Rank Group full-year digital revenues up 11%
Grosvenor Casinos' online revenues soar 37% YoY but Bede platform migration hits Mecca's performance
Rank Group reported an 11% rise in full-year online revenues this morning with strong growth from Grosvenor Casinos offsetting Mecca Bingo’s “disappointing digital performance”.
Grosvenor’s digital revenues rose 36.8% year-on-year to £30.5m for the 12 months ending 30 June 2016, growth Rank attributed to migration to the Bede Gaming platform earlier this year.
Revenues for Mecca Bingo’s online arm reported a small increase from £65.2m to £66.2m in 2015-16 but operating profit slumped from £14.1m to £8.6m.
Rank said the bingo brand suffered from stability issues from the new Bede Gaming platform from March to June and the impact of introducing social responsibility tools previously seen at rivals Gala Coral and William Hill.
However, the Group claimed it was taking actions across product, people and marketing to address the slump in Mecca Bingo’s online performance.
“I am pleased to report a solid set of results with Group revenue up 2%, again recording like-for-like growth across all brands and channels in the year,” Henry Birch, chief executive of The Rank Group said.
“This year we have focussed on delivering significant projects to ensure we have the right platform in place for future growth. This included the migration of our digital business onto a new platform, the rollout of an improved retail casino management system and investments into new generation machines in both our casino and bingo venues.”
“At the same time we have delivered a substantial increase in the dividend to our shareholders.”
“Rank remains in a strong financial position, possesses market-leading brands and has a clear strategy for long-term growth. The board continues to look to the future with confidence.”
The Group’s overall revenues for the period increased marginally by 2% to £753m, while Group operating profit before exceptional items dropped by 2% to £82.4m.
Grosvenor, which Rank announced today had lost its managing director Mark Jones in June, reported a 4% increase in overall revenues for the full-year, while Mecca’s revenues increased 2%.
Rank’s share price was up 2.75% on the London Stock Exchange at the time of writing.