Banijay Group, formerly known as FL Entertainment and the parent company of Betclic and bet-at-home, has announced a 44% year-on-year (YoY) spike in online sports betting (OSB) and gaming revenue to €1.04bn for the first nine months of 2024.
In Q3 alone that increase was 48.8% YoY, driven by a “sharp increase” of more than 39% in unique active players, according to the firm.
Sportsbook revenue climbed 45.4% YoY to €814m, while online casino, poker and horseracing also posted combined growth of 41% YoY to €226m.
Banijay Gaming’s adjusted EBITDA for the first nine months of 2024 came in at €265.5m, rising from €184.8m for the same period last year, prompting an adjusted EBITDA margin of 25.5%, a slight decline from last year’s 25.7%.
The group noted that 99% of its online sports betting and gaming revenue came from locally regulated markets.
It added that activity for online sportsbook was strongly supported by several major sports events including the Africa Cup of Nations, Euro 2024 and the 2024 Paris Olympics.
There was also a new online platform and mobile app, with the release of the eighth version of the Betclic app in June, which contributed to “outstanding performance in Q3 2024”.
Among the new products was Supersub offering increased live betting and prop bets for the French market during Euro 2024, while a new Wheels game was launched in casino as well as 2,000 games in total available on iOS.
François Riahi, CEO of Banijay Group, said: “Online sports betting and gaming once again outperformed its markets across all activities, driven by a busy calendar of major sporting events and the success of our platform in attracting and retaining more players.”
In the follow-up analyst call, Riahi also addressed the French government’s delayed plan for legalising online casino as it launched a consultation on the topic at the end of October.
He remarked: “It’s not easy to predict or to read because we had several different sources of information, rumours [and] amendments from the government that were rejected by the parliament.
“It’s very difficult to predict what will happen at the end. For the first time, the French government opened a way to authorising online casino with the first meeting that was held yesterday.
“There’s a discussion going on. That’s positive news. We are taking our part in the discussion because we believe it would make a lot of sense to authorise online casino in France as we see the black market developing in France dramatically.
“There’s also a risk, [concerning] the discussions around the tax, which has been very difficult to really assess.
“What I would like to say about that is France is not an easy market because it has the highest level of tax on online sports betting in Europe,” the CEO added.
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