Good day, and welcome to the Mtain Plc Third Quarter Trading Update 2021. At this time, I would like turn the conference over to Jarek Nagard Anderson. Please go ahead.
Good morning, everyone, and thank you for dialing in today. To As always, I'm joined by our Group CFO and Deputy CEO, Rob Wood and our IR team. Before we get into the detail of the Q3 performance, I'd like to highlight that whilst there is a proposal from DraftKings in the market, to Today, we are not adding anything more to what we have previously announced. Therefore, we won't be taking any questions relating to that. To Today's call is just about our trading performance.
So turning to our announcement, to I am very pleased to say that this has been another quarter where Intain has demonstrated the strength of our business to Our online business delivered its 23rd consecutive quarter of double digit growth to With NGR up 10% in the 3rd quarter in constant currency. If we strip out Germany, to As that continues to adjust to the new regulatory environment, online NGR was up 18% in constant currency. To That is ahead of expectations. And while we've had help from margins, our continued good performance is a credit to the hard work across to Retail continues to recover. Volumes in the U.
K. Are a little over 90% of pre COVID levels. To In Europe, as reopenings were a little later, volumes are behind those in the UK. To Compared to Q3 last year, Retail delivered modest like for like NGR growth in the 3rd quarter of 1% in constant currency. To Overall, group NGR for the 3rd quarter was up 6% in constant currency.
To Our business in the U. S. Continues to grow from strength to strength, gaining share in both iGaming and sports betting. To In the markets in which we are live, our market share is now 26% in the 3 months to August, to which is up 2 percentage points from 24% in the 2nd quarter. Just looking at the month of August in isolation, to We can see that BetMGM is now number 1 in the markets in which we operate.
And so we can see that we are clearly starting to challenge for the number one market position nationwide. We remain the preeminent iGaming operator to congratulate the U. S. With a 32% share. BetMGM has delivered another record performance with NGI in the 3rd quarter to expect it to be over US200 $1,000,000 This continued growth is driven by the NTAIN platform that encompasses our to Our rapidly growing range to exclusive and branded games developed by our in house studios that over 70% of our customers enjoy playing to We are only 4 weeks into the new NFL season, to So it is still early days.
However, we've got off to a great start and we are really pleased with our trading performance so far. To Actives are strong. Bonusing has been high as expected, but the early flurry has eased somewhat, to Letting the real money players emerge. We are also really pleased with the cross sell from football into our broader product offerings. To As the NFL season kicked off, we launched our 1st national advertisement campaign featuring Jamie Fox, to which has helped drive brand recognition across existing states where we operate as well as helping to build our brand in future markets to as more states legalize.
BetMGM has performed strongly when opening on day 1 of a new market launch. To During the quarter, we went live on day 1 in 3 new states, all within a 9 day period, to clearly demonstrating the flexibility and scalability of our platform. We are delighted to have added Arizona, to South Dakota and Wyoming taking us to 16 markets, and we remain on track to be live in 20 jurisdictions to by the end of Q1 2022. Ahead of their launches, we were particularly excited by both Arizona and Wyoming to Thank you, our fantastic partnerships and market presence. Although it is early days since we went live, to We are thrilled with both states' performance so far.
Globally, we lead the industry on responsibility, to not just in our approach to protecting customers, but in how we are leveraging our technology to revolutionize player protection. To We are making great progress with our advanced responsibility and care program or ARC. To Trials are going well, and we are now rolling out real time testing for our U. K. Brands.
ARC promises to unlock the pathway to predictive prevention rather than the reactive protection provided by much of the industry today. To We continue to make progress across our sustainability charter during the Q3 with many further actions and initiatives. To Examples include the Entain Foundation's renewed commitment to both the Pitting In and Sports Aid programs, to also partner with the University of Technology in Berlin and Nexus Institute to encourage diversity in technology. To In the U. S, the Intein Foundation is funding pioneering research with University of Nevada in Las Vegas to as well as launching a new app to support the American Gaming Association's Responsible Gaming Initiative.
