Shares in the owner of Ladbrokes and Coral leapt higher yesterday as it sought to reassure investors it has not been upended by the same sort of losing streak as rival Flutter.
In an unscheduled update to the City, Entain said it expects full-year earnings to be at the top of the £1.04billion to £1.09billion range it outlined in October.
The company said its latest guidance came ‘despite customer-friendly’ sports results in the US where its BetMGM tie-up with MGM Resorts International operates.
Although it did not mention Paddy Power and Betfair owner Flutter by name, the statement did pointedly note ‘updated guidance from industry peers’.
Flutter last week flagged a hit to profits after the highest rate of favourites winning NFL American football matches in almost 20 years.
Bookies tend to lose heavily when favourites win because of vast numbers of punters betting on them.
Losing streak: Flutter last week flagged a hit to profits after the highest rate of favourites winning NFL American football matches in almost 20 years
Entain shares fell 10 per cent in the three days after the Flutter update amid fears over how it was faring.
But they jumped 9 per cent in early trading yesterday before closing flat at 624.2p. The stock remains down more than 70 per cent since its 2021 peak, however.
Flutter shares – which are listed in New York and London – rose 2 per cent, or 410p, to 20880p yesterday.
Russ Mould, investment director at broker AJ Bell, said: ‘Entain has dodged a bullet in terms of punters cleaning up on NFL bets over the past few months.
The market had started to worry Entain would suffer the same fate as Flutter in having a dramatic losing streak with US sporting bets, causing the share price to be weak in recent sessions.
‘Entain might have scored the winning goal in recent months, but its share price has more than halved since 2021 which implies something drastic needs to be done to revive its fortunes and win back the market’s favour.
Today’s trading update is a good start, but the market will need more good news rather than a stroke of luck.’
With the pound falling and gilt yields rising once again, the FTSE 100 slid 0.3 per cent, or 24.3 points, to 8224.19 and the FTSE 250 inched down 0.1 per cent, or 15.57 points, to 19718.37.
The surge in the price of crude lifted oil stocks. BP gained 1.4 per cent, or 6.1p, to 431.2p and Shell rose 1.5 per cent, or 38p, to 2663p.
But it did little for the airlines with British Airways owner IAG down 3.6 per cent, or 11.3p, to 304.6p and Easyjet off by 2.7 per cent, or 13.6p, to 494.2p.
Engine maker Rolls-Royce was also caught in the sell-off – down 2.2 per cent, or 12.6p, to 567.4p – even as analysts at Berenberg raised their price target on the stock to 630p from 550p.
Shares in British biotech firm Oxford Nanopore Technologies jumped 8.9 per cent, or 11.7p, to 142.7p after it said revenues look set to have jumped to £183million in 2024 from £169.7million in 2023.
Serco shares slipped 1.5 per cent, or 2.2p, to 147.7p after the government outsourcer said boss Mark Irwin was retiring after 12 years at the company to be replaced by Anthony Kirby, who heads the group’s UK and Europe division.
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