Inspired Entertainment, Inc.
For the period ended Dec 31, 2024. Filed Mar 26, 2025.
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FY2024 · Filed Mar 26, 2025
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Item 9A. Controls and Procedures
Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures.
Disclosure controls and procedures are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed in our reports filed or submitted under the Exchange Act is recorded, processed, summarized, and reported within the time periods specified in the SEC’s rules and forms. Disclosure controls and procedures include, without limitation, controls and procedures designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed in our reports filed or submitted under the Exchange Act is accumulated and communicated to management, including our Executive Chairman and our Chief Financial Officer (together, the “Certifying Officers”), or persons performing similar functions, as appropriate, to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure. Under the supervision and with the participation of our management, including our Certifying Officers, we carried out an evaluation of the effectiveness of the design and operation of our disclosure controls and procedures as defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Exchange Act. Based on this evaluation, the Certifying Officers concluded that the Company’s disclosure controls and procedures at December 31, 2024 were not effective, due to the material weaknesses described below.
In light of these material weaknesses, we performed additional analyses as deemed necessary to ensure that our financial statements were prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles.
Management’s Report on Internal Control Over Financial Reporting as Part of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act 2002 (“SOX”)
Our management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting. Insofar as the Company is subject to Section 404(b) of SOX, this Annual Report on Form 10-K includes an opinion by our external auditors on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting at December 31, 2024 in addition to management’s assessment of the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting under the requirements of Section 404(a) of SOX. Our internal control over financial reporting is designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of our consolidated financial statements for external reporting purposes in accordance with U.S. GAAP. Our internal control over financial reporting includes those policies and procedures that:
(1) pertain to the maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of the assets of our Company;
(2) provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit the preparation of consolidated financial statements in accordance with U.S. GAAP, and that our receipts and expenditures are being made only in accordance with authorizations of our management and directors; and
(3) provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of any unauthorized acquisition, use or disposition of our assets that could have a material effect on the consolidated financial statements.
Management has assessed the effectiveness of the Company’s internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2024 based on the criteria set forth in 2013 by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission in Internal Control-Integrated Framework. Based on that assessment, our internal control over financial reporting at December 31, 2024 was not effective, based upon the material weaknesses discussed below.
A material weakness is defined as a deficiency, or combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected and corrected on a timely basis.
Identified Material Weaknesses and Remediation
Risk Assessment and Controls Design and Accounting Competency
The Company has identified areas of material weakness in internal controls over financial reporting relating to an ineffective design of business process controls across all financial reporting and closing processes as well as controls related to the application of accounting policies and procedures (the “Risk Assessment and Controls Design Material Weakness”) as well as the inadequate execution of newly designed monitoring controls (the “Monitoring Controls Material Weakness”). Namely, the Company has only partially completed the establishment of an effective control environment with an incomplete design, implementation and execution of certain process controls including but not limiting the following areas: (i) Preparation, review and approval of account analyses, summaries and reconciliations; (ii) documenting accounting policies and design procedures and controls to ensure compliance with Company accounting policies and US GAAP; (iii) satisfying enhanced documentation requirements in relation to the design and execution of Management Review Controls; (iv) accuracy of information input into and output from the financial reporting and accounting systems. The above deficiencies represented material weaknesses in the Company’s internal control over financial reporting as there was a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement with respect to certain of the Company’s significant accounts and disclosures would not be prevented or detected.
Management made significant progress towards remediation in 2024, and anticipates continued progress in 2025 with effort to continue throughout 2025. This included (1) Development and enhancement of processes and controls in all business cycles under SOX 404. (2) Documentation of all processes and controls under the guidance of external SOX advisors, along with continued documentation of key U.S. GAAP accounting policy updates, (3) Automation and streamlining of processes in critical accounting areas, including revenue billing, software capitalization, inventory, leasing, financial reporting and others, (4) Recruitment of a Vice President of Accounting and Finance and Director of Audit and SOX with extensive U.S. GAAP experience (5) Training with accounting, commercial and legal teams in critical accounting areas such as revenue recognition, balance sheet reconciliations, software project capitalization, etc., and (6) monitoring and remediation of control deficiencies as identified through internal management testing
Management’s continuing remediation efforts in 2025 for the continuing material weaknesses includes (1) implementation of new processes and controls in designated areas to evaluate, record and report transactions according to U.S. GAAP (2) Continued documentation and regular updating of U.S. GAAP accounting policies to support financial processes, SOX controls and financial disclosures (3) continued implementation of revenue billing, further automation of accounting processes in Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Treasury, Inventory and Fixed Assets, and improved reporting (4) Continued advisory support from outsourced technical accounting provider on significant and complex transactions (5) Continued training in relevant U.S. GAAP and SEC Reporting areas, and (6) establishment of 404 SOX testing program and technology to support the annual internal and external audit cycle.
With respect to all deficiencies identified above, management has made significant progress on the remediation process, however the material weaknesses cannot be considered remediated until it is demonstrated that the new or enhanced controls and other impacted or dependent controls have operated effectively for a sufficient period of time.