To We have also taken real action towards our carbon net zero target, launching our to take a quick turnoff campaign internally, encouraging each and every employee to play their part in reducing our carbon emissions. To Before I hand over to Rob to go through trading in a bit more detail, I'd like to briefly recap on the key messages take
a look at the financial results from our Investor Day on 12
August when we outline the fantastic opportunities ahead for Intain. To Intain is a business that delivers secular growth. We have an incredible track record of both organic to and non organic growth with a 3 year compound annual growth rate in online NGR of 14% to Our addressable markets today have the scope to grow to over to 160,000,000,000 which will enable us to continue that growth
to continue to
expand more than triple the size of our business, underpinning the secular growth of our business model. To As we drive customer centricity and expand the experience for our customers to meet their changing needs of more content, more media to and more social interaction. We increasingly leverage powerful flywheel effects, which broadens our customer funnel, to improve loyalty and reduces acquisition costs. In addition to those flywheel benefits, to We also leverage all aspects of our scale and the NTAIN platform, our industry leading technology, our world class talent to and our focus on delivering a great experience for our customers. It is this platform to that gives us competitive commercial advantages, which alongside leading market positions drive scale advantages, to All of which enable us to continue to grow ahead of our markets.
So our strategy is clear, to focus on our customers, grow in our existing markets, lead in the U. S, expand into new regulated markets to congratulate our customers and our customers to drive significant value for shareholders. To With that, I'll hand over to Rob.
Thanks, Jeter, and good morning, everyone. As Jeter has said, to We're a business that continues to grow. We're growing in both our core business outside the U. S. And within the U.
S. As well. To Yet to mention, BetMGM took over $200,000,000 of revenue in Q3. That's over 5 times more to take a look at the numbers from the prior year. And our core online business delivered another quarter of double digit growth in constant currency, to Bringing the count now to 23 consecutive quarters of double digit growth.
Now online growth was ahead of expectation to 10% in the quarter. But as you can see from the table, we benefited from a helping hand from sports margin. To Our volume growth in Q3, so sports wages and gaming revenue, that was low single digits, to So a touch ahead of expectation, but essentially in line. However, sports margin was up 1.3 percentage points to due to strong Match results in the quarter. Margin was 12.8%, so well ahead of our expected margin range of 11 to 12%.
And the upside was purely results driven rather than anything structural. To So Q3 upside versus our August guidance was a one off, but it does compensate for temporary closure in the Netherlands, which is now going to impact to And therefore, our full year guidance remains unchanged across all measures. To Now aside from margin, there were really very few surprises with trading in Q3, but let me point out a few highlights. To Firstly, active growth and growth in FTDs both remained strong again in Q3 to and well ahead of NGR growth in the quarter. We saw NGR growth in all our geographies except Germany.
To And now that COVID impacts are starting to wash out, it's pleasing to see that the 2 year online NGR growth in Q3 to is up around 40% in constant currency. So online is clearly seeing permanent upside from the pandemic, to particularly driven by accelerated channel shift from retail to online. Not surprisingly, Australia performed well in Q3, to highlight the progress we made in the quarter. We are pleased to announce that the results
are not yet resolved. We are pleased to announce that the
results are not yet resolved. We are pleased to announce that the results are to and reinforcing sporting bet is the market leader in that territory. Even in the UK, to Where growth was slower at single digits versus last year, on a 2 year basis, revenue was still up strongly to Anactive's growth continues to be very encouraging in the U. K. As we deliver on our aim of broadening the appeal of our brands to congratulate our guests on the call to our audience.
Growth in Italy remains strong online, particularly given shops are now back open. To And we continue to see that omni channel brands are outperforming the pure online operators. On the negative side, in Germany, our gaming revenues are stable, but they continue to be down very materially to conclude the Q2 of 2019, and we look forward to more robust policing of the market in due course. To We are at least approaching the anniversary of the tolerance policy now, and we remain excited by the long term prospects for the German market. To In fact, at the beginning of September, we announced a sponsorship agreement for Bwin with UEFA, which will help drive Bwin's presence in Germany to as well as many other territories around the world.
Just on retail briefly, and as yet to mention, to Volumes are within 10% of pre COVID levels in the UK, in particular thanks to gaming machines. And whilst our European Estates are further behind, to We remain on track to hit our target of getting to 10% down versus pre COVID levels by the end of this year. To And we estimate that that 10% broadly equates to around 3 years of accelerated migration to online. To So in summary from me, Q3 was another strong performance from the group. We're delighted to have delivered 1 last quarter of double digit growth before we now inevitably hit pause on that run because in Q4, congratulate the incredible 41% growth that we posted last year.
