Women's Euros And Club World Cup Boost Ladbrokes Owner Entain's.
CFO says Women's Euros and Club World Cup increase online betting
Entain raises annual online net gaming profits development projection
Annual core earnings projection goes beyond market expectations
By Yamini Kalia
Aug 12 (Reuters) -
British gambling firm Entain forecast its yearly core revenue outlook above market expectations on Tuesday, driven by strong online wagering momentum of the Women's Euros and the inaugural Club World Cup tournament.
"We're seeing an increase in interest in female sports," Entain CFO Rob Wood told Reuters, including that the current
Women's Euros
, where the British soccer group scored a historical win against world champs Spain, was the most bet-on ladies's Euros ever.
Entain saw record engagement during the Club World Cup
- the year's most bet-on football match - and the 2025 French Open, its most bet-on Grand Slam ever.
Entain's net gaming profits in the UK and Ireland, its largest market, came ahead of expectations with a 9% development at consistent currency for the 6 months ended June.
Total net gaming income rose 10% at continuous currency.
Entain shares rose nearly 3% on Tuesday, before paring gains to fall 0.5% lower by 0806 GMT.
Individual player fandoms have also changed betting behaviour recently, Wood stated, as more individuals are banking on player outcomes rather than team results during matches.
"The most popular bets tend to be a combination of who's going to win the match, who's going to score the very first objective, or the very first goal in the NFL," Wood stated.
Entain recovered a stronger-than-expected market share throughout its core areas in the first half of the year, balancing out the of in 2015, which had been boosted by the Euros tournament.
The business raised its annual online net gaming revenue development to about 7% on a constant-currency basis, from previous expectations of a mid-single-digit percentage development.
Annual core revenue is expected between 1.10 billion and 1.15 billion pounds ($1.48 billion-$1.55 billion), above market expectations of 1.11 billion pounds.
($1 = 0.7440 pounds) (Reporting by Yamini Kalia and Unnamalai L in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)