Groupe FDJ has raised its full-year revenue and earnings forecasts, as the operator of the French National Lottery enjoyed a fruitful Q3 spearheaded by strong draw-based games growth.
Publishing its Q3 financial report, FDJ recorded a 12% year-over-year increase in corporate revenues to €592m for the three-month period ending 30 September.
The firm continued to benefit from the full recovery of Française des Jeux (FDJ) retail network post-pandemic, which has bolstered the sales of French National Lottery products.
Sales of draw games increased by 17% YoY to €1.69bn, as customers participated in high EuroMillions jackpot draws above €75m, which occurred several times during the period.
Relaunching popular ‘Cash X10’ and ‘Cash X20’ scratchcard products, FDJ saw instant game sales increase by 7% to €2.3bn.
Lottery sales were further boosted from a fully recovered FDJ point-of-sales (POS) network as unit revenues totalled €478m.
The group’s Parions Sport unit reported ‘stable revenues’ of €97m, results which are compared to peak 2021 comparatives featuring UEFA Euro 2020 trading.
FDJ projects a strong outlook for its sports unit, which recorded a 9% increase in wagers from August to September maintaining a good momentum ahead of this winter’s FIFA Qatar World Cup.
Stéphane Pallez, Group CEO of Groupe FDJ, commented on the performance: “The strong momentum recorded by the Group at the beginning of the year continued into the third quarter. We are particularly pleased with the return of our point-of-sale network to a healthy business dynamic, with quarterly stakes up by 6%.
“Our digital business continues to attract a growing number of players, almost 5 million. The good performance expected for the full year reflects the relevance of our strategy, which is based on these two distribution channels, and confirms our long-term responsible growth model.”
Entering year-end trading FDJ expects full-year revenue to be up by more than 8% with an EBITDA margin close to 24%, above the forecasts at the beginning of the year – (5% revenue uplift and 23% EBITDA margin).