Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our digital investor event. I'm Richard Harris, Rank Group's CFO, and I'm pleased to say I'm joined by several colleagues forming the presentation team here today. Between us, we'll walk you through our plans to ensure we are delivering seamless customer experiences across our brands and our channels, with the focus today being firmly on the digital business. In terms of the specific content that we're going to cover, I'll kick off with an overview of the Rank investment case. I'll provide some detail on the size of the overall opportunity, explain how we expect that to translate into cash generation over the next few years, and summarize how we're thinking specifically about the opportunity within digital.
I'll then hand over to Jon Martin, Rank Group's COO, who will outline the overall digital strategy before delving deeper into the U.K. digital business today. Enric Monton, our international MD, will pick up the reins with an overview of the international digital business, before Jonathan Plumb, our Chief Information Officer, explains how our digital strategy is powered by our technology platforms and enabled through the targeted use of data and analytics across the group. Jon Martin will return to explain how these technology developments will step change our customer journeys, helping us to serve personalized, timely, and seamless brand experiences for our customers. I'll then come back to summarize what all of this delivers for the digital business, including key milestones and the size of the medium-term opportunity. We'll finish with a Q&A session led by John O'Reilly.
There'll be an opportunity for those people in the room and online to ask questions, and we'll provide more details on that later. In total, we have around 70-75 minutes of content, plus the time to answer all of your questions. So moving straight into the Rank investment case. In short, we're looking to provide an attractive investment opportunity that delivers sustainable, long-term growth in both earnings and cash generation. We intend to deliver that ambition through the following key building blocks. Taking each in turn, as John has highlighted at recent results presentations, bingo is a liquidity game. The more visits you get, the better the prize pools you can offer and the more attractive that is for our visitors. However, the reverse is also true.
Coming out of the pandemic, there was an oversupply of clubs in the U.K. relative to the number of people that were playing bingo regularly. We recognized that and reduced the number of clubs in our estate from around 80 going into the pandemic to 55 today. The rationalization of the estate, and that's specifically closing down loss-making venues, and where possible, transferring the customers to another nearby venue, is largely complete, and it's been necessary to get Mecca venues back to profitability. In Spain, the Enracha business is made up of well-invested flagship venues. Each one is the leader in its local market, and we will continue to improve this already well-polished and well-run business. We believe that bingo remains good value social entertainment, and we're focused on ensuring our bingo venues in Spain and in the U.K. make a positive contribution to the group's profit and cash generation.
The Grosvenor business has underperformed our expectations since the pandemic, but the tide has turned with improvement seen in recent quarters. Risk management is the area that has most impacted our performance, and we are well progressed in addressing it. We need to meet the regulatory commitments and adhere to the safer gambling values that underpin our business, but we did need to do it better, and we are doing it better. Improved training of colleagues and smarter use of technology to inform appropriate customer interactions have been key drivers of the improved performance seen over the last 12 months or so. But we've got further to go and lots of opportunity. Reactivating lapsed customers that might have chosen to play elsewhere is another important area of focus. We want those customers back, and we are getting them back, but with more to come.
We've been working to improve the quality of our table gaming offering and broaden the choice of gaming machines. There are further improvements to come, including the introduction of new gaming machine suppliers into our Grosvenor estate. Our Grosvenor colleagues work hard every day in providing great customer service, but we believe there is more we can do to ensure that both the core gambling customer is well looked after and also ensure less frequent recreational customers come back to us because of the quality of experience they receive. The Grosvenor business will benefit from a more tailored and local approach to marketing, both in the venues themselves, but also through our digital assets. I'm pleased to say we have Mark Harper, the recently appointed Managing Director for Grosvenor, in the audience today.
Mark joined us in September, and he and the leadership team are fully focused on driving the ongoing recovery and future growth. We'll cover our digital plans today, so I won't add anything on that for now. The Gambling Act White Paper was published in April, and we've subsequently been working through the various consultations. We believe the overall outcome for the group is positive, and in particular, will allow us to significantly modernize the casino proposition in the U.K. As you'll see in here today, technology and data are at the heart of the improvements we're making in the digital business. However, there are also improvements that will also benefit the venues businesses. Here, the aim is to present information to colleagues in such a way that they can use it to improve the customer experience.
Whether that's an app for colleagues to support interactions with customers in Grosvenor, or the better use of management reporting to drive gaming machine revenues in Mecca. We'll continue to use technology to drive overall performance across the group. Safer gambling is at the heart of our aim to build a sustainable business for the long term and is pivotal to our success. We believe that delivering excellent customer service and providing safe environments are important factors that attract customers to our brands. Delivering that high-quality service depends on our ability to provide a positive working environment for our colleagues. Driving engagement, providing development opportunities, and recruiting and retaining high-quality talent are all vital to our success. In digital, we have a strong team in place focused on the delivery of our strategic plan.
