The US market and regulation in the UK are set to be the big talking points as two of the giants of the gambling industry unveil their results for the first half of the year this week.
Flutter Entertainment and Entain are expected to reveal increased revenues this week, while their respective performances in the vital US market will come under particular scrutiny.
The City will be looking for growth in the US, especially with operators in the UK facing a tougher environment due to the measures contained in the government’s white paper in April, including the controversial proposals for affordability checks.
Flutter, the parent company of Paddy Power, Sky Bet and Betfair, enjoyed a strong first quarter, with revenues of £608 million across online and retail in the UK and Ireland alone, up 17 per cent year-on-year.
However, the company’s focus has been increasingly trained on the US where it is aiming to have a secondary listing later this year. In the first quarter Flutter’s US arm Fanduel recorded revenue of £908m, which amounted to an increase of 92 per cent on the same period last year.
Analysts at stockbrokers Goodbody are expecting “another strong update” from Flutter on Wednesday, forecasting the company will record group revenue of £4.7 billion for the first half of 2023 and earnings of £798m, up 25 per cent and 35 per cent respectively.
Ladbrokes and Coral owner Entain, which releases its interim results on Thursday, is also one of the major players in the US market through BetMGM, its joint venture with US casino giant MGM.
Entain has already rebuffed one takeover from MGM in 2021 but speculation that they may return with a new offer has never gone away and has heightened in recent months.
It had been predicted that BetMGM would become profitable in the second half of this year, but in an update last month it was revealed the operation had already recorded positive earnings in the second quarter, an update analysts at Goodbody said was “a reminder of the strength of that business”.
Entain itself has been busy making acquisitions with four deals made already this year, although its purchase of Poland-based sports betting operator STS was met with a muted response from the markets.
Goodbody forecast Entain’s group revenue for the first half of the year will be up 11 per cent at £2.3bn, with earnings up seven per cent at £505m.
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