Entain has reiterated its FY24 EBITDA guidance for the overall group and the BetMGM brand despite recent customer-friendly sports results globally and in the US market.
In its Q3 trading update in October last year, Entain stated that group EBITDA was expected to be near the top of its guidance range of £1.04bn to £1.09bn, a range published in the company’s H1 results in August.
Entain noted that following operator-friendly sports results during Q4, group EBITDA is still expected to be at the top of the guidance range.
Meanwhile, BetMGM’s H1 24 update in July reported that, in line with 2024 being an investment year, H2’s EBITDA was expected to be similar to the -$123m EBITDA reported in H1.
“Despite the customer-friendly US sports results seen during Q4, particularly in October and December, BetMGM reiterates its previous FY24 EBITDA guidance of approximately -$250m,” the company reported.
Entain will be publishing its full trading performance and outlook for 2025 for both the overall group and the BetMGM brand over the next two months, with a BetMGM update scheduled for 4 February, while Entain’s FY24 Results are slated for 6 March.
Customer-friendly sporting results seem to be taking their toll on several operators.
Alongside Entain, Flutter Entertainment announced last week that US sports customer-friendly results had created an estimated adverse gross gaming revenue impact of $438m, with estimated reductions in revenue and adjusted EBITDA of approximately $390m and approximately $260m respectively, for the period 12 November to 31 December.
The company noted that the current NFL season “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’s 2024 US revenue is estimated to be approximately $370m lower than its previous guidance midpoint at around $5.78bn (previously $6.05bn to $6.25bn).
After incremental one-off cost mitigation, the company’s US adjusted EBITDA is expected to be around $205m lower than the previous guidance midpoint at approximately $505m (previously $670m to $750m). Flutter is scheduled to publish its Q4 earnings and formal guidance for 2025 on 4 March.
Given that two of the world’s biggest gambling companies have highlighted customer-friendly sporting results way before their scheduled Q4/FY24 reporting dates, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the topic be a common trend amongst all operators in the upcoming financial reports.
