Rank Group has gone against the grain of the rest of the UK’s publicly-listed gambling contingent after reporting significant growth in FY2025/26.
The London-listed business, which operates the Grosvenor, Mecca and Enracha brands, saw group underlying like-for-like net gaming revenue increase 6% year-on-year from £788.4m to £834.1m for the financial year.
Perhaps more pertinently, underlying EBITDA increased 15% to £138.3m (FY 2024/25: £119.9m), while underlying operating profit soared 21% from £64.8m to £78.6m.
Strong start to the Harris tenure
The results see new Chief Executive Officer, Richard Harris, kick off his reign as permanent boss on a positive note.
Harris had been serving as Rank Group’s Interim CEO since the beginning of February this year following John O’Reilly’s retirement and took up the role on a permanent basis last month.
Despite a promising performance in FY2025/26 and a statement set of first-time results as permanent boss, Harris was fairly critical of the gambling landscape in Rank Group’s home market, the UK.
“Tax proposals from anti-gambling campaigners continue to cast clouds over a regulated industry that is proud to support jobs across the country, deliver great hospitality experiences to millions of customers and Rank paid over £225m in taxes and duties last year,” he said.
“Tax increases for clubs like ours, with high levels of supervision and operating on tight margins, will swiftly lead to lower tax receipts as much-loved bingo halls and casinos will be forced to close, impacting customers in local communities.
“The government has supported bingo clubs like ours in recent years and any tax increase would have a material impact on commercial viability.”
Rank Group reiterated that it expects to deliver at least £100m in underlying profit in the medium term, though leadership did reiterate that “digital profitability will inevitably step down in 2026/27” despite the “decisive mitigating actions” taken.
Grosvenor delivers for Rank Group
By brand, Grosvenor venues continued to bring home the bulk of the revenue for Rank Group. LFL net gaming revenue (NGR) rose 5% YoY to £397.3m.
In London, the company made £123.6m while the rest of the UK saw NGR of £273.7m. Underlying LFL operating profit increased 11% to £35.5m.
With sports betting now available in all Grosvenor casinos, the firm launched a dedicated sports lounge in Leicester and sports viewing facilities were launched in Reading South to increase appetite.
Rank Group’s Mecca venues saw vast improvements as, while LFL NGR rose just 4% to 143m, underlying LFL profit surged 107% from £4.3m to £8.9m as the company benefited from the abolition of UK bingo duty in Q4.
It expects continuous growth for Mecca going forward, with an estimated £6.4m profit in FY 2026/27 despite closing nine “commercially unviable venues” this financial year.
Rank Group’s Spanish Enracha venues experienced LFL NGR growth of 7% to £45.3m, driven by strong live bingo and gaming machine performances.
It reached record underlying profit, which rose 8% to £12m.
Harris added: “We have once again successfully delivered good revenue growth and strong underlying profit growth, during a year of significant change.
“Customer feedback continues to guide the propositional improvements that we are making across the business.
“They continue to respond well to our targeted investments, product improvements, and our approach to delivering high quality experiences.”
Looking ahead to 2026/27
Despite the positives, Rank Group’s statutory reporting operating profit was dragged by a few different costs, dropping by 7% to £55.7m.
These costs included a £6.5m loss from a payment fraud incident in Spain, a £5m Gambling Commission charge in the UK, and costs relating to closures and restructuring.
The business affirmed that it has made a positive start to the new financial year though, with NGR up by 8%.
It plans to focus on high-productivity assets and improve its use of technology going forward.
Net debt now stands at £147.2m, and Rank Group completed a full debt refinancing in June 2026.
It replaced its existing £120m facility with a new four-year £120m revolving credit facility (RCF) on “improved commercial terms”. As of 30 June 2026, the RCF had £30m drawn, providing £90m in undrawn liquidity headroom.
Harris concluded on a positive note, saying: “Across the group, the efforts and commitment of my colleagues continues to inspire, and I look forward to working with them as we evolve our strategy that is focused on providing excitement and entertainment to our customers.
“With this in mind, I am confident we will deliver further improvement in financial outcomes and strong shareholder returns.”
Rank Group’s shares have passed the £1 mark again on the back of the news, increasing by 2.88% to over £1.02 at the time of writing.
