Rank Group back to winning ways in its fiscal H1 21/22  

Rank Group has announced a return to profitability in its H1 21/22 financial report thanks largely to the return of its Grosvenor, Mecca and Enracha venues following the lifting of a number of Covid-19 restrictions.

Group underlying net gaming revenue (NGR) was up 90% year-on-year (YoY) from £175.9m to £333.5m based predominantly on retail venues reopening.

Online NGR rose 7% from £85.9m to £92.1m following the migration of Mecca to its Stride Gaming platform.

Retail NGR, however, was the big winner with an increase of 168% from £90m YoY to £241.4m as customers flocked back to venues up and down Britain.

Rank pointed to the fact that the substantial increase may well have been even higher had Scotland and Wales not returned to a Covid-19 Plan B scenario during Q2 of the period due to the Omicron variant of the virus.

Rank Group CEO John O’Reilly said: “Grosvenor has demonstrated high customer demand in the absence on Covid-19 restrictions.

“Mecca has been harder hit, as caution among our older customer cohort has impacted visit numbers, particularly with the rising Omicron case numbers in the run up to Christmas.”

On the digital side of the business, O’Reilly was optimistic for the future, suggesting that the migration of meccabingo.com could well be replicated by that of Grosvenor, leading to a more streamlined business model.

“We expect to complete the migration of Grosvenor in the summer which will free up considerable development capability to enable much greater agility and speed in the delivery of products, services and enhanced digital customer experiences as well as delivering valuable cost synergies.

“I am pleased with the return of stronger customer numbers and revenue growth across our digital brands.”

The operator’s shares were up 3.6% on the London Stock Exchange at the time of writing.