And despite losing the Netherlands for Q4, to We remain on track to hit our full year guidance from the interim, thanks in particular to that margin upside in Q3, to And hence our full year EBITDA guidance remains unchanged with a range of £850,000,000 to £900,000,000 to With that, I'd like to hand over the call for Q and A on our trading performance today.
To We will take our first question today from Ed Young of Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead. Your line is open. To
Good morning. I've got 3, please, 2 on the U. S. And 1 on trading. Your comments around August are obviously to Very exciting and encouraging competing for the number one position in terms of market share that month.
Flutter's guided for U. S. Revenues of to between $1,800,000,000 $2,000,000,000 this year and that MGM's target is for $1,000,000,000 next year. To If you're already in the same ballpark on market share, doesn't that imply that the JV is going to beat that target pretty early, maybe not quite this year given the build to You said you got for Q3, but pretty close to that. It seems encouraging on where you're annualizing.
The second is on Arizona. You said that to Early indications there are encouraging. Given it's kind of an interesting sort of clean state, if you like, it would be interesting to just any further color to You could give on that. And then the final one just about, clearly margins came in, sounds like, very strongly in September. Just wondering if you could give us a bit of a look forward to to Q4, you said in the past you're absolutely not going to continue this 23 streak into Q4 given the comps.
To But given you're doing what you said 40% to your rate in Q3, you did 40 ish percent in Q4 last year, to But you are annualizing Germany. Is it possible you'll do positive growth in Q4? Or is it sort of undoubtedly going to be to down year on year, just to how to think about the Q4 growth rate? Thanks.
Thanks and good morning, Ed. To So let me take the 2 first on U. S, and I'll hand you over to Rob for trading. To So well, you nailed it. We are extremely pleased, of course, with the BettenGem performance, both when we look at the last 3 months to August and, of course looking at the ORBC flash data is certainly very pleasing.
So that's really great to see. To When it comes to the NDR and the NDR forecast, I mean, H1, we did USD 3.57 million and then Q3, to Just over €200,000,000 Listen, it's too early for us to start looking at new forecasts. So we stick to the guidance we've given on 2022 of over EUR 1,000,000,000 in NGL. To Now when it comes to Arizona, so we launched online sports to on day 1, 9 September, and we even had the opportunity to start pre register in the week before, so in time for NFL. To And we are very excited about that state.
We have really encouraging early results, the proximity to Las Vegas, to sporting culture partnerships that we've done with the Cardinals and River Hotel Casinos and then a good in life to present and as you know, no historic DFS present there. So that really sets us up well and it has started well, to both when it comes to bed count and number of FTDs and actives have really been fantastic. To We also held our corner when it comes to bonusing and sign up offers at decent markets. So we continue to be really excited about to but listen also, Wyoming has new states, which we also launched on day 1. So there's a number of new states to where we see standout performance, but that's a little bit of early color for Arizona.
Rob, over to you on margins and trading.
To Thank you. Good morning, Ed. So yes, firstly, we said previously that to Now that we've had some structural benefits to our trading margin, I think we're now on an underlying basis in a range of 11% to 12%. To If you look back at 2019, it was just over 11%. So I think we're now sort of 11% to 12%, perhaps nearing 12%.
Q3 was 12.8%, to So clearly ahead of where we expected to be. Some really clear reasons for that. We started the quarter really well with the euros to final that was a 30% match for us. And then whilst the domestic football season had a bad opening weekend, to September football margins were very good, particularly in the U. K.
And Italy, and racing was good throughout in Australia actually. To So good one time benefits in Q3. As we look ahead to Q4, I'd suggest we're back into that underlying range of 11% to 12 to So then to your question, is there any possibility of growth in Q4? I mean, the answer is it would be very tough. To So, our guidance was around 10% down in Q4 that we gave in the summer.
To And now we've lost the Netherlands, so that 10% becomes more like 13%. So even if Q3 had a little bit of volume upside, we're still looking at to Double digit down. Remember, it's not just the lockdown benefit in Q4 that drove the 41% growth that we saw in Q4 last year. We also had a record margin of 13.6 percent in that quarter. So very tough on a year on year basis, but the 2 year CAGR to We'll still look strong for Q4.
