888 Reveals Profits Drop 10% Over Q3

888 are one of the biggest names in the entire gambling industry, with multiple brands being owned under the 888 Holdings umbrella.

William Hill, Mr Green, and many of their 888 brands, including 888sport, 888poker, and 888casino, form part of their portfolio. In fact, the group is also the second-largest in terms of subsidiary companies, with Entain being the only one to have a larger collection.

However, while the company is one of the major players in the UK Gaming and Betting industry, they have recently revealed that their profits have slumped over the same period in comparison to last year.

The company announced in their figures that they had managed to generate a profit revenue of £449.4 million in 2022 for the third quarter, but this time around, they had only generated £405 million; a 10% decrease from 12 months ago.

The decline in profit has been cited for a mixture of reasons, with new and stricter gambling laws in place and sporting events such as football results going more in favour of those betting said to have been highlighted.

The decline was also experienced across their online operations, with the UK & Ireland market reporting a 10% decrease. It dropped down to £157.2 million, with the new and tougher regulations said to have been the major reason. The UK Government had released a white paper in April 2023 that introduced these new regulations, while 888 had also decided to cut back and tone down their marketing strategies.

Physical betting shops going against the grain

While online betting has revolutionized the entire industry and has led to the belief that traditional betting shops could face extinction in the future, there were some interesting results reported.

It was revealed that betting shops had managed to increase their revenues by 1% over Q3 as they were up at £125.6 million. It was announced that the boost had been achieved through the boost of additional investment that was obtained. However, this was still hit by the losses that were occurred because of the favourable sports results that were experienced over the last four months.

Challenging times for the new Chief Executive

Having been installed into the role of chief executive on Monday 16 October, Per Widerstrom may find that he has a challenge on his hands to get the profits back up to the levels that the 888 Holdings Group previously had.

He had praised the work that had already been done given the regulatory challenges that had been faced across the year but admitted that there were several areas in which the business could improve and will be focusing on to unlock its full potential and maximise the company’s bottom line in ways that they have managed to achieve in the past.

Perhaps they will need the results of football to go in their favour a lot more in Q4 than they did in the previous quarter if they are to accomplish that particular objective.