So the purpose of today is to give you some insight into the plans for our digital business and where we think we can take it, rather than give new financial forecasts for the overall group. That said, I think it is necessary to understand the relative importance of each of the building blocks and how they will contribute to improved profitability in the medium term. So starting with cash maximization in Bingo. We believe we can take the Mecca venues business in the U.K. from a GBP 5.8 million loss last year to a double-digit operating profit in the medium term. With a loss of less than GBP 1 million in the second half of last year, our expectation is it will be in positive territory this year. But clearly, there is further room for improvement thereafter.
The continued progression of our Enracha business will also contribute some upside to profitability within Bingo. Within Grosvenor, during the second half of last year, we delivered GBP 5.9 million revenue per week, and that's up from a low of GBP 5.1 million in the second half of FY 2022. Improved further to GBP 6.4 million per week in the first quarter of this financial year. With a sharp focus on executing the initiatives I outlined on the previous slide, we believe we can get Grosvenor up to at least GBP 7 million revenue per week, largely through activity that's within our control. That figure is before the benefits of the Gambling Act review and before we make any material changes to the property estate. All in, we expect to push the business well above GBP 7 million per week in the medium term.
As we all know, the Grosvenor Venues business has a very high operating leverage. It currently averages around 75%. As a result, there remains a material upside to earnings from getting the Grosvenor business operating at the levels that we know it can. In digital, we believe the proprietary platforms we have in the asset are a key asset w e have in the group are a key asset. When combined with the U.K. and Spain's leading casino and bingo brands and the technology roadmap that we have in place, we expect to deliver significant revenue growth and margin expansion in the coming years. More on that shortly. The main benefit to the Gambling Act review is an increase in the number of gaming machines allowed in a 1968 Act casino.
The vast majority of our casinos will benefit, and we expect to broadly double the number of gaming machines in the Grosvenor estate. In U.K. Bingo, we're expecting some improvement from the proposal to change the 80/20 machine rule to become 50/50. This change will allow us to replace old-fashioned machines with more modern, and importantly, more modern ones. Electronic payments in both casino and bingo venues is a further opportunity, as it will make the customer journey much simpler. The most obvious downside of the review for Rank is the impact from the maximum staking limits for online slots. In addition, there will be some costs associated with the increase in the statutory levy from the blanket 0.1% we pay today to 0.4% for Grosvenor Casinos and 1% for the U.K. digital business, both by 2027.
Overall, though, this is clearly a positive outcome for the group. In addition, we believe there is further upside in Grosvenor from broadening the appeal of our casinos. This is much more than just about the incremental return we get from each additional machine.... It's about a better machine offering, sports betting, and improved food and beverage, supporting a much more accessible gambling environment that will appeal to a much broader group of consumers. It's more intangible and not captured here, but nonetheless, is an important component of how we believe we can evolve the Grosvenor business in the medium to long term. Just go back one slide for me. The opportunity is really significant.
All of this, of course, is set within the context of ongoing pressures on consumer spend and cost inflation pressures for our business, not least in employee costs, as we've seen with the recently announced changes to the National Minimum Wage . These opportunity sets are therefore shown net of our expected cost inflation. So you've seen the relative size of the opportunity for each of our key building blocks, but what does that mean for cash generation? I'll break it down into three distinct phases. So the first phase, which covers the next 18 months or so, I would describe as investing for growth. In this phase, our earnings are on an improving trend from the lows of FY 2023.
We've made good progress in that regard over the last 12 months or so, but still much to do to get the business delivering the profits and generating the cash that we know it can. At the same time as earnings are improving, we'll be investing in the business, and for very good reason. There is a backlog of maintenance work that needs to be addressed in the U.K. to ensure we're delivering high-quality proposition to the customer at all times. As you'll hear today, we're continuing to invest in the digital proposition, and we have capital spend allocated to that. In Bingo, we have some further refurbishments in Enracha, and we have a number of specific low-cost investment schemes in Mecca. In the new year, we will start some of the enabling works for the Gambling Act review.
We'll be looking at work to optimize the number of gaming machines that we can provide in all of our Grosvenor venues once the secondary legislation comes into force. This will be done in parallel with ongoing venue refurbishments that seek to broaden the appeal of our casinos. So allowing for the improving earnings, the necessary investment, and restarting the dividend at modest levels, I'm expecting our cash flow to be broadly neutral over the next 18 months or so. During the second phase, broadly relating to the period 18 months to three years from now, we'll be balancing investment and returns. Our earnings momentum will have improved further, and while investment is still in, at elevated levels, as we expect to be maximizing the opportunity from the Gambling Act review, we'll have a period of modest cash generation. Finally, the third phase, approximately three years from now and beyond.
