By Chandini Monnappa and Shanima A
(Reuters) -Entain raised a key annual revenue forecast on Thursday, encouraged by punters cashing in on high-profile football events in Europe in the second quarter, which boost shares in the British gambling group by more than 11%.
The owner of Ladbrokes, Coral and Partypoker said it now expected a low single-digit positive growth in online net gaming revenue (NGR), up from a previous forecast of low single-digit negative growth for the full year, boosted by bets on the Euro 2024 Cup, European Champions League and the upcoming English Premier League.
Core profit is likely to be about 1,040 million pounds-1,090 million pounds ($1.32-$1.38 billion), it added.
Shares of the company rose as much as 11.1% to 581.4 pence in the morning trade.
Entain enjoyed a boom during the pandemic, as punters working from home with more time on their hands placed bets. However, increased competition and regulatory changes in key markets have posed a challenge to the firm, which last month named Gavin Isaacs as its new CEO after the abrupt departure of Jette Nygaard-Andersen.
Entain has been focusing on the booming U.S.
market, where its joint venture with MGM resorts, BetMGM, faces formidable competition from rivals Flutter-owned FanDuel and Boston-based DraftKings.
“The U.S market is fast growing, we’ve addressed some product gaps and with the NFL season kicking off soon, we expect to see stronger performance from the region,” CFO Rob Wood said.
Entain’s upbeat tone contrasts with BetMGM, which last month warned that its losses for the year would be bigger than previously expected. Entain said the group’s total net gaming revenue was up 6% at 2.56 billion pounds in the six months ended June 30.
($1 = 0.7872 pounds)
(Reporting by Shanima A and Chandini Monnappa in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich and Miral Fahmy)
