Entain, the gambling giant behind Ladbrokes and Coral, has raised its profit forecasts after a boost from the men’s football World Cup.
The firm, which also runs the bwin and Partypoker online brands, said it had witnessed “record” customer numbers over the final quarter of 2022 as a result.
The group hailed the “successful” World Cup tournament but highlighted that this was slightly offset by disruption to sports fixtures from cold weather and heavy winds.
Total net gaming revenues increased by 11% in the quarter to December 31, compared with a year earlier.
Entain said earnings before interest and tax for 2022 were “ahead of expectations” and are now due to be within a range of between £985 million and £995 million for the year.
The company had previously predicted earnings between £925 million and £975 million.
Online net gaming revenues were up 12% year on year; however, the group reported that full-year figures were down 1% as it was hit by regulatory changes in the UK and Germany.
Net gaming revenues across retail stores were up 66% for the year, as it benefited from the easing of pandemic restrictions.
Chief executive Jette Nygaard-Andersen said: “2022 has been another year of strong financial, operational and strategic progress for Entain.
“We have continued to grow our revenues in a sustainable and diversified way by expanding our global footprint, broadening our customer appeal, entering new areas of entertainment, and providing a safe environment for our customers.
“All of this has led to a record number of active customers in Q4, as well as a full-year earnings performance ahead of our previous expectations.
“We have started 2023 with good momentum across the business and remain confident in our ability to continue delivering on our growth and sustainability strategy in the year ahead.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here