At this stage, earnings are expected to be in a much better place, and we should be over the hump of investment required. During this phase, we'll be well and truly growing shareholder returns. So plenty to look forward to over the next few years as the business profitability and cash generation are expected to improve materially. Let's now turn to the digital business that's been the focus of today. Rank's purpose is to excite and to entertain our customers. Our digital capabilities and the product offering are a critical part of delivering the group's strategy and ultimately driving shareholder value. At the heart of our ambition is a seamless experience. We know that our customers expect us to know what they like and to make it easy for them to play safely with us, be that in venue or online.
We have leading, trusted brands in the U.K. and Spain, and customers want exciting experiences delivered at a moment in time or a venue of choice that is convenient to them. We've already done some heavy lifting to enable us to see that through. The acquisition of Stride Gaming in 2019 and the subsequent migration of our brands onto their proprietary platform has allowed us to take much more control of our own destiny in terms of product development. Similarly, the Yo platform is well placed to capitalize on the opportunity we have in Spanish and Portuguese-speaking markets. We now have a much stronger foundation in place from which to grow. To that point, we believe there is significant medium-term opportunity in digital to grow revenue by 8%-12% compounded over the next few years.
The revenue growth, the operating leverage benefit, and a focus on efficiency will also lead to improved margins. Combined, this will lead to a material move on in profitability for the digital business. We'll share with you now how our digital team are unlocking that potential to give a much-improved customer experience across all of our digital brands, and I'll hand over to Jon.
Good morning, everyone. I'm Jon Martin, Group COO, and I joined Rank in 2019. I'll start with an overview of how we grow our two digital businesses serving the U.K. and Spanish markets. Our strategy is centered on delivering great customer experience. This is driven by leveraging our leading brands and strong marketing capabilities. It's powered by our proprietary technology, and fueled by improving data, our improved data capabilities, allowing us to deliver a more personalized experience to our customers. I will talk to the U.K. digital business, and Enric will speak to our international business. Our U.K. digital portfolio today includes our leading bingo and casino brands, Mecca and Grosvenor, respectively. Alongside that, we have 10 other brands that sit on our proprietary platform, and a longer tail that are run on third-party platforms, which we acquired via the Stride transaction.
We launched meccabingo.com and grosvenorcasinos.com in 2006. Initially, we launched with using third-party technology, first with OpenBet, and then with Bede in 2016. More recently, we took the decision to insource our technology via the Stride transaction. The key milestone was last October, when we completed the technology migration onto the RIDE platform, and all of this was done while aligning the player protection practices between the Rank and Stride brands. The impact of that I will come on to shortly. The U.K. is a large and attractive market with significant headroom for us to grow. We are currently a small part of a big market. This is the U.K. market split out by product vertical. The percentages underneath the bar chart reflect our relative share by product. Three things stand out. In bingo, we have high single-digit market share.
Clearly, there is an opportunity to grow with the strength of the Mecca brand, which is synonymous with bingo in the U.K.. In sport, we underindex relative to the size of our gaming business, given the natural crossover of gaming customers who also bet on sports. In casino, we have clear opportunity to take further market share. Our total U.K. digital market share today is 2.9%. We are digitally underweight when we compare this to our land-based market leadership positions, with the known crossover of customers between venues and online. Today, in the bingo market, we have 27% and 38% of the casino land-based market. We want to significantly leverage the strength of our venues brands and take full advantage of the cross-channel opportunity they provide. I would also like to highlight our progress in taking market share.
We've done this while we were migrating the technology platform. We're now excited by the full potential of unlocking the development capability, having completed that migration. Our revenue performance in FY 2021 and FY 2022 was impacted by two clear factors, with a stronger set of results in FY 2023. The first factor driving results was the impact during COVID from the prolonged closure of our estate during that time. We saw a drop in revenue from customers who played online and also visited a casino, highlighting the role our venues play in the cross-channel opportunity. The second factor driving performance was the implementation of enhanced player protection measures and the interpretation of regulation by the Gambling Commission. This impact was most significant in our other U.K. brands, where we align the player protection practices with the Rank brands.
Today, we are well positioned to further accelerate our U.K. digital growth. We have over 100 venues, with over 1.5 million unique customers visiting us each year. We know that a large proportion of them visit our casinos and also play online. However, not enough of these customers play with us. Our proprietary technology enables us to better address this opportunity by delivering a seamless experience to the cross-channel customer. We also have our leading brands and strong marketing capabilities, which are an important part of how we grow. We are clear how we accelerate growth in the U.K. digital business. This is centered on delivering a great customer experience. We will do this via product and customer journey improvements, powered by our proprietary technology, and at the same time, we are focused on driving a more seamless cross-channel experience.
