GVC makes strong start to Q4
Listed sportsbook and casino operator announces Q4 growth while noting competitors' recent sportsbook troubles
GVC Holdings appears to have bucked the recent trend of operators bemoaning “punter”friendly” runs of sporting results after issuing a strong Q4 trading update.
Although the company reported sports margin had decreased quarter-on-quarter from 9.4% in Q3 to 8.2% during the first two months of Q4, average wagers per day soared by 23% from 3.3m to 4m across the same period.
And despite the reduction in sports margin, average daily net gaming revenue for the first two months of Q4 rose by 4% from 516k in Q3 to 536k.
GVC, which returned the loss-making non-Australian business of Sportingbet it acquired in March to profit in September, said current performance reinforced the success of the Sportingbet integration.
It added it expected the Group’s full-year results to be at the upper end of analysts’ current expectations, with a further update expected on 9 January.
In releasing the update, the AIM-listed company said it had noted “the recent announcements made by a number of its peers in the sports betting industry on the matter of recent unfavourable sports results”.
GVC was referring to operators such as William Hill and Gala Coral, which have recently partly attributed a dip in profits to a run of bad sports results.
Karl Burns, Panmure Gordon analyst, told eGaming Review that forecasts of 36.8m EBITDA for GVC’s full year reults remains unaffected by today’s announcement despite the expectation of further growth.
“Sportingbet continues to operate in markets that other operators are pulling out of, and the business still holds a lot of potential,” Burns said.
“They expected to break even in 18 months and have achieved it in six, so there’s still a long way to go for the business,” he added.
In September, GVC chief exec Kenneth Alexander told eGR the Group was looking to execute more acquisitions following the success of the Sportingbet deal.
GVC’s share price had risen 10p this morning to 363p at the time of writing.
In other news:
– Ladbrokes prepares for online Belgium launch with new MD
– Slingo boss Roberts joins Sportech board
– Poll: Should sports spread betting be regulated by the Gambling Commission?