Codere Online Posts Record Q2 as World Cup Lifts Group Revenue 5.8%
Grupo Codere's online arm just turned in its best quarter ever, and it pulled the whole group up with it. Group gaming revenue came in at €352.5m for Q2, up 5.8% year-on-year from roughly €333m. Adjusted EBITDA rose 14.1%, climbing from about €50.5m to €57.6m. For the Spanish operator, that's seven straight quarters of improving profitability.
Codere Online was the main event. Net gaming revenue reached €69.4m, a 27% jump from €54.8m. IFRS revenue was up 25% at €64.4m. Average monthly active players across the division grew 12% to 173,000. Management pointed to strong trading in Argentina and Spain, and to the FIFA World Cup, which ran right through the quarter.
On percentage growth, Spain led the way. Online NGR there climbed 25% to €27.6m, with average monthly actives up 11% to 54,400. Mexico is still the division's biggest market by revenue, even if its growth rate sits behind Spain's. Mexican NGR rose 24% to €36.1m, and revenue there was up 21% to €31.8m. Colombia, Panama and Argentina, the smaller markets, combined for €5.7m in NGR. That's up 54%.
Worth spelling out the World Cup numbers. Tournament stakes hit €63m, 180% higher than at the 2022 edition. Unique users grew around 56%, excluding Colombia. Codere Online added almost 40,000 new customers over the tournament, and World Cup NGR more than doubled from 2022. All of that came despite what the company described as customer-friendly results, which held the sportsbook margin down. CEO Aviv Sher said the tournament gave customer activity and engagement an extra push, though he was careful to add that growth was broad based across core markets, not a one-off spike.
Profitability at the division improved in absolute terms. Adjusted EBITDA for Q2 was €5.8m, up €2.3m year-on-year. The quarter still booked a net loss of €1.4m. The half-year picture looks different. Codere Online posted H1 net profit of €5.6m, reversing a €3.1m loss in the same stretch of 2025. CFO Marcus Arildsson said the better profitability came while the company kept investing in growth. Codere Online ended June with €62.6m in cash and no financial debt.
Guidance went up on the back of the quarter. Management now expects full-year NGR of €255m to €265m, and adjusted EBITDA of €20m to €25m.
The bigger question sits with the private parent. Grupo Codere's shareholders brought in Jefferies and Macquarie in Q1 to review ownership and sale options, an outright sale among them, at a reported target valuation of around €2bn. That figure has raised eyebrows given the group's recent restructuring. In January 2026, Codere struck a deal with creditors to cut its debt by roughly 95%, from close to €2bn down to €195m. A consortium of investment funds owns the company, having taken control after the previous restructuring. Those investors split Codere Online off from the land-based business in December 2021, when the digital arm listed independently on Nasdaq.
The competitive picture has moved as well. Lottomatica has agreed an all-share merger with CIRSA, Codere's main Spanish rival. CIRSA is valued at €2.8bn, or €24 per share, and majority shareholder Blackstone will hold 24% of the enlarged group. Completion is expected in Q2 2027. The combined Lottomatica would rank as the second-biggest listed online betting and gaming company in the world behind Flutter Entertainment, with leading positions in Spain and Italy across casinos, gaming machines, sports betting and online. Codere hasn't said whether its advisers have found a buyer, or whether anyone has bid at that €2bn mark.
Now attention turns to the Nasdaq open at 2:30pm UK time, when investors price in the results. Any deal for the private parent has to account for the separate ownership and public listing of its digital subsidiary, and that complicates the arithmetic for whoever ends up at the table. The next number to watch is whether Codere's advisers can turn a record online quarter into a credible offer at the valuation shareholders have in mind.