H1 Financial Gains
888 Holdings, the parent company behind the 888casino, poker, and sports brands, announced £881.6 million of revenue from H1 2023. This represents a 165% increase on H1 2022 and is their highest increase since pre-Covid.
The gross profit from this revenue stands at £590 million, more than double the gross profit they recorded in the same period the previous year.
Post Covid Recovery
It is the first time the company has seen revenue surpass the 800 million mark since before the pandemic. In H1 2019, they recorded a revenue of £811 million, which this year’s figures have beaten. However, the H1 periods in 2020, 2021, and 2022 were well below this level at £379.1 million, £528.4 million, and £332.1 million, respectively.
Since they announced their figures from H1 2022, the company has taken several large steps, including the purchase of the international bookmaker William Hill. In June 2022, shareholders agreed to the procurement of the William Hill brand for an acquisition fee of £1.95 billion. This provided 888 Holdings the opportunity to make their first foray into retail betting. The purchase saw them acquire over 1,400 physical brick-and-mortar betting shops across the UK.
Crunching The Numbers
Breaking down the £881.6 million earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) reveals they took £615.3m of revenue from the UK and Irish markets. That is a 208% increase from the same market during the same period last year. The figure comprises £279.4 million from their newly acquired retail outlets and £335.9 million from UK bettors playing online. International revenue was £266.3 million. The company also found that its net debt levels dropped by around £70 million from £1.73 billion to £1.66 billion.
On the release of the figures, Executive Chair of 888, Lord Mendelsohn, said that he was glad the progress that has been made in the first half of the year proved fruitful in completing plans made at the investor day in 2022.
Using an adjusted EBITDA model, the company is reporting a figure of £155.6 million - a rise of 9% from last year. The figures from previous years show that this is just one part of yearly steady increases. In H1 2020, their adjusted EBITDA was £70.1 million, this increased to £97.4 million the following year, and last year in H1 2022, the adjusted EBITDA figure was £142.5 million. However, without an adjusted EBITDA and looking at the company’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation, it reveals they made £155.6 million this year and only £50 million last year.
So, what does all of this mean for profit? They have reported an adjusted profit before tax of £11.8m, a sharp decline of 63% on last year when their adjusted profit before tax was £31.9 million. None of these figures live up to the figures from H1 2020 and 2021, when they made an adjusted profit before tax of £50.4 million and £75.2 million, respectively.