And I think we're comfortable that we can deliver the guidance to That we've suggested. It's also worth noting that if you take the run rate that we're seeing right now to On an NGL per day basis and then extrapolate that through Q4, you still get to those declines as per the guidance. To So whether you look on a 2 year basis or you look on a run rate basis, we will be hitting pause on the run of consecutive to double digit growth next quarter.
Very useful. Thank you, both.
We will take our next question from Gavin Kelleher of Goodbody. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning. Just to Just a few for me. Just on the U. S, you mentioned bonusing has come down more recently to more reasonable levels. Could you give us a bit of color, was bonusing more aggressive at the start of the NFL than you would have expected and now it's kind of in line?
To That's my first question. My second question is on U. K. Actives. Just where you think you're getting your actives from?
To Is it from online actives or is it a bit of retail migration in there? And where are they coming from, UK actives? To And then just finally on Holland, can you just give us some color on how you think the licensing process may play out for you over the next, to Let's say 6 to 12 months.
Sure. And Gavin to you. Yes, that's right. I said in the beginning that to say the initial flurry around bonusing for NFL seems to have leveled off a bit. And I think to When we look at the 1st weeks of NFL, there were some pretty hefty bonusing and promotions in the market.
To So when we look across August, for example, Caesars were there with a risk free of $5,000 and to Our competitors also had some pretty aggressive some pretty aggressive bonusing and promotion. But we are seeing it coming down a bit and remain confident that the promotional environment will normalize over time. And as we always say on these to call that really the ones with the best products will be winners. But yes, so the initial to Somewhat aggressive bonus name. We see that coming down a bit.
Rob, hand over to you for U. K. Actors and the Netherlands. To
Sure. Absolutely. And if I could just add one more thought on bonusing in the U. S. It's, of course, when you're to At the start of the NFL season, there's a massive amount of acquisition bonusing.
And therefore, as the season progresses, that ratio to changes towards retention bonusing and therefore as a percent of GGR, it comes down. So that's sort of another reason why to We're down from the peak right at the beginning of September. On to U. K, where are the actors coming from? So yes, to Retail and obviously we have an advantage by virtue of having the brand recognition to And indeed, customers on thousands of high streets up and down the country.
There's also an element of to You heard from Donald Grausall at our Capital Markets Day over the summer that we're doing more and more to reposition our brands towards the mass market. To So a real sort of focus on recreational customers and driving volumes there, and that's paying dividends with the active growth to So we expect to apply for our license to Later this year, we expect to get licensed hopefully middle of next year. And we'll have to wait and see what the timing is. We don't know to Precisely, yes. And we'll have to wait and see what other operators get licensed and the timing of that before we can have a real feel for to So how 2022 may play out, but I think the key message is we will be applying for our license by the end of this year and hope to be licensed by middle of next year.
Our next question will come from Joe Thomas of HSBC. Please go ahead.
Good morning. Three questions from me as well, if that's okay. To Firstly, in the Q3 net revenue numbers, I'm just wondering if you could give us a bit more granularity. Specifically, to What's the contribution from M and A in there? I guess there is something in there.
Secondly, you to Sort of touched on this as well. But the reopening of retail, is that what is driving the slowdown in to the online gaming segment or is there something else in there? And then to Finally, just a broader question on the U. S. I'm just wondering if there's any color you can give us on to How your VIP split, however you might want to segment that or define it, looks to for Best MGM versus perhaps the U.
S. As a whole.
Yes. Good morning, Joey. Let me start by the last one. To No, we don't give any splits on the different segments here. I think what I can overall say and what's important from our side to As we are really a long term have a long term focus on the business is, of course, the lifetime value over time and the average spend level.
To And as you might recall, when we get when we made the long term prediction on where we saw the TAM going, we also to I had some assumptions in there in spent per adult, whether it was online sports or iGaming. And the numbers that we are seeing now in our business to basically support those trends that we have in our TAM assumptions. So lifetime value look good, and that's really the most important when we look to build
to take a look at the
sustainable business going forward. Rob, I'll hand over to you for Q3 revenues and what's in there from M and A and also reopening of
to Sure. So contribution to take a look at the numbers from M and A in Q3. It's actually near a 5 point. So we guided towards 4 points of online NGR growth benefits, to But in Q3 actuals nearer 5. So that's hopefully the answer to that question.