This is supported by driving greater returns from our marketing investment. The following are key areas of opportunity to drive growth from our technology platform. This starts with our Recognise Me personalization plan. We are also insourcing our mobile app development to materially improve what we offer customers today. I know there's also a large opportunity driven by product and customer journey improvements. We are enhancing our Recognise Me personalization capabilities and building on the progress we've already made to date. For our customers, put simply, it's the right interaction at the right time and in the right channel. We are personalizing wider parts of our digital platform in real time. This practically means instantaneously recognizing what our players do. Data science capabilities are also critical to delivering these improvements. This will include involving our games recommendation engine and player propensity profiling to better understand our customers.
A vital part of recognizing me as a player also includes ensuring we have the right interaction to protect players. We're constantly developing our digital player protection tool, Hawkeye. This uses 20 potential markers of harm to assess customer risk in real time, and then tailor interactions with players. This is an area in which we have made significant progress, and players tell us, and it's important part of why they choose to play with us. After three years of migrating the technology platform, we have built a significant customer roadmap to make our offering easier to use and more engaging. This includes enhancing our bonusing capability with a large focus on how we gamify the experience. Equally, we have a rich product and content strategy. This includes adding a wider suite of live casino tables, releasing more exclusive slot content, and broadening our game show offering.
At the same time, we'll improve the quality of our sports offering and add more exciting features to our bingo proposition. Insourcing our mobile app development is a significant opportunity for us and was not possible until we completed the technology migration last October. Today, only 23% of our digital players use our apps. The industry average is closer to 70%, highlighting the size of the opportunity. By way of example, we have nine apps across Mecca and Grosvenor today, with limited integration between them. Doing this better is a clear benefit for our cross-channel customers, as well as our digital and venues-only customers. Apps are an important part of our growth strategy. Players are worth more, staying with our brands for longer, and our target is to have at least 50% of our digital players engaging via the apps.
Today, we have a material opportunity with customers who play with us in-venue and go online. We have over 100 venues across the U.K. and more than 1.5 million customers visiting us each year. We know that over 50% of U.K. casino and bingo players visit a venue and play online, giving us a big opportunity within our venues estate today. However, we are yet to fully leverage that opportunity. Today, 9% of our Mecca base and 5% of our customers in Grosvenor visit us in-venue and play online. These players are really important to our growth. They're at least twice as valuable to the brand, increasing their spend in digital, but also critically in our venues. It's also worth highlighting that cross-channel players are cheaper to acquire for our digital business.
Cross-channel customers are clear in telling us what they want. This includes improved customer journeys between online and in venues. Customers also reference a lack of a unified membership as a pain point. Unified membership is about bringing together the two accounts we ask customers to have in venues and online. For some customers, this is a point of confusion and friction. Customers also tell us that they do not yet feel fully recognized at the brand level, or that they receive tailored rewards for playing with us in both channels. We do do this today, but not in the real-time way that customers want. We are clear how we deliver a better, seamless experience for the cross-channel customer. A unified membership is a critical enabler for this. Unified membership means bringing together two accounts—customers' two accounts together.
Beyond the single wallet we have today for Grosvenor, which only shares the balance between their online and their venues account. This will allow us to have better information on what players do in real time and deliver our personalized, our Recognise Me personalization strategy. In digital, that will allow us to personalize their online experience, either with the right offer, game, as well as information about their local casino or bingo club. In venues, that means putting more information in the hands of colleagues to deliver a better customer experience. This is a really exciting step in evolving our customer experience. It also addresses the pain point today that customers do not feel they get real-time rewards and loyalty for playing with us in both channels. We are also very well positioned to deliver live play from our venues.
This is something which almost none of our digital competitors are able to do, building really distinctive experiences for Mecca and Grosvenor customers. We know this increasingly resonates with players from some of the products that we've built today. In Mecca, we trialed joint liquidity, sharing prizes between online and customers in our venues to build large and attractive jackpots. This is something we are evolving to increase in-venue participation, allowing paper-based players to play along as well. In Grosvenor, we now stream live roulette tables from our venues, which customers love, as it means they can play in a real casino with a real dealer on a real table from the comfort of their home. Customers increasingly like to play on the tables nearest to them or the venues that they have visited. Live play is in a really important area that we're excited about.
