GVC World Cup boost sees record H1 revenues
Tournament dubbed a "resounding success" as Betboo and Sportingbet owner posts H1 revenues of 105.1m
GVC Holdings posted record trading figures for the second successive quarter after Q2 net gaming revenues (NGR) rose 11% year-on-year to 54.8m on the back of a very successful World Cup.
GVC dubbed the tournament a “resounding success” as H1 revenues hit an all-time high of 105.1m – up 45% on the same period in 2013.
Sports betting continued to be a central driver of growth for GVC with Q2 sports wagers up 7% year-on-year to 354m and H1 sports wagers up 38% to 693m when compared to the corresponding period last year.
Sports betting margin reached 9.84% for the quarter, slightly down on the 10.01% recorded in Q2, resulting in an overall H1 sports betting margin of 9.92%. The company said it had benefitted from a number of “favourable” results during the knockout phase of the competition.
But the three-month period to 30 June also saw a strong performance from its gaming division, with the vertical once again outperforming sports betting after having been overtaken for the first time during Q1.
Average gaming NGR per day during Q2 reached 305,000, up 14% year-on-year and marginally ahead of average daily sports betting NGR of 297,000, up 8%.
The company also reported the number of first time depositors (FTD) in Q2 had risen by 21% sequentially to 81,000 while an additional 11,000 FTDs were recorded between 1 July and 13 July as the World Cup drew to a close.
Speaking to eGaming Review this morning Kenneth Alexander (pictured), GVC chief executive, partly attributed the growth to an increase in marketing of its Betboo and Sportingbet brands in Latin America around the World Cup.
“We did some TV campaigns in Latin America and the number of new players we secured from that region was significantly higher than we have experienced in the past “ although we saw growth from all of our territories,” Alexander said.
“The World Cup could not have gone better in terms of the volumes we’ve managed to generate, the margins we’ve made during the World Cup and the number of new customers we’ve managed to recruit, which is obviously a good sign for future growth in the business,” he added.
The company also said trading for the first 13 days of Q3 “ up to and including the World Cup final “ continued to be strong with average daily NGR of 736,000 and a sports betting margin of 11.6%.
GVC’s share price rose by 2.5p to 455p in early morning trading.