In terms of online gaming to Impact of retail reopening. I think the first thing you need to do is look at 2 year growth to sort of take out the noise from last year. To And if you look at over a 2 year basis, our growth is very good. CAGR is around 17%, and that growth is pretty equal to between sports and gaming. So we're not seeing a particularly different pattern between the 2.
The reason why you see to The difference when you look year on year is more around what happened last year. So I think the answer is Q2 to Last year, you'll remember we had a big uplift in gaming as sports, life support was postponed. To And then we hung on to a lot of that upside through Q3 and into Q4 in gaming. So therefore, the comps when you look year on year are just to in gaming on an underlying basis. I don't think there's a particular difference between the 2.
To Okay. Thanks a lot.
Does that help, Jay?
Yes. That's great. Thanks,
to take a question. Our next question will come from Kieran Jacques Krenval of Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Hey, good morning guys. To Three questions from me. Firstly, on Germany, could you just update us on your expectations? To do you expect many of the states will start to switch on online casino anytime soon? And Secondly, on European Retail, that's continuing to lag the U.
K. Retail piece. Is there any particular reason for this? To and then just lastly, you mentioned a strong performance in Australia. Could you offer some more color around this?
Is it driven by something in particular for Entane? Or to Is it broader a strength you're seeing in the market?
Hey, and good morning to you, too. Listen, I'll hand you over to Rob for to Germany, U. S. EU Retail and also Australia Trading.
To Okay. Let me have a go at those. So Germany, the we're hearing from the ground is that perhaps states that represent around half to The country, the half of the population are looking at legislating some form of online gaming. So that's sort of our target, to If you like, fair to say though within that, some of those lenders may allocate the license to state monopolies, for instance. So I wouldn't suggest that half of the population will ultimately be available to us, but that's sort of the size of the prize.
To On retail, yes, true to say that the European Estates are lagging the U. K. At the moment. So there's a couple of reasons for that. To One is that if I look at the U.
K, the gaming side of the business is outperforming the sports part of the business, to And we don't have gaming machines in European Retail. So that's part of it, the mix. Another part is that if you look in to European Retail, there are still COVID restrictions impacting our trading. For instance, in Italy, to They have a green card where you have to prove vaccination. And as I understand it, only around 70% of people have those.
So to Clearly, that's impacting footfall. I think in the Republic of Ireland, they still have the rule of 6. So there are some structural COVID related reasons why to European retail is behind as well as opening later as well. But we, having reviewed it very recently with the MDs of those to We're still confident of the target of getting to within 10% of pre COVID by year end to And paying particular attention to what happens to COVID restrictions. So I think that's the answer to that question.
In Australia, Yes, a really good growth in Q3. Clearly, lockdowns are a driver of that. We saw that last time around. To And Australia now easing out of lockdown, so I'm sure there'll be some lessening of growth. To Clearly, therefore, retail migration is a key part of that as well as not having so many to ways of spending discretionary income.
Is it market growth? Yes, I think it is, albeit our market shares to increasing, particularly as Tabcor is underperforming in the online to environment at the moment. So very good market share growth and market growth, I think, is the answer in Australia at the moment.
To Perfect. Thanks so much. We will take our next question from James Rolland Clark of Barclays. Please go ahead. To
Good morning, everyone. I've got three questions, please. The first is on U. K. Regulation.
Would you mind to Perhaps updating us as to your expectations on the white paper given the change of personnel at DCMS. And to Any early discussions you've had with them and your sort of sense of where the new chair and new head to feel or what they feel about the industry at
the moment.
Secondly, on the outlook, I think consensus has in €1,070,000,000 for 2022 EBITDA. Are you comfortable with this level to Just given the headwind that potentially Dutch licensing represents for next year. And then finally, on U. K. Retail, Do you have any sense as to the level of capacity exits from the market post COVID?
Thank you. To
Thanks. Good morning, James. So let me take the first one. I think the 2 last one was in your bucket, to Rob, but yes, I'll start off with the first one and then we'll get to the 2 other questions. And your first question was around U.
K. Regulatory and the white paper. To So I think that the main update since we spoke last is probably that the white paper to has been delayed and given the reshuffle at the CMS, it could be even later. So I think what I said on the last call that we had that it was delayed into autumn 2021, and it now looks like to that it could even be delayed further and potentially into Q1 2022. I mean, our discussion so to has been that they are referring to the publication timing to be in due course, and that kind of to Support that probably a delay coming from there, which basically means that any impact on legislation will be in 2022 and probably to take some time into 2022.
