Betclic and bet-at-home parent company willing to sanction M&A following rebrand
FL Entertainment to be known as Banijay Group with gambling arm packaged up as Banijay Gaming following Q1 results publication
FL Entertainment, the parent company behind Betclic and bet-at-home, has rebranded to Banijay Group and has earmarked further investment for its online gambling division.
The rebrand was announced yesterday, 15 May, to coincide with the group’s Q1 financial report, in which revenue rose 10.6% to €1bn.
Betclic and bet-at-home will now form Banijay Gaming, while the group’s TV production arm will be renamed Banijay Entertainment. A third pillar, Banijay Live, will be home to the group’s live events operations.
Betclic CEO Nicolas Béraud will lead the combined Banijay Gaming division, management confirmed.
Banijay Gaming revenue rose 31.9% year on year to €321.5m from Q1 2023’s return of €243.8m.
Breaking revenue down by vertical, sports betting returned €246.8m while casino operations amounted to €51.2m. Poker (€18.9m) and horseracing (€4.6m) accounted for the remainder of gambling revenue.
Speaking on an analyst call following the publication of the results, Banijay Group CEO François Riahi said he was committed to further driving the gambling arm of the business with investment, if the right circumstances aligned.
The CEO was pushed on whether more capital was set to be allocated to the division, and if M&A was on the table.
In response, Riahi said: “We would be ready to allocate more capital to sports betting and online gaming if we find the right opportunity to create value.
“We have a great IT system, we have a great team and we have a great business. We could leverage it in new geographies if we find targets that can really rely on our system and that could create cost synergies.
“We would not do M&A just for the sake of M&A, but we could allocate capital if we find the right opportunity to unlock value. The IT platform for Betclic is very scalable. We can add new geographies quite easily,” he added.
Looking ahead to the remainder of 2024, Banijay Group has also upgraded its organic adjusted EBITDA growth to the low teens from high-single digits.
Riahi noted that the improved guidance was supported by expected gains in the gambling arm ahead of Euro 2024 and the Paris Olympics this summer.