British bookmaker Entain has today reported a 12% rise in annual adjusted core profit and said it was comfortable with market expectations for 2025, sending its shares up nearly 7% in early trading.
The owner of the Ladbrokes and Coral brands said its adjusted core earnings rose to £1.09 billion at constant currency, helped by earlier-than-expected recovery in its UK and Ireland business and rapid growth in gaming revenue in key markets like Brazil.
"The group has started the year strongly, with the momentum seen during 2024 continuing into 2025," the company said in a statement, adding that operational impacts of earlier regulatory changes in some of its markets were behind it.
Entain's shares rose as much as 6.6% before cutting gains to trade up 3.6% today.
Analysts in a company-provided consensus expect core profit of £1.11 billion for 2025.
Entain, whose CEO departed suddenly last month, has had to contend with tightening regulations in Brazil, Belgium, and the Netherlands over the past year, which it said led to an impairment charge of £476.4m in 2024.
Still, it is banking on strength in the nascent US market, where its joint venture with MGM Resorts is expected to turn a profit this year and deliver revenue of between $2.4 billion to $2.5 billion.
Earlier this week, rival Flutter Entertainment, the world's largest online betting company and the owner of Paddy Power, forecast 34% growth in annual core profit powered by a gambling boom in the US market.
"We're very focussed on BetMGM," deputy CEO Rob Wood told Reuters, adding that there was still scope to expand to US states such as Texas and California in the future.