We are constantly adding to it with more features like these and more distinctive live products. There is also an opportunity to accelerate our growth via improved returns on our marketing investment. This is not just about increasing spend, but driving higher returns that dovetail our technology investment in the product and customer experience. We will deliver this by investing in three areas: scaling investment above the line, spending money at the top of the marketing funnel. We will also use selective sponsorships to drive credibility and awareness of our brands, and we're also investing more into insights and analytics to ensure we're maximizing our return and extending the reach of our brands. We have different opportunities across our brand portfolio. Mecca punches above its weight relative to how much we spend.
We are outspent by competitors two to three times, but have the same level of consideration and brand health. We can invest more profitably to ensure Mecca is increasingly front of mind to our bingo customers, while extending our reach into wider audiences. In Grosvenor, our position is different to Mecca. We are outspent by competitors, but we're equally less well known. There is an opportunity to be more front of mind and visible to drive consideration for Grosvenor Digital. We've proven that over the last two years. We've taken Grosvenor back on TV, where we've seen solid returns, and we can see headroom to invest further while sustainably growing our player base. We also see opportunity to drive returns from our marketing investment in our other U.K. brands.
We have a full roadmap of customer journey, sorry, of product and customer journey improvements, which we paused while we were completing the migration. We will selectively scale investment alongside the delivery of these customer improvements. So to summarize, we are really excited about the growth opportunity and very clear how we scale our U.K. digital business. We are delivering product and customer journey improvements, powered by our proprietary technology and improved data capabilities. We also have a large opportunity with customers who play in venues and go online, with a clear roadmap to best meet their cross-channel needs seamlessly. And finally, all of this is underpinned by our strong marketing capabilities to deliver improved returns from our marketing investment. Thank you. Enric?
Thank you, Jon, and good morning, everyone. Well, my name is Enric Monton. I'm international managing director for Rank. Well, we want to be the leading online bingo brand in regulated Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries. I will tell you more about our plans in the next section, but first, let me start by giving you an overview of our business in Spain. Well, Rank's history in Spain dates back in the year 1994 with the acquisition of our first venue in Reus, which is a small city near Tarragona in the south of Catalunya. The business remained exclusively retail until the year 2012, when online gambling was regulated in Spain, and Rank applied for the first license to launch a website under the same brand as our bingo business.
The digital business was small until finally in the year 2018, Rank acquired BingoSoft, a Malta-based company operating exclusively in Spain under the YoBingo brand. Then next year, in December 2019, running under the same platform and using the same license, we launched YoCasino, targeting casino players. In May 2021, the Royal Decree on Commercial Communications entered into force, which limited online gambling advertising in a very relevant way. That year, we also migrated our Enracha.es business from the old platform to the same as BingoSoft. And finally, last year, just a few months before the World Cup, we launched YoSports, completing this way our portfolio of games and products. Well, as a result of this, today in Spain, we operate four different websites under the same license and the same platform.
This is a double-digit growth business. In fact, last financial year 2023, we delivered EUR 27.7 million, completing a successful five-year cycle with an average annual growth of 14%. We have leveraged this growth on the constant introduction of brands and new products, as well as thanks to our loyal customers. Well, the digital market in Spain is a competitive market, which was regulated since 2012.... Nowadays, there is no possibility to apply for a new license, but there are more than 60 active operators in the market. The gambling tax is 20%, and the catalog of permitted games is really broad. In fact, almost all the games are permitted in Spain.
But as mentioned before, since May 2021, it has a very restrictive advertising regulation, where that on the one hand, it limits our capacity to attract new customers, but at the same time, it acts as a barrier to entry for new competitors. Well, as a consequence, one of the main characteristics of the digital Spanish business at the moment is the strict regulatory framework that limits the ability to expose and to gain brand awareness, limiting advertising hours from 1:00 A.M. to 5:00 A.M., banning a sponsorship or the use of influencers or ambassadors in our commercial communications, but also any kind of welcome bonus to our customers, which, as I said before, it makes really difficult to attract new customers, but at the same time, it acts as a barrier to entry for new competitors in the market.
As you can see in the graph, the market shrank in 2021, just coinciding with the entry into force of this commercial communication decree, but it has recovered well in 2022, thanks especially to the growth in the casino segment, but also thanks to the recovery in the margin in sports. Thus, casino accounts for more than 50%, and when I say casino, I mean casino plus slot machines, and sports for 37% of the market. While bingo, that is the core product of our original brand, YoBingo, represents only the 1.5%.
But having, as we have, more than 50% of the total market of online bingo in Spain, it allow us to differentiate ourselves and to have a very good cross-selling with the slot and casino, which bring us across all our brands, more than 70% of the total net gaming revenue. Through a single license and under the same platform, and accessible through the same user account, we operate four different brands targeting four different segments. YoBingo, which is our original brand, from where we offer bingo games, casino, and slots games, is still our largest brand, which represents 65% of our total revenues. YoCasino, launched in financial year 2020, offering a wide range of casino, live casino, and slots games, represents 26% of our revenue.