And we remain, as I said a couple of times, cautiously optimistic to around the approach being taken. As I understand, the work has been ongoing for some time and is quite advanced. To And we keep getting the same feedback that DCMS will take a holistic approach to the gambling reform and make sure that they deliver a coherent to And we continue to have discussions. We have many discussions around our technology. We get good feedback around ARC.
To So we will continue to work also with the new ministers and keep them updated on the findings from the live trials that we are having in the UK. To I think that's the update I can give on the white paper. Rob, can I hand over to you? I mean, the third question was around U. K.
Retail. Did you take a note on the second one?
Yes. The second one was around EBITDA to for 2022. So too early for us to be guiding on 2022, James. I think I can say that I was happy with where to Consensus was prior to the Netherlands announcement. So now we do need to understand what impact the Netherlands may have to take a look at the next few quarters.
And as I mentioned earlier on in this call, too early to say because we do need to see what time to of year we'll get licensed, which competitors will get licensed and when they get licensed to really understand what to sort of rebuild strategy will look like and therefore where we can exit the year at. So I think to answer your question, we were happy prior to to Netherlands, and we'll be guiding more fully on 2022 in March. And then the last question, to I think it was around capacity exits in retail post COVID. I think the thing to appreciate with to Retail is there's always a bit of a lag because very often, whilst the profit whilst the shop might have tipped to being marginally unprofitable, to You still have the lease and therefore it can be more beneficial to stay open at a small lease, to a small loss rather than close and pick up the cost of the lease. So not a huge amount of activity, I would suggest, to Yes, but that's not necessarily a surprise.
And we haven't seen any sort of any of the large independents or any of the major operators to take any significant moves. The material moves really follow the implementation of the triennial review in 2019. To But that's a watch in brief and undoubtedly there will be continued retail closures over the next couple of years
to Very helpful. Thank you.
To thank you. We will take our next question from Joe Staphos with Susquehanna. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
To Thank you very much. Good morning. I had two questions, please. First one was, I wanted to see if you could share any commentary maybe on user growth that you saw on BetMGM in the 3rd quarter to And or September in particular. And then the second question I wanted to ask maybe is just me being in the States to clarify to Maybe the U.
K. Takeover rules, is the deadline of October 19, Is that a decision that you have at NTM to be able to move that or not? Thank you.
To Thanks. Good morning, Joe, and I think you're up early. So thank you for dialing in. To So listen, as I said in my introduction, we're really not going to talk about to the DraftKings proposal, and I don't really have anything to add to the announcements that we sent out on 21st September to Following the lead, so as we flagged, we, the Board and our advisers, we are now carefully considering the proposal. To And that includes a number of matters, including structure and value.
And then we'll come back to the markets as to So sorry for not being more informative on that, as I'm sure you can to Appreciate. And then when it comes to your questions around actives and user growth, to Well, it is very early day, but you had heard me speak about Arizona, which we are very excited about. To Arizona was the state with the highest actives in September. And overall, our actives are up 5 times to Compared to last year and September also saw record high for iGaming. So very, very encouraging numbers comment from BetMGM when it comes to actives and user growth.
Thank you. It appears there are no further questions at this time. I would like to hand the conference back to Yessi Nygaard Anderson. Apologies, we have just had a late joiner to the queue, Simon Davis from Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.
Your line is open.
To Good morning. Apologies. I thought I was wired into the process. But a couple from me, please. First, many congratulations on 23 consecutive quarters of growth.
Unfortunately, the 24th quarter looks like an insurmountable hurdle. But Do you think you can return to double digit growth in the Q1 next year? Obviously, by that stage, you will have lapped the impact of tightening in Germany, to Which should make the comps a bit easier. Secondly, you talked about the ramp up in the level of marketing spend around the new NFL season. Has that to greater than you had anticipated and if you had to respond more than you would have expected in terms of marketing and bonusing spend.
To
Good. Thank you and good morning to you also, Simon. To And yes, let me just I'll take the U. S. Question and hand you over to Rob.
But I'll start to I mean, we are, as you can understand, really pleased with them. And for me, it's really a testament to our strength of our platform. To And we see this strong result as exactly that assessment on a sustainable and consistent diversified growth platform that we have. To So very pleased with that. And in a second, I'll hand you over to Rob to talk about what we then think about Q1 in 2022.
