GVC Reports Healthy Q1 Revenues

Gaming giant GVC announced its first quarter results for 2019 showing an increased overall gambling revenues up by 8%, the owner of brands such as Ladbrokes, Gala Coral, PartyPoker and Foxy Bingo among many others also reported a 17% rise in online gaming revenues.

The only not surprising news is that the companies retail business in the UK stayed flat, however with the onset of the new Fixed Odds Betting Terminals (FOBTs) reduction in stakes bet the company expects revenues to fall in the retail business further in the year.

Chief executive Kenneth Alexander said: “This trading update reflects a continuation of the strong trends reported on 5 March 2019, and represents an excellent start to the year. We continue to see good volume growth across all major online brands and territories and we remain very confident of achieving our target of double-digit online NGR growth.

“The impact of soft gross win margins in Italy and the UK was offset by improved margins in other territories, demonstrating the benefit of both geographic and product diversification across the group.

“In UK retail and European retail, improved sports wagering growth helped offset softer sports gross win margins. New B2 machines stakes restrictions were implemented in the UK on 1 April 2019 and we expect it to be several weeks before we can start to assess the impact. At this early stage of the year, the board is confident of delivering EBITDA and operating profit in-line with expectations.”