SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Rank Group Plc has reported a strong start to the 2024/2025 financial year, with all business units contributing to growth for the heritage LSE-listed gambling group.
Trading for Q1, covering the period up to 30 September, saw Rank achieve a 13% increase in corporate net gaming revenues (NGR), reaching £198 million. On a per-channel basis, Venue NGR grew by 10%, while Digital grew by 15%.
A breakdown of unit performance showed Grosvenor venues generating Q1 NGR of £95 million, with a 2% increase in visits and an 11% increase in spend per visit.
Investors were informed that: “Grosvenor saw strong underlying improvement in the quarter and also benefitted from better-than-expected margins. Grosvenor’s performance improvement was consistent across both London and the rest of the UK.”
Despite slower trading in July, partly due to sunny weather and the UEFA Euro 2024 championships, Mecca venues maintained a 4% NGR increase to £35 million. This positive result was driven by a 5% increase in customer spend, despite a 1% decline in venue visits.
Rank continues to maintain its online momentum, with its Digital unit growing NGR by 15% to £58 million, as two key UK digital brands, Grosvenor and Mecca, reported Q1 growth of 21% and 23%, respectively.
John O’Reilly, Chief Executive, said: “We have made a strong start to the new financial year and are confident of delivering Group LFL operating profit in line with expectations.”
“With all business units performing well, the double-digit growth in our Grosvenor venues and UK digital business is particularly encouraging, with customers clearly enjoying the improvements we are making across our land-based estate and to our digital offering. Rank is now a stronger and more sustainable business, and we are looking forward to the land-based legislative reforms coming to fruition in 2025.”
“We have continued to build on the momentum that we have generated over the past year and a half, and I am very pleased with our start to this financial year.”
