SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Grupo CIRSA has strengthened its full-year guidance to an EBITDA range of €680-€710m, as it moves to refresh its South American profile by taking majority ownership of Apuesta Total – Peru’s market-leading bookmaker.
H1 interim accounts show Blackstone-owned CIRSA surpassing the €1bn mark in net revenues.
Trading during the period saw CIRSA’s casino business unit generate a 6% increase in net income to €478m and a 4% increase in sales generated by the Spanish slots business, which reached €208m.
These units were supported by the new CRM strategy for casino customers, alongside CIRSA improving the commercial models of its slot distribution business with Spanish partners.
The growth of casino and slots offset weaker results from its betting business, which generated an H1 net income of €169m (H1 2023: €175m).
CIRSA emphasised that its betting unit will soon be revived by its “70% stake in the Peruvian online sports betting operator Apuesta Total, which is the leading online and sports betting player in Peru and achieved over €100m in Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR) in 2023.”
The majority ownership of Apuesta Total will enable CIRSA to refresh its commercial make-up in South American markets, where Peru currently accounts for 1.8% of the overall contribution to group EBITDA.
Group efficiencies saw CIRSA maintain its target margin of 30%, as year-to-date EBITDA stood at €335m, reflecting an increase of 8% on 2023 YTD comparatives of €309m.
Moving into H2, CIRSA provided a new year-end EBITDA guidance in the range of €680-€710m. The new target leverage ratio for the year-end 2024, including the impact of the Apuesta Total acquisition, is between 3.7x and 3.9x.
A short statement was provided on IPO developments, in which leadership underlined: “This continues to be an option, and its execution, particularly the timing, will depend on market conditions to ensure an optimal valuation of the company.”
Trading throughout the year will continue to focus on reducing CIRSA’s corporate debt, which stands at €2.5bn as of H2 trading.