But this is the fastest-growing brand this financial year, thanks to the full redesigns and all the changes that we introduced in the customer journey at the end of last financial year. YoSports, that, as I mentioned before, was launched just before the World Cup as a way to protect or to prevent our multi-gaming customers from moving into other websites in search of a sport. And finally, Ruleta.es, which is the digital arm of our retail business, our bingos business, that despite the legal restrictions that exist in Spain to implement cross-channel actions, we are very close to start implementing the first set of measures in this direction very soon. Well, this has been an overview of where we are in Spain. In the coming section, I will go over our vision and how we will execute our plans.
As I said at the beginning of my presentation, our goal is to become the leading brand for online bingo in Spanish and Portuguese-speaking countries, and we have defined three main drivers in order to accomplish this. First, in Spain, we want to consolidate our leadership in the online bingo. We want to gain market share in casino and in sports, and we want to improve our efficiency by moving our Spanish operations from Malta to Ceuta, with a consequent significant reduction in the gambling tax. Ceuta is a special Spanish territory located in the north of Africa, that the Spanish government wants to incentivize with a lower gambling tax, and operators operating from there benefits from a reduced tax of only 10% instead of the general 20%. Second, we want to be the first online bingo operator in Portugal, and we want to lead the market.
And third, we want to expand our operations into new jurisdictions under a bingo-based strategy. Well, and why these markets, and, why these objectives? Well, the international business is a flexible unit, equipped and armed to operate efficiently in the markets where we operate. With a proprietary platform, the PAM, as a consequence of the acquisition of BingoSoft, and also with our own technology in bingo, which give us the ability to adapt our bingo product, and it becomes a real competitive advantage, as I will show you later. But also with a talented team, and that basically has all the know-how and all the expertise, and is adapted to operate in the countries where we operate and where we want to operate.
Also, with our own style, with our own community of players, our Yobingueros, but also thanks to a successful formula that we want to replicate in new jurisdictions. The launch of Live Bingo is the ultimate demonstration of the potential of being in control of our own technology. Live Bingo will reshape the way how we deliver bingo to our customers by introducing more engagement and more excitement to the game and fostering the concept of community. We will energize the game by introducing a real-time streaming with our presenters or our moderators, presenting and streaming from our own studio using our technology... and merging all the elements, the real-time streaming, plus the chat, plus the transactional widget, all under the same screen. Outside of Spain, our strategy is clear.
We want to replicate our strategy in Spain and use online bingo as an alternative way to enter into regulated Spanish and Portuguese markets. The first leap is Portugal, where we have been preparing for more or for almost two years, at least, and we are now close to completing the tough homologation process. Our estimate now is to go live in Portugal before the end of this financial year. So if everything goes as expected, we will be the first online bingo operator in Portugal, a country where the online market is still growing exceptionally fast, with a lower level of competition than in Spain and in the U.K., and with an exceptional spend per capita three times higher than in Spain. The reason, well, in Portugal, there is less physical gambling than in Spain, and probably also than in the U.K.
In parallel, we are prospecting new jurisdictions, culturally similar, where to export our success model based on bingo. To wrap up everything, in Spain, despite all the legal restrictions that I've mentioned, we are well-positioned, and we still have room to grow in casino and sports, and also through innovative projects such as Live Bingo. We want also to improve our efficiency with the project of moving our offices to Malta, as I explained to you. While in parallel, we are prospecting for new opportunities to extend our successful business model based in bingo into new culturally jurisdictions, starting by Portugal. That's everything from the international business. Now, I pass the floor to Jon Plumb.
Thank you, Enric. Morning, everyone. I'm Jon Plumb. I've been with the Rank Group now for just over five years. Having acquired and developed two gaming platforms over the last few years, we are well positioned for the future. The RIDE and Yo platforms are now fully integrated into our business, and we're already delivering better experiences for our customers. All of our future focus now is on the modernization and further development to build new experiences for our customers. We've recruited some outstanding talent across the globe to help us design and build the right technology for our business. Our architects, engineers, and operations specialists are in place to deliver market-leading products and technology fit for the future.
The three key pillars we're focusing our attention on, scalability and speed to ensure the technology can keep up with the customer demand, seamless delivery of key products and features for our customers, creating a better set of personalized experiences for our customers and allow our teams to make better decisions, all through the use of data and AI technology. Let me walk you through some of the key areas. Our two proprietary platforms, RIDE and Yo, are currently operating across the U.K. and Spain. These platforms offer the foundation for how we manage our customers and deliver a market-leading set of products and features. The first step is to modernize our platforms and ensure they are positioned for growth. The first step in that journey was to move everything into the cloud.
