888 Holdings expands with 888Sport brand

Online gambling and multi-vertical solutions firm 888 Holdings signed three multi-year market access agreements this week to kick off the launch of its 888Sport brand in 2021 in the US states of Colorado, Indiana and Iowa. 

The brand will launch in Colorado under the Colorado Grande Casino license, based in Cripple Creek. It will launch in Iowa under the license of Catfish Bend Casinos II LLC. The Group has signed an agreement with Harrah’s Hoosier Park, which is owned by Caesars Entertainment, to launch 888Sport in Indiana. 

According to 888, these three partnerships represent the latest milestones in its expansion and growth strategy in the developing US online gambling scene and will also tally up the operator’s US market expansion to six states.  

888 Holding’s chief executive officer, Itai Pazner, commented on this recent announcement saying that the group is delighted to sign these agreements with three great partners – the Colorado Grande Casino, Catfish Bend Casino II LLC, and Harrah’s Hoosier Park – that will enable it to bring its first-class online sportsbook to bettors in Colorado, Iowa and Indiana. He also mentioned that the US online betting and gaming market has huge growth potential and that the company will continue to build a strong platform for growth across both our B2B and B2C operations.

888’s senior vice president and head of commercial development, Yaniv Sherman, also added that expanding 888Sport.com into the three states represents another major milestone in the company’s ongoing growth across the regulated US online gaming market. He also mentioned that 888 has already deployed its proprietary technologies in the US and that its exciting pipeline of new products will deliver industry-leading propositions to customers across both its B2B and B2C operations. 

Sherman also went highlight 888’s focus on growth and expansion by saying that the company will continue to appraise strategic partnerships that will provide additional brand-building and market access opportunities for the company across the US market in the near future.

In light of 888’s expansion announcements, the operator also released a trading update highlighting its continued strong operational performance during the second half of the financial year.

In its update, 888 highlighted its performance and said that this reflects the operator’s high levels of customer acquisition levels during 2019 and 2020; the benefit from the consumer’s preference shift to online services; major new product roll-outs; and improved vigilance on safe gambling and consumer safety.  

888’s board expects that the company’s revenue and adjusted EBITDA for the full year will be ahead of its prior forecasts. Company-wide revenue is expected to amount to a 45% increase over last year’s figures. The adjusted EBITDA margin for the company’s second-half operations is expected to be approximately 18.5%, consistent with the margin achieved in the first half of the year.

With the online gambling taking the front seat, many markets have either opened their doors or reregulated existing gambling laws to accommodate and regulate its rising popularity.  The USA is notably opening up more of its states to online gambling while in the EU, Germany has implemented new gaming laws last October. With this in mind, 888’s goals for 2021 remain unchanged, and the Group’s intentions to raise investment levels are still on track.