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Investing.com -- Entain (LON:ENT) shares rose on Tuesday after BetMGM raised its full-year earnings guidance for the second time in July, citing stronger-than-expected performance across online sports betting and iGaming in the first half of 2025.
The joint venture between Entain and MGM Resorts (NYSE:MGM) now expects at least $150 million in EBITDA for the year, up from a previous forecast of at least $100 million.
BetMGM reported $109 million in EBITDA for the first half, surpassing the original full-year target.
Second-quarter net gaming revenue rose 36% year over year to $692 million, exceeding the $680 million consensus.
EBITDA improved by $78 million from a year earlier to $86 million, beating the consensus estimate of $36 million.
Online sports betting revenue increased 56%, supported by a 25% rise in handle. Promotional costs fell from 4% to 3.1% of handle, with total promotional spending down 1%.
Gross gaming revenue margin rose 0.4 percentage points to 9.8%, and net gaming revenue margin increased 1.3 percentage points to 6.6%.
For iGaming, revenue grew 29% year over year. In the first half, active players rose 38%, and active player days increased 34%.
In sports betting, handle per active user was up 34%, player days rose 14%, and bets per active player rose 24%.
Market share remained unchanged at 22% in iGaming and 8% in online sports betting across active states.
Full-year net gaming revenue guidance was raised to at least $2.7 billion, up from the prior projection of at least $2.6 billion.
Jefferies estimated $2.61 billion, while Visible Alpha consensus stood at $2.67 billion. Entain, which holds a 50% stake in BetMGM, is scheduled to report second-quarter earnings on Aug. 12.
“We see the upgrade as a reflection of underlying product performance improvements rather than sports margin-led, with lower promotional spend required. We anticipate a mid-single digit upgrade to Entain EPS,” said analysts at Jefferies in a note.