FL Entertainment completes Banijay rebrand after Q1 growth

Betclic Everest Group owner FL Entertainment has completed its rebrand to Banijay Group and also published its results for Q1, revealing its gaming division drove revenue up year-on-year.

The Banijay name is not a new concept for the group. In May 2022, Betclic announced it was to go public with television production business Banijay to create FL Entertainment.

Switching to the Banijay brand, the group says, reflects ambitions to be the European leader in the global entertainment space. 

Banijay Group will comprise: Banijay Entertainment, its content production and distribution business formerly known as Banijay; Banijay Live, previously Banijay Events; and Banijay Gaming, regrouping its online sports betting and gaming activities.

Betclic and Bet-at-home will retain the brands and operate without change. Bet-at-home published its Q1 results separately yesterday (15 May).

From a financial reporting perspective, Banijay will continue to report across two segments. These comprise content production and distribution, covering Banijay Entertainment and Banijay Live, and online sports betting and gaming with Banijay Gaming. 

“This strategic rebranding reflects the complementary nature of our existing activities and underlines our ambition as an integrated and diversified Entertainment leader,” Banijay CEO François Riahi said.

“Banijay Group gathers an incredible amount of talent, committed to create passion, emotion and to conceive entertaining experiences for the general public globally.”

Gaming drives growth at Banijay in Q1

Alongside the rebrand, the group has reported its first quarterly results under the Banijay name. For Q1, group revenue was 11.2% higher at €1.00bn (£858.7m/$1.09bn).

Setting out its results, the business immediately highlights the impact of the Banijay Gaming division. Here, revenue jumped 31.9% year-on-year to €321.5m.

Within this segment, sportsbook revenue rose by 25.5% to €246.8m. Online casino revenue was also up 67.0% to €51.2m, poker 24.5% to €18.9m and turf 45.3% to €4.6m. This, Banijay said, was due to a continued execution of the group’s strategy, focused on user experience.

Average monthly unique active players increased 24.0%, despite Q1 2023 benefiting from the Fifa World Cup at the end of 2022.

In terms of geographical performance, Banijay said it continued to reinforce its positions in its core markets and moved into new territories. It notes Ivory Coast as a particular success, saying during the football Africa Cup of Nations in January and February, the Betclic app was downloaded 127,000 times.

Linking in with this, Banijay says 99% of all gaming and betting revenue came from locally regulated markets in March 2024.

As for the Banijay Entertainment and Banijay Live businesses, these together generated €679.7m in revenue in Q1, up 3.5%.

Adjusted net profit edges up to €73.4m

Looking at the group as a whole, costs were higher across several areas. The main outgoing was external expenses, which increased 15.8% to €566.3m.

After also accounting for finance costs, pre-tax profit was €32.6m, a rise of 73.0%. Banijay paid €13.9m in tax, meaning a net profit of €18.7m, up 122.3% year-on-year.

However, in terms of adjusted net profit, this was only 4.5% higher at €73.4m. This figure was adjusted to account for certain factors such as restructuring costs and other financial costs. 

As for adjusted EBITDA, this climbed 13.3% year-on-year to €163.7m.

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