Women's Euros and Club World Cup boost Ladbrokes owner Entain's profit forecast

By Yamini Kalia

(Reuters) -British gambling firm Entain forecast its annual core profit outlook above market expectations on Tuesday, driven by strong online betting momentum of the Women's Euros and the inaugural Club World Cup tournament.

"We're seeing a rise in interest in female sports," Entain CFO Rob Wood told Reuters, adding that the recent Women's Euros, where the British soccer team scored a historic win against world champions Spain, was the most bet-on women's Euros ever.

Entain saw record engagement during the Club World Cup final - the year's most bet-on football match - and the 2025 French Open, its most bet-on Grand Slam ever.

Entain's net gaming revenue in the UK and Ireland, its largest market, came ahead of expectations with a 9% growth at constant currency for the six months ended June.

Total net gaming revenue rose 10% at constant currency.

Entain shares rose nearly 3% on Tuesday, before paring gains to fall 0.5% lower by 0806 GMT.

Individual player fandoms have also changed betting behaviour in recent years, Wood said, as more people are betting on player outcomes rather than team outcomes during matches.

"The most popular bets tend to be a combination of who's going to win the match, who's going to score the first goal, or the first touchdown in the NFL," Wood said.

Entain recovered a stronger-than-expected market share across its core regions in the first half of the year, offsetting the tough comparison of last year, which had been boosted by the Euros tournament.

The company raised its annual online net gaming revenue growth to about 7% on a constant-currency basis, from previous expectations of a mid-single-digit percentage growth.

Annual core profit is expected between 1.10 billion and 1.15 billion pounds ($1.48 billion-$1.55 billion), above market expectations of 1.11 billion pounds.

($1 = 0.7440 pounds)

(Reporting by Yamini Kalia and Unnamalai L in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)