The leading gaming and entertainment company, The Rank Group Plc, released its latest preliminary results revealing details regarding its performance for the 12 months ended June 30, 2023. The recent financial report emerged Thursday and reveals that while net gaming revenue for the period increased, a decrease in the operating profit was observed.

Overall, Rank posted a group underlying like-for-like (LFL) net gaming revenue (NGR) of £679.7 million ($866.5 million). This result, when compared to the corresponding period for 2021/2022, when NGR halted at £633.2 million ($807.3 million), represented an increase of 7%.

While NGR in 2022/2023 increased based on the preliminary results, Rank’s underlying LFL operating profit marked a decrease. The company revealed that underlying LFL operating profit for the 12 months ended June 30, 2023, halted at £20.3 million ($25.9 million). This result, marked a 52% year-over-year decrease when compared to the £42.5 million ($54.2 million) result from 2021/2022. Although Rank acknowledged that this result marked a decrease when compared to the prior period, it said that the latest figure was “in line with the upgraded guidance provided in April 2023.”

The Company Remains Optimistic, despite the Difficult Operating Environment

John O’Reilly, The Rank’s chief executive, acknowledged that despite the challenging environment in the last few years, the company has seen an uptick in the visitation of its Mecca and Grosvenor venues. He said that the figures from the second half of the trading period showed an uptick in business volumes.

O’Reilly spoke about the difficulties high wage inflation, increased energy costs and tightening of regulations brought for the company in the UK. However, he noted that those negative effects of the operating environment are fading away, which leaves Rank optimistic.

“However, energy costs have stabilized, inflation appears to now be easing, customers continue to slowly return to both our Grosvenor and our Mecca venues and we now expect to deliver good levels of revenue and profit growth.“

John O’Reilly, chief executive of The Rank Group Plc

Further details released by Rank reveal that its Digital underlying NGR for the recent trading period hit £202.9 million ($258.6 million), up by 10% when compared to the £183.8 million ($234.3 million) result from the 2021/2022 period.

Similar growth was observed for the company’s Venues underlying NGR. Overall, Rank’s Venues posted £476.8 million ($607.8 million) in underlying LFL NGR this year. Comparing this result year-over-year to the £449.4 million ($572.8 million) reported for the 2021/2022 period shows that this year, an increase of 6% was observed.

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English Premier League (EPL) side Aston Villa FC announced today it has agreed to a three-year partnership with online gambling firm BK8 to make it the club’s new principal and front-of-shirt partner.

Collaborations to Grow Both Brands

Under the terms of the agreement, the logo of the betting and gaming firm will feature on the front of Aston Villa’s three shirts until the end of the 2025/26 season, fitting right into the transitory period EPL clubs gave themselves as part of their voluntary agreement to axe front-of-shirt gambling sponsorships.

“Through this partnership with BK8 we look forward to exciting collaborations together that will help to grow both brands, particularly within Southeast Asia,” said an Aston Villa spokesperson about the deal.

As part of the sponsorship, BK8 committed to making a contribution to a local charity in Birmingham for every adult shirt sold from the club’s third kit, building on the brand’s work with charities and programs aimed at raising mental health awareness over the past two years. The donation is set to become the first in a series of charity initiatives in collaboration with the club.

BK8’s managing director, EMEA, Michael Gatt, explained the rationale behind the initiative, delighted to be in a position to provide support for local charities throughout the partnership with the club.

“Being able to give something back to the supporters for their dedication is a hugely significant part of the reason we want to be involved with a prestigious institution, which is what Aston Villa Football Club are,” he said, highlighting the company’s commitment to supporting local communities of its football partners over the past few years.

Advertising Assets for Charity Messages

Gatt further noted that BK8 would invest in several brand activations over the course of the partnership as a display of their commitment to local charitable initiatives in the city of Birmingham and its surrounding areas and to engage with Villa supporters, as well as give various advertising assets at Villa Park to charity organizations.

Aston Villa has been negotiating with BK8 since the beginning of the year as the club’s current deal with the online car retailer, Cazoo, was set to expire at the end of the season. The club faced strong criticism from its fans after the Aston Villa Fans Consultation Group sent a letter to express its disagreement but decided to ignore the critics and pursue the controversial deal.

BK8 has a history of partnerships with EPL club Crystal Palace, English Football League (EFL) clubs Burnley FC, which has been promoted to the EPL this season, and Huddersfield Town, and a number of Spanish LaLiga clubs, including Villareal CF, Athletic Club Bilbao, Valencia CF, Elche CF, and RCD Mallorca.

The betting brand was involved in a controversy with Norwich City in the summer of 2021 after fans and locals forced the club to scrap the deal with the firm over its use of sexualized adverts online.

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