Ep 61: Interims come into play for H1

By
Anaya Mcdonald
-

Hollywood may be in the midst of an actors and writers’ strike. Yet, for those seeking drama and intrigue, SBC recommends tuning into Gambling companies upcoming interim results, published this summer.

H1 trading has seen European gambling publicly limited companies navigate the toughest of regulatory adjustments across multiple markets amid a backdrop of business conflicts impacting investor relations and future options.

Pressure mounts on the leadership of European PLCs to deliver blockbuster results satisfying investors’ expectations… Failure could well see a change in cast and direction for Europe’s giants.

Today’s iGaming Daily, sponsored by SBC Summit Barcelona, sees the return of Tedward, as host James Ross is joined by Edward Menmuir and Ted Orme-Claye to look ahead to H1 results.

SBC Americas Editor Jessica Welman also joins the podcast with her report from the National Council of Legislators from Gaming State’s summer meeting in Denver.

Menmuir began the discussion by explaining the contents and significance of the recent H1 results.

“It’s basically the return of gambling to a post-Covid normalised trading environment, and how gambling PLC’s in Europe are adjusting to regulatory updates across Europe,” Menmuir stated.

“In terms of significance it’s the pressure that’s being applied by the investors on the gambling PLC’s to perform to get particular outcomes by the end of the year, whether that be the valuation of the companies and where they stand in their respective markets and there’s a lot at stake, and there’s a lot of pressure on leadership to get there.”

Orme-Claye gave an insight into what we could expect from Kindred and Betsson’s H1 results.

“Betsson have already released some preliminary results showing that they’ve been doing quite well,” Orme-Claye mentioned. “The preliminary results have shown that they’re getting some positive impact across their European trading. I think they’ve been making swim roads in the US lately as I think they might be going down the B2B route there, perhaps competing with some of the big B2C giants so things are looking quite positive for them.

“On the other hand Kindred who despite having some decent results and in their last earnings call 2022 results were an improvement on 2021 but not catching up to 2019. We have also seen very highly publicised leadership changes in their organisation. They are coming up against a couple of regulatory hurdles in the sounding market of the nordics, and all this is ultimately obviously again quite highly publicised, and has led to talks of potential merger or sale of the company. So, very contrasting stories regarding the two leading audit companies of Betsson and Kindred.”

Menmuir added to the discussion highlighting what potential Investors might be looking at.

“When we look at the Nordic companies they’re always the early ones for performance of the European plc’s, they always announce their interests earlier than the UK or other countries gambling firms and again it’s what to look at,” Menmuir stated.

“Kindred results haven’t matched up to 2019 however I think in Kindred it’s gonna be what are the investors looking at in their numbers, what is indicating that the company’s having a turnaround, and with Kindred It’ll go down to their exposure in the Nordic markets, and then highly regulated jurisdictions such as Holland, Belgium and the UK, how are they performing, can they catch up to the 2019 conditions. I think that’s what the investors are going to be focusing on.”

Menmuir mentions who he thinks needs a blockbuster first quarter with their H1 results. “888 are definitely the ones to look out for, they’re definitely the ones causing the narratives in these interim results.”

“I couldn’t agree more with what Edward said,” added Orme-Claye. “I think 888 is probably the big one with regards to who really needs a blockbuster due to the uncertainty surrounding them.”

“Entain as well of course. If they record a very positive H1 then that’ll soothe a lot of shareholder concerns and get a lot of confidence around them.”

The group then wrapped up the podcast by discussing what else should the listeners be looking out for on the SBC News page with the next H1 results.

“You’ve got Lottomatica in Italy that made their debut on the exchange not too long ago, and they’ve been making some good progress establishing a strong position in the market,” mentioned Orme-Claye. “You’ve also got FDJ who have been making a lot of inroads on their B2B side of things internationally, and potentially SuperGroup.”

Jessica Welman joined the podcast from Denver giving her report from the National Council of Legislators from Game and States conference (NCLGS), adding what she experienced last week in the mile high city.

Welman attended the event and reported live for SBC Americas, including the keynotes from Tipico and the NFL’s David Highhill. During her report she mentioned bumping into ‘Swifties’ as the event was on at the same time as the Taylor Swift concert. TS fans can look out for some puns.

To read more on the topics discussed in today’s podcast, click on the following links: