Rank Group Q1 trading update reports 12% increase year-on-year

United-Kingdom based gambling company Rank Group has reported a 12 percent year-over-year increase in its total net gaming revenue (NGR), reaching £197.5 million in the first quarter ended 30 September 2024. This growth has been attributed to digital and venue operations.

Digital vs physical

The company’s digital NGR in the Q1 trading update of 2024-2025 was up 15 percent while the venue NGR rose by 10 percent. Rank witnessed the most growth in the digital side of its business, which remained consistent across both its UK and Spanish operations, both up 15 percent.

Rank saw revenues from Grosvenor venues posting a s like-for-like 13 percent rise in the quarter, which was mainly driven by a two percent increase in visitor numbers and an 11 percent rise in spend per visit. London and the rest of the UK witnessed the improvement, with better-than-expected margins bolstering performance. A more modest growth of four percent NGR increase to £34.7 million was witnessed in the Mecca Bingo land-based segment, mainly attributable to a five percent increase in spend per visit. Whereas the digital brands fared better with the NGR for the two key UK digital brands, Grosvenor and Mecca, up 21 percent and 23 percent, respectively. However, the visitors were comparatively less drawn to the venues this year, with the volumes falling by one percent earlier in the quarter. The number of visitors were likely impacted by the summer weather and England’s run in the Euros. Visitor volumes picked up towards the end of the quarter following a period of slower trading in July.

CEO comments

Rank CEO John O’Reilly said. “We have continued to build on the momentum that we have generated over the past year and a half, and I am very pleased with our start to this financial year.” “With all business units performing well, the double-digit growth in our Grosvenor venues and UK digital business is particularly encouraging, with customers clearly enjoying the improvements we are making across our land-based estate and to our digital offering. “Rank is now a stronger and more sustainable business, and we are looking forward to the land-based legislative reforms coming to fruition in 2025.” Rank Group had entered into a partnership with Spinomenal earlier this month. The partnership would see the group integrating new gaming content through the Light & Wonder OpenGaming platform. Earlier this year, the company had a similar expansion in the Netherlands.

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