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Asmodee UK more than doubles annual operating profit to £34m as TCG boom powers growth

13. August 2026 um 20:11

Asmodee‘s UK distribution business more than doubled its operating profit to £35.1m last year, with the company citing the booming trading card game market as the biggest driver.

The profit surge for Esdevium Games – which officially re-registered as Asmodee UK Limited last month – came on the back of an almost 60% rise in turnover to £224m according to its latest annual accounts.

Asmodee UK said TCGs had a very strong year and remained the “pre-eminent category” in the 12 months to the end of March 2026, specifically highlighting Pokémon, One Piece, Disney Lorcana and Star Wars Unlimited as all playing their part in the result.

The distributor said board games continued “steady performance” over the critical holiday period, and picked out Brick Like This and The Fellowship of the Ring: Trick-Taking Game as strong releases from the year.

Brick Like This was the debut release from Asmodee studio Dotted Games, which was launched in 2024 after the company inked a partnership deal with LEGO to create a dedicated design studio focused on making new LEGO board games.

That studio launch came a few months after The LEGO Group and Asmodee had announced their first jointly-crafted board game, Monkey Palace.

Asmodee UK’s figures reflect the transformation taking place across Asmodee globally, where rapid TCG growth has increasingly shifted its revenue mix towards distribution.

The global Asmodee Group reported €1.68bn of net sales for the same financial year across its publishing and distribution operations, up 23%, while operating profit was up about 43.6%.

Asmodee Group’s Jan-Mar 2026 and last financial year revenue figures, showing the huge dominance of TCGs

More than 72% of group revenue was generated by distributing games published by other companies, compared with 63% a year earlier – and TCGs accounted for about 60% of annual group net sales.

BoardGameWire reported in May that sales of Asmodee Group’s own board games actually fell 5.8% over the period, underlining how heavily the group’s overall growth was being powered by distribution.

That trend has continued into Asmodee’s Group’s new financial year. Its April-to-June revenue increased another 20.9% year-on-year to €422.1m, with TCGs responsible for more than two-thirds of quarterly revenue, while board game sales rose 16%.

Asmodee UK’s annual results follow the unit changing up its leadership structure to kick off 2025, with a trio of senior executives being given updated roles amid the company splitting its operation again into three separate channels, carving out e-commerce as its own line.

The move came just over four years after Asmodee UK had split its sales and marketing efforts into two separate categories – hobby and independent, and national retail.

Asmodee bought a majority stake in UK board game distributor Esdevium in 2010, and began using Asmodee UK as its trading name in 2017. The UK operation updated its registered company name to Asmodee UK Limited last month.

A statement from the business said, “Whilst we value our 30 year legacy in the UK hobby market under the Esdevium Games name, this decision reflects our pride in belonging to the wider Asmodee business and marks an important step in enhancing the UK footprint within the group.”

It added that its fellow UK distribution operation Coiledspring Games will continue to operate as a distinct trading division of the company under its own website. Asmodee bought Coiledspring in 2018.

Coiledspring focuses on family-weight board games, party games, logic puzzles, jigsaws and soft toys, while Asmodee UK distributes a wider range of hobby board games, TCGs, miniatures and accessories.

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Arcs named game of the year by Italian tabletop magazine ioGioco, Paolo Mori named best designer

Arcs, the hybrid trick-taking wargame from Root and Oath designer Cole Wehrle, has won game of the year in the ioGioco Awards, which were created in 2021 to celebrate Italian-language board games and their designers.

Paolo Mori

Paolo Mori was named game designer of the year after demonstrating his huge range through designs including Toy Battle, Altay: Dawn of Civilization, Battlefields of the Napoleonic Wars and the second edition of Blitzkreig.

Bryan Bornmueller’s The Fellowship of the Ring – Trick-Taking Game triumphed in the light and family games category, the new edition of Richard Borg’s Memoir ’44 won best wargame, while children’s game of the year went to Marc and Catherine André’s design Splendor Kids.

This year’s award for best aesthetic and production quality went to Michele Morosini’s The Breach, published by Ludus Magnus Studio, while best two-player game went to Paolo Mori and Alessandro Zucchini’s design Toy Battle.

Nominees are picked by the editorial staff at Italian tabletop gaming magazine ioGioco from all of the titles published in Italy in the previous year, with the winners decided by public vote via the magazine’s website.

The Breach, from designer Michele Morosini and Ludus Magnus Studios

ioGioco said the tabletop gaming sector continues to prove “particularly vibrant”, with the market in Italy seeing a 27% rise in value last year compared to 2024 according to data from research company Circana.

Trading card games were a huge driver of that figure, the research shows, with sales of tabletop games outside of that category growing 3% year-on-year. More than new 800 titles were released in the country last year, ioGioco added.

