SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
The Governance of FTSE100 GVC Holdings has this morning published its pre-close full-year 2018 trading statement, detailing that it anticipates delivering an FY EBITDA in the range of £750-755m – ‘ahead of current market consensus’.
Completing a landmark year for its business, having merged and integrated the assets of Ladbrokes Coral, GVC governance points to strong growth across its enlarged digital portfolio – up 19% on full-year NGR.
The betting group highlights continued digital progress, despite competing against tougher comparatives, with governance further detailing that GVC brands record market share gains across core operational territories.
“Growth remained impressive across all major territories with legacy GVC sports brands NGR 21% ahead and legacy Ladbrokes Coral sports brands NGR 9% ahead, including 12% NGR growth in the UK sports brands,” GVC detailed in its performance update.
At a retail level, GVC anticipates that like-for-like full-year NGR will be delivered at -3% below 2017 results, as the FTSE betting group adjusts to a tougher UK retail environment for bookmakers.
Updating the market GVC Group Chief Executive Kenneth Alexander (CEO) said: “The Group’s performance in 2018 has been excellent with the strong momentum reported at Q3 continuing into Q4. We are materially outperforming the market and taking share in all of our major territories.
“As the Group carries this momentum forward into the new year and starts to deliver the opportunities provided by both the Ladbrokes Coral integration and our sports-betting joint-venture in the US with MGM Resorts, the Board is confident that the Group is very well placed for a successful 2019.”
GVC governance intends to release its preliminary full-year 2018 results on 5 March 2019.
