The owner of William Hill faces a £10m loss from football bets from British punters
‘Customer friendly’ football results contributed to a £17 million hit to William Hill owner Evoke’s earnings in September as punters beat the bookmakers.
Evoke, which also owns the 888 brand, told investors on Friday it had taken a £10m hit from sports betting in Britain and Ireland, contributing to a 13 per cent drop in total gambling revenue in the region in the third quarter of the year. year.
But online revenues in Britain and Ireland were still 3 percent higher thanks to a 12 percent increase in gaming, which includes traditional casino gambling products such as blackjack and poker.
William Hill said ‘customer-friendly’ sports results, especially in football, had cost revenues £17m in September – with a £10m hit from Britain and Ireland
The group’s revenue rose 4 percent at constant exchange rates to £417 million in the three months to September 30, driven by 10 percent growth in gaming, and the group continues to expect growth of 5 to 9 percent for the second half on annual basis. by year.
“Good underlying trends… (were) partly offset by particularly consumer-friendly sports results in September, which impacted group revenues by approximately £17 million,” Evoke said.
Call shares rose 3.8 percent to 59.5 cents, having fallen 35 percent this year after disappointing online revenues led to a profit warning in July.
It comes at a challenging time for the UK’s gambling groups, whose growth momentum faces potential stumbling blocks in the form of potential domestic tax increases, increasing competition in key markets and regulatory pressure.
Earlier this week, rival Entain raised profit expectations for the year after its UK business returned to growth faster than expected.
Evoke’s profits in the most recent quarter were helped by market share gains in the key international markets of Italy, Spain, Denmark and Romania, where sales rose 26 percent.
Overall online sales growth was 8 percent, offsetting a 9 percent decline in physical retail activity.
Evoke said it has “identified and implemented a range of measures” to improve retail in the short term, including the rollout of more than 5,000 new gaming machines from October.
Boss Per Widerström added: ‘We are delivering on our plans to improve trading in the short term, while at the same time radically transforming the Group’s capabilities for the long term.
“We are moving decisively and at a pace necessary for long-term growth, and I look forward to providing further updates on our progress in the coming months.”
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