. Earnings per fully diluted common share were $9.72, or $0.49 per ADS, compared with $14.40 per fully diluted common share, or $0.72 per ADS, in Q4 2024.
On the impairment, Sigrist later told analysts the goodwill write-down was around $8 million. He said the company performs goodwill valuations in the fourth quarter and relies on third-party valuation experts, who consider multiple approaches including comparables and weighted average cost of capital.
Several analysts pressed management on capital allocation, arguing the company’s cash position and valuation suggest room for buybacks or dividends. Sigrist said management, the board, and the controlling shareholder regularly discuss shareholder value, but that the “strong consensus” to date has been to prioritize M&A given the mature nature of the social casino business. He said there was no specific trigger for returning more capital beyond awareness that the cash balance continues to grow, and added the company continues to discuss doing “more than one thing at a time” with its balance sheet.
AI initiatives and marketing environment
Kim said the company is incorporating AI across content production, live operations, and marketing optimization. He said AI is helping accelerate asset creation, localization, and prototyping, while AI-driven analytics are being used to personalize player experiences and improve marketing targeting and monitoring. He said the goal is not only cost efficiency but also faster execution and better decisions.
On industry marketing dynamics, Sigrist said DoubleDown has been disciplined for years in measuring lifetime value and payback periods and believes social casino success increasingly depends on efficiency as the sector matures. In a separate exchange about sweepstakes-related legislative actions and marketing costs, Sigrist said the rapid rise of sweepstakes legislation has been “interesting” and that sweepstakes growth had previously put significant pressure on marketing costs. He added that the pressure has lessened “to a certain extent,” though he cautioned that player acquisition costs “don’t ever seem to go down.”
Looking ahead, management said it will continue to invest in product and live operations, expand DTC penetration in social casino, and evaluate acquisition opportunities, supported by what it described as strong profitability and cash flow generation.
About DoubleDown Interactive (NASDAQ:DDI)
DoubleDown Interactive (NASDAQ: DDI) is a digital entertainment company that specializes in the development and publishing of social casino games. The company’s portfolio centers around free-to-play titles that emulate the experience of land-based casino games such as slots, video poker, bingo and table games. By blending high-quality graphics, engaging gameplay features and real-time social mechanics, DoubleDown Interactive aims to deliver a virtual casino environment accessible via web, mobile and social media platforms.
The company’s flagship offering, DoubleDown Casino, serves as a hub for multiple slot and table-style games, enabling millions of registered players to compete in tournaments, unlock new machines and purchase virtual coins through in-app transactions.