IT General Controls
Management had identified internal control deficiencies due to IT program and data changes affecting the Company’s financially relevant applications and underlying accounting records, not being identified, tested, authorized, and implemented appropriately to validate that data produced by its financially relevant applications were complete and accurate. Automated process-level controls and manual controls that are dependent upon the information derived from such financially relevant systems were also determined to be ineffective. Additionally, there was not appropriate segregation of duties that would adequately restrict user and privileged access to the financially relevant systems and data to the appropriate Company personnel. Management had concluded that these deficient controls could fail to prevent or detect a material misstatement and as such rise to a material weakness in the aggregate.
Management revised and fully implemented change management procedures across all in-scope applications in 2024. Management will work to finish remediation and operate these controls effectively over a sufficient period of time in 2025.
Management performed an extensive remediation exercise around the design of access controls and associated segregation of duties during 2024. This included 1) establishing and completing an SOD (Segregation of Duty) framework by role and associated risk assessment for all in-scope applications (2) redesigning roles and changing access levels to reflect the SOD framework, (3) updating policies, and (4) strengthening ongoing user access reviews of all in-scope applications. While this exercise was complete for most impacted IT Systems, Management will continue to work towards completing this exercise for the remaining IT systems with a goal of remediating the access control deficiency in 2025. Management will work to finish remediation and operate these controls effectively over a sufficient period of time in 2025.
With respect to all deficiencies identified above, management continues to work on the remediation process. We understand while significant progress has been made in 2024, the material weaknesses cannot be considered remediated until it is demonstrated that the new or enhanced controls and other impacted or dependent controls have been designed and operating effectively for a sufficient period of time.
Changes in Internal Control Over Financial Reporting
Except for the changes noted above in connection with the initiatives to remediate material weaknesses, there have been no other changes in our internal control over financial reporting (as such term is defined in Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f) of the Exchange Act) during the most recent fiscal quarter that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.
REPORT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM ON INTERNAL CONTROL OVER FINANCIAL REPORTING
To the Stockholders and Board of Directors of
Inspired Entertainment, Inc. and Subsidiaries
Adverse Opinion on Internal Control over Financial Reporting
We have audited Inspired Entertainment, Inc. and Subsidiaries’ (the “Company”) internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2024, based on criteria established in Internal Control-Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission. In our opinion, because of the effect of the material weaknesses described in the subsequent paragraphs on the achievement of the objectives of the control criteria, the Company has not maintained effective internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2024, based on criteria established in Internal Control-Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission.
A material weakness is a control deficiency, or combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting, such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of the Company’s annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis. The following material weaknesses have been identified and included in “Management’s Annual Report on Internal Control Over Financial Reporting”:
| ● | The Company’s change management and access controls were not designed and operating effectively to ensure: |
|---|---|
| 1) | IT program and data changes affecting the Company’s financially relevant applications and underlying accounting records are identified, tested, authorized and implemented appropriately to validate that data produced by these financially relevant applications were complete and accurate, and |
| 2) | appropriate segregation of duties that would adequately restrict user and privileged access to the financially relevant applications and underlying accounting records to the appropriate Company personnel. |
| Due to the pervasive nature of these deficiencies, automated process-level, and manual controls that are dependent upon the information derived from such financially relevant applications were also determined to be ineffective. | |
| ● | Business process controls across all financial reporting and closing processes as well as controls relating to the application of accounting policies and procedures were not designed and operating effectively to address the risk of material misstatements, including controls without proper segregation of duties between preparer and reviewer and key management review controls. |
These material weaknesses were considered in determining the nature, timing and extent of audit tests applied in our audit of the fiscal December 31, 2024 consolidated financial statements and this report does not affect our report on such financial statements.
We have also audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (“PCAOB”), the consolidated balance sheet as of December 31, 2024 and the related consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive income (loss), stockholders’ deficit, and cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2024 of the and our report dated March 26, 2025 expressed an unqualified opinion on those consolidated financial statements.
Basis for Opinion
The Company’s management is responsible for maintaining effective internal control over financial reporting, and for its assessment of the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting, included in the accompanying “Management Annual Report on Internal Control Over Financial Reporting”. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company’s internal control over financial reporting based on our audit. We are a public accounting firm registered with the PCAOB and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.
We conducted our audit in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether effective internal control over financial reporting was maintained in all material respects. Our audit of internal control over financial reporting included obtaining an understanding of internal control over financial reporting, assessing the risk that a material weakness exists, and testing and evaluating the design and operating effectiveness of internal control based on the assessed risk. Our audit also included performing such other procedures as we considered necessary in the circumstances. We believe that our audit provides a reasonable basis for our opinion.
Definition and Limitations of Internal Control over Financial Reporting
A company’s internal control over financial reporting is a process designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. A company’s internal control over financial reporting includes those policies and procedures that (1) pertain to the maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of the assets of the company; (2) provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, and that receipts and expenditures of the company are being made only in accordance with authorizations of management and directors of the company; and (3) provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use, or disposition of the company’s assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements.
Because of the inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements. Also, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.
Marcumllp
New York, NY
March 26, 2025
The text of this filing, as the company filed it with the SEC, without its images or exhibits. This is not investment advice.