Ladbrokes owner Entain forecasts Euro bets to hit £250m, with more betting on Italy
Ladbrokes owner Entain has put the number of bets placed on the entire Euro tournament to total some £250m, across all its markets.
For this Sunday alone, however, which will see England play Italy, Entain expects the final to rake in around £17.5m in bets.
Currently, there are around £1m bets riding on an England win and £1.4m on Italy.
The Euros will be the biggest ever sports event for Entain as a global operator, as it will bring in more bets than it took for the 2018 World Cup, the sports-betting and gaming group said.
Group head of football at Entain, Paul Milward, said: “England started as joint-favourites with France to win the Euros but customers favoured the World Cup winners pre-tournament.
“Once the Euros kicked off, Italy became very popular due to their form in the group stage. However, after last night’s win, England are now favourites, with the odds shortening to a more even bet as England fans pile in with bets on their team to win.”
Shares slid 0.7 per cent in its afternoon trading, losing its morning gains and taking its total share price to 1,794.50.
Lockdown gaming boom
The sports betting and gaming group benefited from the lockdown gaming boom, which has seen its total gaming revenue lift 11 per cent, with gamers seemingly keeping up the hobby.
The group saw re-opened store volumes rise to just 10 per cent lower than pre-pandemic levels in the six months from 1 January to 30 June.
Entain, which has a 21 per cent market share in sports betting and iGaming in the US, was hit by retail closures during the UK’s three national lockdowns.
However, the group has said that there have been ‘encouraging early trends’ in retail as restrictions eased in phases during the second quarter of this year.
“Our platform provides us with a significant opportunity to align our business better with our customers and increasingly deliver a wider breadth of exciting products, content and experiences as the worlds of media, entertainment and gaming converge,” CEO Jette Nygaard-Anderson said.
In its whole year projections for 2021, Entain said it expected its Ebitda to be in the range of £850m to £900m.