13th Jan 2025 08:51
(Alliance News) - Shares in Entain PLC climbed on Monday after it forecast top-end group earnings, and reiterated guidance at its US joint venture BetMGM despite "customer friendly" US sports results.
The Isle of Man-based bookmaker said loss before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation is expected to be around USD250 million at BetMGM for financial 2024.
BetMGM is a sports betting and iGaming operator across North America, jointly owned by Entain and MGM Resorts International.
Entain said customer friendly US sports results were seen during the fourth quarter, particularly in October and December.
The group, which owns Ladbrokes and Coral, expects group Ebitda to be "at the top" of the GBP1.04 billion to GBP1.09 billion guidance range.
In October, Entain said it expected Ebitda to be "towards" the top of the same range.
In the year to December 2023, Entain reported Ebitda of GBP1.01 billion.
"We expect a positive share price reaction to this update given a slight upgrade to [financial 2024] group Ebitda guidance, a reiteration of BetMGM losses despite very customer friendly results....and recent share price weakness," analysts at Citi commented.
Shares in Entain shot up 5.0% to 655.56 pence each in London on Monday. It was the best performing stock in the FTSE 100 which is down 0.3%.
Further details on trading performance and outlook for 2025 will be provided by BetMGM and Entain on February 4 and March 6 respectively, the company said.
Last Wednesday, industry peer Flutter Entertainment warned that customer-friendly sports results across November and December had hit its full-year US revenue forecast.
The New York-based owner of Betfair and Paddy Power said it expects US revenue for 2024 to be around USD5.78 billion, lowered from the previous USD6.05 billion to USD6.25 billion guidance range.
"The 2024/2025 NFL season to date has been the most customer-friendly since the launch of online sports betting, with the highest rate of favourites winning in nearly 20 years," Flutter explained.
By Jeremy Cutler, Alliance News reporter
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