Shares in Grosvenor casino and Mecca Bingo operator Rank Group (RNK) are up 60% year to date compared with a 5% advance in the FTSE 250 index.

The stock has been buoyed by strong trading through the first nine months of the firm’s financial year to the end of June, and the highly-anticipated land-based reforms coming into effect in the summer.

A third-quarter trading update (10 April) revealed group like-for-like net gaming revenue growing 11% with the digital channel up 15.4% and venues chipping in with 9.1% like-for-likes, ahead of Shore Capital analyst Greg Johnson’s forecast run-rate.

Meanwhile, new rules designed to level the playing field between online and land-based gambling are being introduced this month, which will allow Rank to add 1,360 new machines to its Grosvenor estate in the near term and ultimately 3,112 in total, double the size of its current offering.

In addition, sports betting will be permitted in all casinos with Rank planning to introduce various sports betting concepts in a number of Grosvenor venues.

Chief executive John Riley commented: ‘We have a detailed roadmap of investments which we will now accelerate as we begin to roll out these reforms over the coming months.’

Shore’s Johnson believes delivery of Rank’s medium-term targets for Grosvenor casinos would be ‘materially’ earnings-accretive.

‹ Previous2025-07-03Next ›