To Now when it comes to the NFL season, I think it's as every time there's sports kickoff, we also saw it in March Madness, to We have increased bonusing and promotion, and we are we remain flexible. We put the spend to One thing I would maybe stress is that this was the first time that we started doing national advertisement. To So that has been a first for us. And we've said that we were not going to do that until we had a reach to That basically made that a good way forward for us. So we started that, had great success with our Jamie Fox campaign.
To So I think overall, we're quite happy with what we're seeing and the posting has leveled off. To And in that sense, I think it was more or less as expected when you go into the 1st NFL season to after the market has really come off with so many states now being online and for us 16 states that we're alive in. Rob, over to you on the last question on 2022 Q1.
To Thanks, Jetha. Good morning, Simon. So can we achieve double digit growth in Q1 next year? I mean, it's going to be very difficult. We have to Lapped Germany, that is true.
We've now lost Netherlands. But I think the key point though is analyzing against lockdowns in Q1 in the prior year. To You've heard me talk previously about analysis suggests that we keep something like a third of the upside that we get to During lockdowns, but clearly that means 2 thirds does not stay with us because it goes back to retail or another forms of discretionary spend. To So when you're lapping lockdowns, I think to expect double digit growth on top of that, it's just not going to happen. The other thing to think about is to When I look at the NGR per active sorry, NGR per day that we achieved in to The quarter that we're about to lap, so Q4 last year was very similar in Q1.
So in other words, the very tough bump that we're about to face in Q4, to It's the same sort of numbers that we're going up against in Q1. So I think it would be something of a stretch, Simon.
To Stretches good, but thanks for that.
Okay. And as always, if you look at 2 year growth, to You'll see that we would still expect really quite strong numbers on a 2 year basis. It's just we're going to have this period where we're annualizing against lockdowns and to We need to look through that.
Yes, understood. Thanks.
Turn the call back over to Michael Mitchell of Davy. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning. Thanks for taking my question. Just one left from my side, if I could. Just if I
can ask you to provide
a bit more color on the U. K. Online market post lockdown. I appreciate you've touched on it through the last 45 minutes. To But first of all, I mean, have activity levels now settled, particularly with retail back to within 10% pre COVID levels?
So do we have a settled picture to What the U. K. Online market looks like now post lockdown? And if so, Rob, I wonder if you could just kind of help us a little bit more with your comments about the 2 year growth rate being up strongly. To I mean, kind of what is the rough pace of growth in the UK online market on a 2 year basis that we should be thinking about over the coming period of time?
Thank you. To
Thanks. Hey, Michael. Rob, I think I will I'll let you ask that one I'll let you answer that one.
To Okay. So 2 year growth rate. So firstly, the quarter just gone. We did around 35% to 2 year growth in real currency and it's near 40% in constant currency. To If I look at the U.
K. In isolation, it's more like 25%, so clearly a little lower, but nonetheless, 25% growth to in the U. K. In a market that was ordinarily expected to do sort of high single digits is a strong performance for us. I think as we look to Our real focus in the U.
K. Is expanding our appeal to more recreational audiences. And our to The hope is that all the terrific growth that we've seen in actives and FTDs during to This during the last 12 months or so will therefore play through into continued NGR growth to In 2022 as well. Obviously, we need to wait and see what, what if, if any impact comes out of the Gambling Act review. To But the we would still maintain that the prospects for growth in the U.
K. Are strong, not just for the market, but certainly for to outperforming the market as well, not least because we have the retail estate, which continues despite COVID, despite everything that's happened to to continue to drive traffic to our online platforms. So I think the prognosis for the U. K. Continues to be strong.
To Great. Many thanks.
There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the conference back to Yeri Negard Anderson for any additional or closing remarks.
To Thank you. And thank you all for dialing in and listening in today. Entain continues to go from strength to to fantastic industry leading platform that continues to drive growth both in our core business and in the U. S. To through Ben MGM, as you heard this morning, but it also provides a very strong base to drive further growth as we deliver on the strategic agenda to that we set out on the 12th August.
I also hope that you can join us for our ESG and Sustainability events on to 10th November. And in the meantime, if you have any other questions, do get in touch with David and the IR team. Thank you and goodbye.