Gala Coral present robust first quarter results

Gala Coral Group is hailing strong online and multichannel growth in its latest quarterly performance while bemoaning the impact of adverse football results.

Key performance highlights for the sixteen week period ending January 17, 2015 include:

Total Group Opco EBITDA GBP 6.8 million or 11 percent ahead of last year
Gross profit of GBP 267.4 million was GBP 12.3 million or 5 percent ahead of last year primarily driven by Online.
Online EBITDA 19 percent ahead (53 percent ahead pre Point of Consumption tax) with Coral.co.uk stakes 74 percent ahead, Galabingo.com stakes 34 percent ahead and Eurobet.it sports stakes 44 percent ahead.
Volume growth in Eurobet Retail (sports stakes +22 percent) offset by weak sports margins
Gala Retail EBITDA 66 percent ahead – driven by the bingo duty benefit and 4 percent increase in spend-per- head

“The Group has continued to leverage the investments it has made in its key drivers of growth: Online, Multichannel and Italy, delivering an increase in EBITDA of GBP 6.8 million or 11% percent compared to the same quarter last year,” commented Carl Leaver, chief executive officer for Gala Coral Group. “This was despite some very poor football margins in both the UK and Italy.

Online key performance highlights for the 16 week period ending January 17, 2015 include:

Online EBITDA of GBP 12.9 million was GBP 2.1 million or 19 percent ahead of last year despite adverse football results and the implementation of Point of Consumption (‘PoC’) tax.  Pre-PoC EBITDA growth was GB 5.7 million or 53 percent.
Coral.co.uk showed strong growth in actives 49 percent up and spend-per-head up 17 percent ahead of the same quarter last year.
Mobile now represents 61 percent of sports and gaming stakes, an increase of 13 percent in sports and 11 percent in gaming y-o-y.
Galabingo.com spend-per-head was 33 percent ahead, primarily driven by improvements to the VIP programme.
Mobile represented 45 percent of bingo stakes, an increase of 17pp from the prior year, and
Eurobet.it actives increased 39 percent.  The operation significantly outperformed the market claiming No.2 in Italy’s online sports betting market.

The group reported a strong first six weeks of trading to March 2, 2015 with continued growth in its Online division, however, sports margins it says in Eurobet Retail and Eurobet.it have remained disappointing although volumes remain strong.

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