Ladbrokes owner GVC Goldings has reported a 12% increase in net gaming revenue for the three months to September 30. Shares in the firm rose almost 5% after news of the strong Q3 performance broke. It led the company to raise earnings expectations for the year by £50 million. Ebitda for the full year is now expected to be in the range of £770 million to £790 million. London-listed GVC also owns Bwin, Coral, Sportingbet and Eurobet, while it has a joint venture with MGM in the United States. Online net gaming revenue increased 26% during the quarter, as the firm hailed the return of Premier League football. “This has been another strong period for GVC,” said chief executive Shay Segev. “We have delivered our nineteenth consecutive quarter of double-digit online growth, along with market share gains in all our major territories. The momentum that we are seeing across the group is a clear testament to the resilience of our highly diversified business model, the attractiveness of our brands and products, the power of our proprietary technology platform, and the hard work and dedication of our teams around the world.”
888 Holdings has reported a 37% year-on-year increase in revenue for the six months to June 30. The firm held H1 revenue of $379.1 million, up from $277.3 million in the first six months of 2019. The only form of online gambling offered by 888 that did not see an increase in revenue was sports betting, which had a 1% decline. That can be attributed to the Covid-19 pandemic, which stopped play for several months earlier this year. Online casino revenues were up 48% to $260 million, and even the struggling 888 Bingo increased 8%. 888 Poker made the largest gains, with deposits up 104% on the same period last year. “888 has performed very well throughout the first half of 2020 with robust year-on-year growth,” said chief executive Itai Pazner. This outcome reflects the group’s continued strong levels of customer acquisition, general consumer trends towards increased use of online services, especially during the Covid-19 lockdown period, and 888’s relentless focus on product leadership.”
A Betfred customer denied a £1.7 million prize due to a “software glitch” will take the bookmaker to the High Court next week. Andrew Green thought his money worries were finally over when he landed the big jackpot on the Frankie Dettori’s Magic 7 game in 2018. However, Betfred said there had been a glitch in the software and refused to pay out. Green, a single parent with two daughters, has spent the past two years battling to receive payment, and he claims he has never been shown any evidence to confirm the software problem. The High Court will hear the case on Thursday. “They have no reason not to pay me in my opinion. If there was a glitch, that's between Betfred and the software provider,” he said. “When I won, Betfred congratulated me on being a millionaire and they did so for five days. They led me to think I was one, even advising me to open a number of bank accounts to spread my winnings across with it being such a vast amount. Then after five days I got a phone call out of the blue, saying there had been a software glitch which caused the £1.7million payout and so they would not be paying me.” He added: “By the weekend, if things go in my favour, I’ll be a millionaire.”
Paddy Power has mocked Man Utd executive vice chairman Ed Woodward over his struggles to attract high-quality players to the club during the transfer window. The Red Devils mounted an unsuccessful pursuit of Borussia Dortmund wunderkind Jadon Sancho throughout the summer, and then indulged in a spot of deadline day panic buying after losing 6-1 to Tottenham. Paddy Power rented an empty shop in Manchester city centre and named it “Woodward’s” with the strapline: “The Window Shopping Connoisseurs”. There are mannequins of the players that Man Utd missed out on in the shop window: Sancho, Gareth Bale, Erling Håland, Paulo Dybala, Jack Grealish, James Maddison and Thiago Alcântara. A sign next to Sancho reads: “Shipping from Dortmund. Auction deadline passed. Please stop calling.” The shop also invites customers to visit a sister store called “Ed’s panic buys” for “more last-minute purchases”. A spokesman for Paddy Power said: “When it comes to transfers, Ed Woodward is the ultimate window shopper. We wanted to celebrate his penchant for looking at high-end purchases, before instead throwing money at an ageing attacker that could have been signed much earlier. No doubt the store will be ‘busy’ again come January.”
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