Entain said the third quarter was “less brilliant than expected”, while the FTSE100 gambling group reaffirms its EBITDA guidance for the full year 2023 of €1 billion to €1,05 billion pounds.
Citing mixed results across all businesses, the group set out its action plan to “accelerate operational strategy and performance”, including a comprehensive market review, simplification of group structures and operations and the migration of assets acquired on its technology platform.
Leadership noted that online gaming net revenues were “mixed across the group, but overall more modest than expected,” with online net revenue growth expected to rise in the low single digits, but decline in the low single digits. on a pro forma basis.
The group listed several factors that impacted the performance of the quarter, including unfavorable sporting results impacting September sporting margins, the implementation of safer gaming measures and continued regulatory hurdles, particularly in the United Kingdom Kingdom, as well as slow progress in Australia and Italy.
Entain also highlighted “good underlying online growth” following strong pro forma growth in active customers across the country, as well as solid returns from recent acquisitions, including SuperSport in Croatia, and solid retail performance.
US joint venture BetMGM continues to achieve high targets and operations are expected to produce positive EBITDA in the second half of the year. FY23 NGR is expected to be at the high end of guidance of $1,8 billion to $42 billion, following the successful introduction of Single Account, Single Wallet and online sports betting enhancements to NFL season kickoff support.
As a result, Entain expects a double-digit online group NGR increase for FY23, with a single-digit pro forma NGR decline, and reiterates that FY23 EBITDA will be between 1 and 1,05, XNUMX billion pounds.
Jette Nygaard-Andersen, CEO of Entain, commented: “We continue to see good underlying growth in our online business and reiterate our EBITDA forecast for the current year, despite lower than expected revenue growth in the third quarter and the ongoing implementation of industry-leading gambling security measures. We continue to attract more customers than ever to enjoy our products and services. BetMGM remains on track to deliver positive second-half EBITDA and full-year NGR performance at the high end of our expectations, and we are particularly excited about the product enhancements we are introducing during the NFL season.”
Entain has revealed an action plan that will be implemented “to accelerate performance and results”, in which leadership will undertake a comprehensive review of the market “focusing on long-term sustainable organic growth”. Other directives will consider simplifying the group's structures and operations "to improve operating leverage and reduce costs", planning the migration of acquired businesses to its technology platform, optimizing capital allocation priorities and achieving of the 30% online EBITDA margin target. Further details on Entain's action plan will be provided during the group's full third quarter results on 2 November.
Nygaard-Andersen added: “We have made significant changes to the group over the last three years. We are now focused on accelerating the actions we are taking to drive sustainable organic growth, expand our margins, capitalize on the U.S. opportunity and deliver long-term returns to our shareholders. We remain confident in our ability to capture the vast opportunities ahead and look forward to sharing more details about the changes we are making with our third quarter business update in November.”
