GVC enjoys growth acceleration from World Cup

GVC Holdings, the online gaming group that acquired bookmaker Ladbrokes in March, got a not-unsurprising boost from the World Cup in recent weeks that helped growth accelerate in the third quarter.

Helped by growth speeding to 11% in the second quarter from 7% in the first, group net gaming revenue grew 8% in the first half.

FTSE 100-listed GVC said the FIFA World Cup as a whole has been a "good one", providing a better than expected gross win margin, and both higher volumes and value of new customer deposits.

Online NGR grew 22% in the latest quarter, having grown at a fairly strong 15% in the period leading up to the Russian tournament, and so for the six months to 30 June online NGR was up 18% on the same period last year. Online brands benefited from the ongoing pipeline of new products and a continued marketing campaign.

UK retail sales, the Ladbrokes and Coral businesses brought over with March's £3.2bn takeover, perked up to 2% on a like-for-like basis in the second quarter, but were still down 3% for the first half as a whole.

"UK retail trends improved in the second quarter as the weather proved less disruptive than in the first quarter, while growth in European retail remained very strong, albeit helped by a soft comparative," GVC said in a statement ahead of the release of its interim results on 13 September.

Chief executive Kenneth Alexander added that the integration of the Ladbrokes Coral business was continuing. "The strong momentum across the online business has continued and means we are well placed to deliver against our full year expectations."