We have lifted the entire RIDE technology stack off of our physical infrastructure and moved it into the Amazon cloud. The managed service that Amazon provides in cloud storage now gives us the ability to grow exponentially in line with the business needs, providing our customers with better performing products and a reliable, consistent experience. And of course, by owning our technology, we take control of our future. We're developing products and features on our own terms and delivering these much faster to our customers. We're differentiating our offering and delivering services in a much more cost-effective way. And so, as we look to the future, we will continue to develop more products and services on our own technology. On to look at microservices. So our platform today consists of a very large database with thousands of processes sitting and working away on top of it.
This is quite a traditional way to architect a platform, but can be quite cumbersome, and it slows down our speed to market for new products. In short, it's quite inefficient. We've redesigned the architecture for the RIDE platform. We are breaking down that large database and processes into manageable bite-sized chunks. We're building a number of smaller databases with dedicated services around them that will deliver the various products and features for the business. Our platform's performance and reliability is constantly improving and enabling us to deliver much more for our customers. One of the biggest features we are introducing as part of the RIDE platform modernization is unified membership. Customers will no longer have to register twice. Their relationship will be with the brand, not the channel.
In the U.K. today, we manage our customers across two systems, one for our venues, the other, our RIDE platform, supporting the online business. We're migrating our customers from that venue system into the RIDE platform and merging their accounts. We will start managing our customers entirely through the RIDE platform at that brand level. This unified membership feature unlocks the opportunity to offer new seamless cross-channel experiences for our customers. We're also focusing heavily on our second proprietary platform in Spain and soon to be Portugal. We're modernizing our Yo platform and improving the performance by scaling the infrastructure and upgrading the technology. In addition, we're delivering a new bingo product along with new features and functionality. Where possible, we are sharing code and technology featured between the RIDE and the Yo platforms.
We're building products and services once, and sharing the learnings and code between our proprietary platforms. Moving on to have a look at our single CMS. So we currently manage our websites through multiple content management systems. Episerver is one, and an in-house built product called Rad2. Our operations team have to manage our various websites and its content using multiple systems. It is not an efficient way of working. We are migrating our brands onto a new content management system called Umbraco. All of these brands will have access to the products and features developed on the RIDE platform. This is really exciting for us. We'll be able to manage our websites using one system, build once, deploy to all, delivering a consistent and seamless experience to our customers more quickly.
For the last 10 years, the Rank Group has been working with various third parties to build and manage our customer-facing apps. Apps are critical for our product development roadmap and for our future customer proposition. Having migrated Mecca and Grosvenor onto our proprietary platform, we are now moving forward and building our own apps. We've designed a modern architecture using the latest technology. Our teams have designed new customer journeys and a refreshed look and feel for our new apps, which we're very excited about launching in the new year. We're introducing new games and exciting new content for our customers to enjoy in the palm of their hand. We're going to push personalized, relevant information to our customers with targeted rewards and promotions, enabling us to create a seamless venue and online experience for our customers.
Customers will have access to relevant venues, content, and features, booking tables, ordering food, accessing promotions. These apps are going to enable us to deliver a truly joined-up proposition for our customers. Let's move on to data, another core component of our digital strategy. So having the right data and using it in the right way is fundamental to everything we're talking about today. We have hundreds of systems across the Rank estate, pumping out lots of data. We needed to find a way to consume all of that data in the right way to make it manageable, and so our Central Engagement Platform for the U.K. business was born. This Central Engagement Platform now lives and breathes and is consuming vast amounts of data and bringing it all together.
We're taking the data, cleaning it, making it relevant, and pushing it out the other end in real time, where necessary, to supporting systems. This improved data solution has big implications for marketing. It provides a subjective tool for measuring the effectiveness of campaign activity, the sales it generates, impact on customers, and value from our marketing and operational costs. Stronger reporting provides more detailed, granular insight into how the business is performing at any point, with the data potentially being delivered in near real time to ensure the business can react quickly. Richer data enhances the quality of predictive models, providing greater understanding of customers' likely behavior, so enabling us to better understand and forecast the customer's likely gambling activity.
Combining insights, customer understanding, their propensity to behave in a certain way is enabling us to proactively deliver the right next best actions for our customers, whether that's improved personalized experiences, offers, games, or targeted services. Our Central Engagement Platform is keeping our data compliant and ensuring we meet the need of all required regulatory bodies. And as we continue to better understand our customers and their behaviors, we're able to proactively identify and manage customers who may be at risk of harm. Artificial intelligence, a hot topic, for most businesses at the moment, and something we've already started to explore and implement in areas of our operation. Our customer-facing chatbots, powered by AI, are already handling 50% of customer contact, improving our customer service efficiency dramatically.
