Banijay Group reported Q1 2026 revenue of €1,147.5 million, up 9.0% at constant currencies, with its Sports betting & Gaming division growing 17.3% to €433.1 million on the back of a 20% increase in Unique Active Players. The group confirmed its 2026 guidance following the April completion of its Tipico acquisition.
Sports Betting & Gaming Drives Top-Line Growth
Sports betting & Gaming revenue reached €433.1 million in Q1 2026, up from €380.9 million a year earlier. Unique Active Players grew 20% year-on-year, the core commercial metric Banijay uses to measure player engagement across its Betclic brand.
Sportsbook revenue rose 14.4% to €326.5 million. Adverse sporting results across UEFA Champions League matches and World Cup qualification games weighed on margins during the quarter. Casino, poker and turf revenue grew 27.0% combined, driven by the rollout of a proprietary online poker platform in France in late 2024 and the ramp-up of online casino in Côte d’Ivoire following its early 2025 launch.
Adjusted EBITDA from Sports betting & Gaming fell 3.8% at constant currencies to €96.6 million, with margin compressing from 26.8% to 22.3%. That decline reflects the impact of higher betting taxes in France, which took effect in July 2025. Excluding that effect, the division’s adjusted EBITDA would have grown 7.1%.
France Betting Tax Compresses Group Margins
The French betting tax change contributed a negative cost impact of approximately €11 million in Q1. Restated for this effect, group adjusted EBITDA margin would have risen 50 basis points to 18.1%, rather than declining from 17.6% to 17.1%.
Banijay Gaming operates Betclic across France, Germany, Portugal, Austria, Poland and Côte d’Ivoire. The French regulatory shift is a continuing headwind that the company has incorporated into its full-year guidance. The pattern is consistent with broader European market dynamics: <a
Entertainment & Live: Live Experiences More Than Double
Entertainment & Live revenue reached €714.5 million, up 4.5% at constant currencies. The principal driver was Live experiences, which rose 101.5% to €139.0 million from €70.5 million a year earlier, underpinned by the production of the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony by Balich Wonder Studio and the continued international rollout of the Luminiscence live show across six countries.
Content production revenue fell 9.3% to €502.2 million, attributed to delivery phasing with productions weighted toward year-end. Distribution revenue grew 20.0% to €73.2 million, partly from a format sale. The Entertainment & Live adjusted EBITDA was €101.8 million, up 15.6% at constant currencies, with margin improving from 12.8% to 14.2%.
Net Income and Cash Flow
Reported net income fell 10.9% to €32.0 million, primarily due to higher restructuring and non-recurring costs linked to M&A transaction fees and reorganisation. Adjusted net income, which excludes restructuring costs and non-recurring items, grew 18.1% to €56.9 million, supported by EBITDA growth and a 27.2% reduction in income tax expenses following implementation of an IP Box tax regime in Sports betting & Gaming in 2025.
Adjusted free cash flow was €161.4 million, up 7.7%, with a conversion rate of 82.1%. Group net financial debt totalled €2,589 million at 31 March 2026, broadly stable against €2,573 million at year-end 2025, with leverage held at 2.7x.
Tipico Closes; All3Media Combination on Track
On 23 April 2026, Banijay Group completed the Tipico acquisition, uniting Betclic, Tipico and Admiral across six markets: Germany, France, Portugal, Austria, Poland and Côte d’Ivoire. The combined Sports betting & Gaming division is expected to roughly double its revenue, adjusted EBITDA and adjusted free cash flow. Mid-term synergies are targeted at approximately €100 million, split between around €70 million in opex and €30 million in capex.
The combination of Banijay Entertainment with All3Media, structured as a 50/50 joint venture with RedBird IMI and announced in March 2026, remains on track for a summer 2026 close, subject to regulatory approvals and approval at the next Annual General Meeting.
François Riahi, CEO of Banijay Group, said:
“We are enjoying a solid start to 2026, supported by strong momentum across our Sports betting & Gaming and Live activities, as we look ahead to a year marked by major sporting events, important strategic developments and transformative M&A. Sports betting & Gaming continues to deliver strong growth, driven by ongoing product innovation and a +20% increase in Unique Active Players, the key commercial KPI. This demonstrates the strength of our product and customer proposition, and we are well positioned ahead of this summer’s FIFA World Cup.”
2026 Guidance and Medium-Term Targets Confirmed
Banijay confirmed its 2026 guidance of mid-single-digit adjusted EBITDA growth on both a standalone and pro forma basis, and mid-to-high single-digit growth excluding the French betting tax impact. Adjusted free cash flow conversion is targeted at approximately 80%.
The medium-term framework from the Group’s March 2026 strategic update calls for adjusted EBITDA CAGR of more than 7% between 2025 and 2029 on a pro forma basis, with Sports betting & Gaming contributing approximately 10% growth over the period. The Group targets leverage of approximately 2x net debt to adjusted EBITDA by 2029, deleveraging from the current 2.7x.
H1 2026 results are scheduled for 30 July 2026.
Source: Banijay Group
