Today, the Rank Group revealed that it had suffered a particularly hard blow because of the strong impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the hospitality sector. The strict Covid-19 measures, including gambling venue closures, resulted in a 55% decline in the British gambling group’s net gaming revenue (NGR) for the six-month period that ended on December 31st, 2020.
The operator shared that it had a challenging first half of the fiscal year and projected that the end of the lockdown is likely to lead to a recovery of its earnings and revenues. In order to lessen the negative impact of the coronavirus pandemic, the Rank Group said it had taken decisive action to save as much money as possible and protect its balance sheet.
The difficulties faced because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic swung the Rank Group to an operating loss of £52.9 million after declining by 196% from the result it announced for the same period a year ago. As mentioned above, the company’s net gaming revenue suffered a 55% decline from £391.8 million in the first half of 2019/20 to £177.6 million in the six months of its current fiscal year.
Grosvenor and Mecca Businesses Face Considerable NGR Decline
In its latest interim results, the Rank Group said that its venues are still inoperational for the time being and are likely to remain shut for much of the third fiscal quarter and “quite possibly” in the fourth quarter, too.
The company’s gambling venues, including Mecca, Grosvenor and Enracha, which generated 78% of the Rank Group’s revenue in the first six months of the previous fiscal year, have now seen their like-for-like revenues reduced by 70% in the first six months of 2020/2021. The resultant impact has seen the underlying operating profit of the group fall from £57.7 million in H1 of the previous year to a £33.2-million underlying loss in H1 of the current fiscal year.
The Rank Group also revealed the figures for its four core segments of operation. On a like-for-like basis, its digital operations’ NGR marked a slight 1% improvement to £66 million. The other three divisions, however, marked a decline. The Mecca venues’ NGR fell by 56% to £38.8 million, while the Grosvenor venues’ NGR experienced a 78% decline to £43.1 million. The net gaming revenue of the company’s international venues fell by 53% to £9 million in the first six months of the fiscal year.
The Rank Group shared that the additional safer gambling measures and the limited number of customers significantly affected the performance of its Mecca and Grosvenor operations. The revenues generated by higher-spending customers were also considerably lower. Fortunately, the impact of the affordability restrictions was offset by a 10% growth registered in the number of active customers in UK online gambling brands.
- Author
Olivia Cole