Last year’s ioGioco game of the year award was won by fantasy deckbuilding and strategy game Black Rose Wars: Rebirth, which was designed by Andrea Colletti, Diego Fonseca and Marco Montanaro.

ioGioco Awards 2025 – full results

BOARD GAME

Winner: Arcs, designed by Cole Wehrle – published in Italy by MS Edizioni
Ants, Renato Ciervo, Andrea Robbiani
Bomb Busters, Hisashi Hayashi
The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship, Matt Leacock
Star Wars – Battle of Hoth, Richard Borg, Adrien Martinot

GAME DESIGNER

Winner: Paolo Mori
Gregory Grard
Hisashi Hayashi
Reiner Knizia
Matt Leacock

LIGHT & FAMILY GAME

Winner: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring – Trick-Taking Game, Bryan Bornmueller – Asmodee Italia
Bomb Busters, Hisashi Hayashi
Castle Combo, Grégory Grard, Mathieu Roussel
Cities, Steve Finn, Phil Walker-Harding
Flip 7, Eric Olsen

WARGAME

Winner: Memoir’ 44 (New Edition), Richard Borg – Asmodee Italia
Battlefields of the Napoleonic Wars, Paolo Mori, Alessandro Zucchini
Pocket Air War: Definitive Edition, Carlo Amaddeo
An Impossible War: The First Carlist War in the North, 1834-1838, David Gómez Relloso
Wunderwaffen, Walter Obert)

CHILDREN’S GAME

Winner: Splendor Kids, Marc André, Catherine André – Asmodee Italia
Jurassic Valley, Davide Panizza
My Puzzle Adventure: Ochre Land, Antonin Boccara, Romaric Galonnier, Fabrice Lamouille, Mathilde Malburet
Redwoods, Gary Kim, Yohan Goh, Hope S Hwang
Opération Noisettes, Emilie Soleil, Jérôme Soleil

AESTHETIC AND PRODUCTION QUALITY

Winner: The Breach, Michele Morosini – Ludus Magnus Studio
Cyclades: Legendary Edition, Bruno Cathala, Ludovic Maublanc
Galactic Cruise, TK King, Dennis Northcott, Koltin Thompson
Koi, Rosaria Battiato, Massimo Borzì, Martino Chiacchiera
Runar, Diego Fonseca)

AESTHETIC AND PRODUCTION QUALITY – ROLE-PLAYING GAME

Winner: Mörk Borg, Pelle Nilsson, J Yamil – Need Games
Daggerheart
Elder Mythos, Laura Fontanella, Marta Palvarini
Magus et Oraculum – New Edition, Momatoes, Oscar Biffi
Pilgrims of the Murk Dome, Pelle Nilsson, J Yamil

SOLITAIRE GAME

Winner: Gloomhaven: Buttons & Bugs, Joe Klipfel, Nikki Valens – Asmodee Italia
Final Girl Season 2, Evan Derrick, AJ Porfirio
Hispania, Miguel Marqués
Too Many Bones, Josh J Carlson, Adam Carlson
Voidfall, Nigel Buckle, Dávid Turczi

TWO-PLAYER GAME

Winner: Toy Battle, Paolo Mori, Alessandro Zucchini – Asmodee Italia
Duel for Cardia, Faouzi Boughida, Mathieu Rivero
Agent Avenue, Christian Kudahl, Laura Kudahl
Memoir’ 44 – New Edition, Richard Borg
Zenith, Grégory Grard, Mathieu Roussel

BOARD GAME EXPANSION

Winner: The White Castle – Matcha, Sheila Santos, Israel Cendrero – Devir
Dune: Imperium – Bloodlines, Phil Amylon, Andy Clautice, Paul Dennen, Caleb Vance
Food Chain Magnate: The Ketchup Mechanism & Other Ideas, Jeroen Doumen, Joris Wiersinga
Talisman: Nemesis – Call of the Hunt, Craig Van Ness
Twilight Imperium: Fourth Edition – Thunder’s Edge, Dane Beltrami, James Kniffen

ROLE-PLAYING GAME

Winner: Daggerheart – Acheron Games
DIE: The Roleplaying Game, Kieron Gillen
Marvel Multiverse Roleplaying Game, Matt Forbeck, Marty Forbeck
Triangle Agency, Caleb Zane Huett, Sean Ireland
Wilderfeast, Federico Corbetta Caci, KC Shi

ROLE-PLAYING GAME SUPPLEMENT

Winner: The One Ring: Realms of the Three Rings, Michele Garbuggio, Marco Maggi, Francesco Nepitello, Gabriele Quaglia – Need Games
Dolmenwood Campaign Book
Dungeons & Dragons 5.5e: Dungeon Master’s Guide
Outgunned Adventure, Simone Formicola, Riccardo Sirignano
Tal’Dorei Reborn, James JHaeck, Matthew Mercer, Hannah Rose

GAMEBOOK

Winner: Un altro passo nella neve, Manuele Giuliano – Ingenioso Hidalgo
15 Mondi da Cana, Stefano Tartarotti
Chi è stato? 1 – La Casa degli Automi, Michele Buonanno
Fiabe Oscure 2 – Aurora, Valentina Ceciliato
The Freedom Finders – Beak Your Chains, Emily Conolan

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