Good digital performance a feature of Coral Q3 results

Gala Coral Group Limited released its Q3 results for the twelve weeks ended 4 July 2015 on Thursday, the first since its merger with Ladbrokes and covering Coral Retail, Eurobet Retail and Online, but not Gala Retail.

The digital operations section of the report includes:

* Online EBITDA 28 percent up on the comparative period last year at GBP 17.1 million. Adjusting FY14 for the impact of Point of Consumption tax (- GBP 6.2 million) and the World Cup (- GBP 1.6 million), EBITDA was GBP 11.5 million or 202 percent ahead;

* Coral.co.uk net revenue was 69 percent ahead of last year or 81 percent ahead excluding the World Cup. New customer acquisition rates remain very strong with competitive offers and multi-channel driving acquisition rates 19 percent ahead of last year;

* Coral.co.uk sports net revenue was 102 percent ahead of last year (149 percent ahead excluding the World Cup) with spend-per-head 54 percent up, driven by an improved product offering. Sports margin was 1.7pp ahead of last year with UK horse racing results ahead of expectations. Bet-in-Play now represents 53 percent of sports stakes (excluding horseracing), an increase of 5.2pp over the previous year. Mobile now accounts for 68 percent of Coral.co.uk sports stakes with mobile stakes 80 percent ahead of the prior year (62 percent excluding the World Cup);

* Coral.co.uk gaming net revenue was 52 percent ahead of last year, with mobile representing 65 percent of gaming stakes (mobile gaming stakes up 83 percent);

* Galabingo.com net revenue was 23 percent ahead, helped by the launch of additional exclusive content and higher actives, which increased by 13 percent due to effective retention and reactivation programmes. Mobile now accounts for 51 percent of stakes with mobile stakes 71 percent ahead of the prior year;

* Galacasino.com actives were 94 percent ahead of last year following a high level of promotional activity. However, a number of large winners left margin 0.4pp lower than last year and net gaming revenue GBP 900,000 or 25 percent behind. Mobile now accounts for 57 percent of stakes with mobile stakes 20 percent ahead of the prior year;

* Eurobet.it actives were 10 percent ahead of last year’s World Cup quarter, with over half of new depositors in the quarter recruited through the shop estate. Sports stakes were 60 percent ahead, but gross win margin was 3.9pp behind last year’s particularly strong level. Gaming net revenue was in-line with last year with an increase in casino games net revenue (up 32 percent) offset by market-led declines in poker and virtual racing.

http://www.galacoral.co.uk/financial-centre/results-centre/2015