UK Gambling PLCs to publish 2020 results amid UK Budget announcement

Added: March 2, 2021

The United Kingdom’s “big three” PLCs will be announcing their respective end-of-year results for 2020, which was quite an unstable year for all companies.

Flutter Entertainment will be the first to do so, as it will be publishing its 2020 results on finances, with a lot of attention from City and Wall Street who are keeping up with the company’s progress in the United States. Despite the fact that the sudden COVID-19 pandemic meant that the company was unable to enjoy its first year of its merger with The Stars Group Inc, the group’s share price is still standing strong and looking pretty good, as it was up 70% during 2020 trading.

Flutter can achieve some great results for 2020 as it reduced issues bought on by the UK retail scene with its promising growth in the US market. Now, the FTS100 company will be keeping its ‘Tesla type share price trajectory’.

On Wednesday during lunchtime, Chancellor Rishi Sunak will be announcing the United Kingdom’s Budget for 2021. The Gambling PLC results will also be published around that time.

Moreover, the HM Treasury’s tax plan is now the center of attention since the UK government is coming to terms with the fact that it was pushing a £300 billion deficit, which is 10 times more than the £30 billion economic relief measures that Chancellor Sunak declared in 2020’s budget.

Even though the party was opposed to this, Sunak did state that he was ready to increase corporate taxes for the time being so that they can make sure the country’s emergency services have the suitable funding in order to bring out the UK vaccination programme.

HM Treasury strategists are facing some difficult decisions as they drafted a ‘unique charge’ and brought forward a ‘digital sales tax’ on all the companies that had ‘cashed-in during the pandemic’. This also included Amazon, who witnessed a massive 51% rise in online sales within the United Kingdom to £20 billion that were recorded in 2020.

Last week, Michael Dugher, the Chief Executive of the Betting and Gaming (BGC), addressed Sunak saying that the UK’s gambling sector needed ‘a period of stability and certainty’, and the BGC told the Treasury to think twice before imposing any tax increases.

After the budget announcement on Wednesday, William Hill and Entain will be declaring their respective PLC results.

Entain is expected to announce higher revenues and give its investors a moment of peace after having an unexpectedly stormy kick-off to the year. Entain was faced with the departure of former Group CEO Shay Segev in the middle of a takeover battle.

Jette Nygaard-Andersen, Entain’s new CEO, will definitely also have all eyes on her as this will mark her very first public statement in this new position. She is the first woman to take on the role of CEO in FTSE gambling. She will most likely not be met with much politeness considering the deal with MGM went downhill not too long ago.

William Hill will also be making its last announcement as a business in the UK, since it has been working on moving operations to the USA for a while now. The newly-formed Caesars Entertainment took over William Hill towards the end of the year, paying a massive $3.8 billion.

Entain Plc, Flutter Entertainment, William Hill