CasinoBeats is breaking down the numbers behind some of the industry’s biggest stories. Our latest headline reflection features financial results from the likes of Super Group, Penn Entertainment and Entain, as well as strike action impacting Evolution’s Georgian operations.
£2.56bn
Revealing its financial performance for H1 2024, Entain’s net gaming revenue came in at £2.56bn, an increase that caused the firm to update its full-year NGR guidance.
The company noted that the results “reflect underlying Q2 outperformance and stronger than expected win margins for Euros”. NGR for the period came in at £2.56bn, up 6% year-over-year (H1 2023: £2.4bn), 8% in constant currency and 0% in constant currency on a proforma basis.
Revenue improved by 6% YoY and 8% in constant currency to £2.52bn (2023: £2.38bn). Excluding US, total group NGR rose by 6% YoY, 8% in constant currency and 0% in constant currency on a proforma basis.
Online NGR improved by 9% YoY, 11% in constant currency and 1% in constant currency on a proforma basis, while active customers rose by 13% proforma. Retail NGR grew by 1% YoY but fell by 4% in constant currency on a proforma basis.
Entain’s gross profit rose by 5% YoY to £1.53bn (2023: £1.46bn), while its contribution grew by 6% to £1.19bn (2023: £1.13bn) and its operating costs declined by 7% to minus £670.4m (2023: minus £626.8m).
Group underlying EBITDA improved by 5% YoY to £523.8m (2023: £499.4m) while underlying operating profit fell by 6% to £287.9m (2023: £307.4m). Online EBITDA rose by 9% to £445m, while retail EBITDA fell by 11% to £140m.
CEO and Chair Designate Stella David commented: ”Entain’s H1 results are clear evidence that our hard work improving the Group’s operational performance is bearing fruit.
“Whilst there is more work to do, we are pleased with the progress so far and look forward to building further on these solid foundations in H2 and beyond.”
Updating its full-year guidance, Entain expects “low single-digit positive proforma growth in Online NGR (from low single-digit negative)” while group EBITDA is expected to be in the range of £1.04bn and £1.09bn.
2,000
Strike actions continued at Evolution’s live casino studio in Tbilisi, Georgia, as 2,000 workers took action after the supplier threatened employees with lay-offs last week.
As a result of increased strike action, Evolution stated via Facebook that it will be “forced to make operational adjustments” if the situation remains unchanged, suggesting that it could turn to “larger-scale layoffs,” reducing its presence in Georgia.
The igaming supplier described the ongoing situation as “highly regrettable” due to having spent six years investing in its Georgian operations and the many working employees that will be impacted by the company’s decisions.
Amidst a number of live streams depicting the strikes, as well as confrontations with working Evolution staff, Evo-Union also took to Facebook to allege that “disinformation” had been spread by the company.
The post referred to statements from Evolution claiming that the supplier had offered employees a 30-50% pay increase to settle the strike action, declaring that “the information provided is not true and serves to contradict employees”.
Around 2,000 workers reportedly did not show up to work as a sign of solidarity following Evolution’s announcement.
12.4%
Light & Wonder has lauded a Q2 revenue boost of 12.4% to $471m, boosted by “strong momentum” from the firm’s gaming offering.
Consecutive periods of growth for the firm’s gaming output was secured by a myriad of key releases, including the success of its Squid Games launch.
It marks the acceleration of an upward trajectory for the group as it celebrates a 13th straight quarter of year-on-year consolidated revenue growth.
Updating investors, Light & Wonder President and CEO Matt Wilson underlined that the success of the firm is evident when it comes to sales of its units across North America as it looks to continue to expand its “robust portfolio”.
Furthermore, the igaming efforts of the firm were bolstered by the group’s significant success in North America, as it saw a 6% annual increase to $74m.
$1.66bn
Publishing its Q2 results for 2024, PENN declared a slight revenue drop year-over-year to $1.66bn (Q2 2023: $1.67bn).
The operator also reported a net loss of $27.1m (2023: $78.1m net income), an adjusted EBITDA of $212.1m (2023: $330.4m) and an adjusted EBITDAR of $367m (2023: $476.8m).
Gaming revenue at the end of the quarter stood at $1.33bn (2023: $1.29bn) while food, beverage, hotel and other revenue came in at $330.7m (2023: $382m).
PENN diagnosed its retail business as “healthy” with revenues of $1.4bn and while its Interactive business was described as benefiting from operational improvements, revenue was down YoY to $232.6m (2023: $257.5m).
Retail operations – Northeast, South, West and Midwest – had an adjusted EBITDAR of $496.6m with margins of 34.8%. Meanwhile, Interactive’s record quarterly gaming revenue of $232.6m included tax gross of $82.1m, while adjusted EBITDA came in at a loss of $102.8m (2023: $12.8m loss).
Jay Snowden, CEO and President, stated: “Our retail properties delivered solid results this quarter as our best-in-class team of operators continues to execute across our diverse portfolio of market-leading assets.
“In our Interactive segment, top-of-funnel growth, improved risk and trading execution and refined promotional strategies contributed to better-than-expected revenue and adjusted EBITDA results.”
9%
Super Group declared revenue of €414.7m for Q2 2024, an all-time quarterly record as well as a 9% increase year-over-year (Q2 2023: €380.8m).
The company stated that the quarter’s performance was “driven by growth from the Africa and North America (predominantly Canada) markets partially offset by declines from the Middle East and Asia-Pacific markets”.
Per region, Africa and Middle East revenue stood at €153.6m for the quarter (2023: €110.3m), followed by North America at €150.1m (2023: €137.1m), Europe at €65.5m (2023: €57.1m), Asia-Pacific at €37m (2023: €69.1m) and South/Latin America at €8.5m (2023: €7.1m).
Per product line, online casino operations revenue stood at €323.2m (2023: €272.4m), sports betting revenue came in at €84.3m (2023: €94.2m), brand licensing revenue was €5.3m (2023: €8.3m) and other revenue was €2m (2023: €5.8m).
Splitting up revenue per brand, Betway operations generated €246.3m (2023: €228.9m) while Spin operations produced €168.5m (2023: €151.9m). Monthly active customers rose by 21% YoY in Q2 to 4.5 million (2023: 3.7 million).
CEO Neal Menashe commented: “The second quarter of 2024 was our strongest quarter ever and demonstrates the exceptional progress we continue to make as a business. I’m glad we have reached a conclusion in shutting the US sports betting market and we continue more generally to optimise our global footprint both in terms of geography and product.”
