The Entain (LSE: ENT) share price spiked sharply upward in September in response to a takeover bid from US sports betting company DraftKings. That excitement subsided fairly quickly, but the shares have still gained more than 90% over the past 12 months.
The gaming company released a Q3 trading update Tuesday, headlined “23rd consecutive quarter of double-digit online growth.” Net gaming revenue (NGR) rose 6% at constant currency, and 4% at actual exchange rates. The company says that was “against a period of high growth in the prior year.” So that would make it more impressive than it might first appear.
Excluding Germany, Entain saw NGR increase by 18% at constant currency. And the company told us: “All major markets (excluding Germany) delivered a strong performance, particularly in Australia and Brazil.”
There was no further mention of Germany in the latest update. But looking back to first-half results, Entain told us the country’s “new regulatory regime is impacting the market“.
Regulatory issues are always going to be a concern in this business. But overall, there appears to be minimal impact on overall performance at this stage. Online gaming offerings certainly look fine, with online NGR up 10% (in constant currency) in the quarter.
Entain reiterates upbeat guidance
On the outlook front, Entain has reiterated its upbeat stance. The company expects full-year EBITDA within the range of £850m to £900m. There’s no change there from the firm’s guidance at the interim stage.
The market reacted coolly to this update on Tuesday morning. At the time of writing, the Entain share price is down 0.5%, pretty much bang on the FTSE 100‘s drop on the day.
