Stride Gaming share price rises as online bingo group hits the jackpot and profits forecast to rise nearly two-thirds
Online bingo group Stride Gaming's stock shot up more than 12 per cent this morning on news that the company's full-year profits will be above expectations and rise by almost two-thirds.
Stride Gaming is anticipating a full house for the year ended 31 August, with net gaming revenue up 69 per cent to "not less than £47m" – far ahead of the £27.8m in revenues the group posted last year.
The Aim-listed gambling operator also expects earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) to grow by 64 per cent to £12.3m or more – notwithstanding that last year Stride was only affected by the new point of consumption tax for nine of 12 months.
Read more: Stride Gaming to raise £10m in market float
Stride said this was driven by "particularly strong" organic growth from its existing businesses.
The news drove its shares to trade 12.5 per cent higher this morning to 272.9p.
In the first half of this year Stride's revenues grew 21 per cent to £21.6m and the company declared its maiden dividend of 1.1p per share.
At the end of last month, the group scored a hat-trick acquisition when it completed the takeover of smaller rivals Tarco Assets, Netboost Media and 8Ball Games for £70.2m.
Read more: Don't bet on online gambling taking over anytime soon
The acquisitions increased Stride's share of the online bingo landscape from two per cent to 25 per cent based on the number of bingo sites.
Chief executive Eitan Boyd said:
We are delighted with the organic growth from our underlying business which remains robust. This, coupled with the completion of our recent acquisitions, means we have significant scale, increased market share and are now the fourth largest online bingo operator in the UK.
With these positive development in mind the company looks forward to the future with confidence.