Ladbrokes owner Entain strengthens earnings as it bets on online growth
Coral and Ladbrokes owner Entain has announced stronger yearly earnings as millions of punters bet on the NFL Super Bowl and online gaming picked up the pace in the UK.
The business, which is one of the world's largest sports betting and gaming groups, has been steering a turnaround of its financial performance.
On Thursday it said it generated underlying earnings, before tax, interest and other costs, of £1.1 billion in 2024, up 12% on the previous year.
This was partly driven by online net gaming revenues – the amount of money in the company pockets after paying out winnings to punters – edging higher over the year, and surging by a fifth over the last three months of 2024, compared with 2023.
It is expecting online net gaming revenues to grow over 2025, with trading getting off to a good start already this year.
British horse race the Grand National was the biggest event for the group in terms of the number of bets placed, with the UK its largest online market.
But the NFL Super Bowl in the US came in second, with more than two million bets placed on the even, which drew hundreds of millions of viewers around the world.
Entain said it previously lost customers as a result of changes it had to make to align with major changes to UK gambling laws to protect vulnerable customers, introduced in 2023.
Chief financial officer Rob Wood said: 'We were grappling with changes in regulation with things like affordability measures.
'Our approach to regulation was tighter controls for customer play, and as a result we were losing customers to things like competition. We've now cycled through that and underlying growth is coming through.'
The level of spending per customer on sports and gaming started to grow year on year over the final quarter.
Entain, which also owns gaming brands including Foxy Bingo, Gala and PartyCasino, has been working to strengthen its finances after being hit with a £585 million penalty in 2023, agreed with HM Revenue and Customs, to settle charges related to alleged bribery offences in Turkey.
The business has also faced turbulence at the top of the ranks, announcing the immediate departure of chief executive Gavin Isaacs in February after less than five months in the role.
Mr Wood said the decision for him to step down was 'taken together', adding: 'Sometimes, in business, things don't work out and that's as simple as it was with Gavin for both sides.'
Chairwoman Stella David has stepped in to lead the business on a temporary basis, having already led on an interim basis before Mr Isaacs was appointed.
Meanwhile, Mr Wood said the company was more 'recession-resilient' than other sectors, as betting tends to be less influenced by wider economic trends and how much money people have in their pockets.
He said attracting more women to sports betting and gaming was an area of opportunity for the group, particularly as interest in women's sports like football grows.
Shares in Entain were up about 4% on Thursday.
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