Wild Wild Rage

How to play Wild Wild Rage

Entain’s removal from the FTSE 100 is a telling sign of what has happened to gambling stocks across both Europe and the US in recent years. The company’s shares have fallen sharply over the past year, even as its first-half results showed continued growth in several important markets.

In the six months to June, Entain’s online net gaming revenue rose 7% in constant currency. Revenue in Britain and Ireland increased 13%, while the company maintained its full-year guidance for online net gaming revenue growth of 5% to 7%. So why is its stock price still so under pressure?

One answer is that the industry is no longer being valued primarily on the promise of endless growth. The market instead wants to see profit, cash generation and manageable regulation maintained across all facets of a listed business. Ed Birkin, managing director of H2 Gambling Capital, says the longer-term decline in gambling stocks runs much deeper than just changes to earnings forecasts.

How to play Wild Wild Rage

The federal government says a California tribe opened a short-lived casino despite repeated warnings that its legal authority to operate was under review.

On Friday, a Department of Justice attorney told a federal judge that the Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians knew the Interior Department could reverse an earlier determination that its Vallejo land was eligible for gaming.

Despite those warnings, the tribe opened its “Preview Casino” on July 24, offering Class II gaming out of modular structures.

About Wild Wild Rage

The current teams have five and eight people, but Grenstad believes they could eventually become much smaller.

“In my dream, it would be two- or three-person teams,” he says.

Developers can also move between rapid-response and longer-term projects depending on their interests and where they can contribute most effectively.