Two of the biggest gambling companies in the world are about to share how they’ve been doing financially, especially after some major sports events, including the NFL Super Bowl, that played out in favor of bettors.
Entain is set to release its full-year financial results on Thursday (March 6), while Flutter Entertainment will announce its earnings on Tuesday (March 4). Entain, which owns big names like Ladbrokes and Coral, is expected to report underlying earnings of about £1.1 billion ($1.4 billion) before tax, interest, and other costs.
This means the company is on track to hit earnings at the higher end of what analysts were expecting. In January, they reassured investors that they could handle those “customer-friendly” sports results in the US, and it looks like they may have hit their targets.
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NFL excitement could affect Flutter and Entain’s earning results
Big sports events like NFL games and the Super Bowl, which Nielsen estimates pulled in around 128 million viewers, get a huge amount of betting action, with people wagering not just on the winners but also on all sorts of game details.
Flutter pointed out that the current 2024/25 NFL season (which runs from September 5, 2024, to January 5, 2025) has had the highest rate of favorites winning in nearly 20 years.
Since favorites attract more bets, that means more payouts to punters, which cuts into the bookmakers’ revenue and profit.
As a result, Flutter warned that NFL results from November and December would take a chunk out of their full-year US profits, roughly by a third. Following this, their shares dropped 3% in after-hours trading in the US, which also hit Entain, causing their shares to slip 1.7% to 685.8p.
Because of this, Flutter now expects its 2024 US revenue to be around $5.78 billion at the midpoint, down from the previous estimate of $6.15 billion. Adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation) is also taking a hit, projected to be about $205 million lower than earlier guidance, landing at around $505 million at the midpoint.
Meanwhile, Entain is back on the hunt for a new CEO after Gavin Isaacs stepped down after less than five months. Leadership has been rocky, with the previous boss resigning in 2023 amid shareholder frustration. Isaacs’ exit wasn’t about strategy or performance but was reportedly due to cultural differences in management.
That said, BetMGM, which is jointly owned by Entain and MGM Resorts International, announced in February that it raked in a massive $2.1 billion in net revenue for 2024.
Featured image: Canva
