Goldrush Holdings said the award of the R180 billion National Lottery License to 50%-held Sizekhaya Holdings has been challenged by two other bidders in the courts.
Commenting on JSE-listed Goldrush’s interim results released on Friday, Goldrush director Jan van Niekerk said these cases were ongoing, and shareholders would be updated as soon as finality is reached.
Sizekhaya Holdings is the incoming operator of South Africa’s National Lottery from June 2026 after winning the eight-year license in May 2025, and replacing Ithuba Holdings, which had managed the lottery since 2015. Sizekhaya’s directors include Moses Tembe, Sandile Zungu, Fundi Sithebe, and Dr Mabatho Mutshekwane.
Van Niekerk said the team at Sizekhaya had made good progress in establishing the physical, technological, and legal structures to take on the management of the National Lottery – final sign-off was expected from the National Lotteries Commission well ahead of the June 1, 2026 start date.
He said Goldrush had provided R92 million of funding to Sizekhaya, from internal cash flows and increased bank funding. All current expenses in Sizekhaya were pre-operational.
As such, Sizekhaya’s operations did not yet have an impact on Goldrush Holdings’ profits, while the capital provided and the related bank debt were included on the balance sheet.
He said Goldrush’s immediate plans for the remainder of its 2026 financial year would be to ensure that the brand of the business keeps growing while maintaining the integrity of operating licenses; increase revenue per gaming position in aggregate, while managing expenses to be appropriate for the income levels; and delivering the infrastructure to start running the National Lottery.
The diversified gaming and investment holding company Goldrush increased earnings before tax by 11% to R37.7m in the six months to September 20, after its land-based operations grew a bit and its online business powered ahead.
This was a reflection of an operating environment that did not change much from the same time a year before. Interest rates were slightly lower, but consumer discretionary spending remains subdued.
“When comparing against the recently released National Gambling Board statistics for 2025, Goldrush appears to have performed better than its land-based peers. However, online betting has had a negative impact on all land-based operations,” said Van Niekerk.
Gross gaming revenue for the six months was R936.3m, a 4% improvement from the same period a year ago. Food and beverage revenue, which is only associated with Bingo premises, increased by 10% to R37.5m.
Total income reached the R1 billion level for the first time and was up 5%. The gross profit of the gaming operations increased by 8% to R565.5m. A 14% increase in “other operating expenses” was mainly driven by an increase in staff costs and the influence of the online business model, where marketing spendiing and platform fees grow with the underlying business.
These two expenses are typically higher in the online business than in the traditional business. No dividend was declared for the period.
Headline earnings per share fell by 87.5% to 7.13 cents. There was a reversal of a deferred tax liability of R52.7m, or 107.9 cents per share, because in the first half of the 2025 year, Goldrush ceased to be an investment entity, which prompted a change in accounting policy that meant the financials would be presented in consolidated format going forward.
Goldrush’s share price closed unchanged at 600 cents on Friday, a price that had fallen from 789 cents at the same time a year before.
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