Future developments in this space will include enhanced monitoring for our chat rooms, meaning we're able to analyze and flag inappropriate content in real time, allowing for efficient moderation and proactive intervention. There are some great opportunities using AI in support of safer gambling, real-time incident alerts, analyzing game data, and taking proactive action to manage risk. Automated marketing campaigns and personalized promotions will allow us to deliver targeted marketing based on customer preferences and information. So bringing us back to the key points, our platform modernization program is in flight and delivering. We've already migrated to the cloud, and a microservices build has already started. The planned program of work is due to complete by the end of the second quarter of the next financial year. The Yo platform enhancements and new Bingo products will land early in the new financial year.
The consolidated CMS is improving our websites and helping us become much more operationally efficient. Our Bella brand is already live on the new CMS, with the Mecca and Grosvenor brands migrating in Q3 of 2024. The remaining brands will move across over the subsequent six months. The new apps are gonna be delivering a much improved cross-channel experience for our customers, right in the palm of their hands. Our new Grosvenor Casino app will go live in Q3 FY 2024, with Mecca coming early in FY 2025. Our central engagement platform, along with the introduction of AI, is changing the way we use data across the business. This platform has already been delivered. We are now focusing on improving how we manage our customers and use the data more effectively. The future for technology in our business is very exciting right now.
Thank you for your time. Now, Jon Martin.
This is the part that the teams are really excited about: using the technology to deliver high-impact, customer-facing benefits. I will show a few examples to highlight the investment we're making in the platform and real-time data. These benefits will be delivered via the Central Engagement Platform, our single CMS, and in housing our app development, driving personalized, more relevant, and timely experiences for our customers, both online and in-venue. An offering which, from the customer's perspective, recognizes me. Our first live example is Beth. She's 53 years old, and has been playing with Mecca since she was 21. Her local bingo club is Mecca St. Helens, where she plays bingo several times a week, playing on our Mecca Max tablet. She also plays online, both bingo and slots. She normally visits us every week, but she's not been in a couple of weeks.
We send her a push notification, letting her know that there's an exclusive offer waiting for her when she logs into her Mecca app. When she comes online, she receives a personalized message with an offer on her favorite Mecca Max package in-venue, in which we match the tickets she buys, half-price bingo on her favorite main stage game. We believe there's a big upside opportunity in using real-time data and technology to improve the customer experience as customers move between playing online and visiting a venue. Soon, colleagues will benefit from having much more real-time information at their fingertips. This will include information of when customers last visited a venue, whether they play online, what are their product preferences, be it their typical bingo package or the food and beverage they buy when they visit us.
When players like Beth arrive in-venue, we can offer them their favorite Mecca Max package or share offers and promotions most relevant to them. Colleagues will also know if players have signed up to receive offers from Mecca. We can ask her if we have the right up-to-date contact details and marketing preferences to make sure she's not missing out on offers on her favorite games. Soon, we will also be able to personalize a unique homepage for each customer to serve content and games they are most likely to engage with based on what they like to play. For example, customers that like games with lots of bonus rounds or players that love Irish-themed slots, we can have their homepage personalized with access to games we know they like.
This makes it more likely that our customers will engage with the content they see, find the games they're looking for, and explore and play with new content we think is most relevant to them. This includes personalizing their homepage banners with a relevant game offer. A key part of the reason customers tell us they play with Grosvenor is that they feel we give them the tools to play responsibly. Another live example is Daniel. He's 46 and plays at the Rialto and Vic in London. Online, he plays our casino tables, mainly roulette, on our stream table live from The Vic. Here is a situation in which he's playing roulette online for longer than we would normally expect. Our Hawkeye tool flags his account for review. On review, it's determined that we should check in with Daniel to ensure he is playing safely.
One of our safer gambling agents attempts to have an interaction with him, but we are unable to speak to him before he logged off. If he were to walk into a venue, our colleagues would be served in a real-time alert to have an interaction with him. We do this in venues today, and soon we'll be able to deliver this across channel, enabling tailored interactions to ensure our customers are playing safely. Early interactions such as this have a much more positive impact than later interactions, which can quickly become suspensions. On to our final example of how we use technology to personalize our interactions with players, with Tom. He's 35, he lives in London, plays poker across a number of our casinos in the Grosvenor U.K. Poker Tour, and when he comes online, he plays both poker and live casino with us.
After playing in our GBP 1.5 million Goliath event at Coventry, we deliver a personalized follow-up with an offer tailored to him. We send him an app notification, letting him know there's a message waiting for him when he logs in. We thank him for playing with, for playing with us at the Goliath event in Coventry and let him know about next week's- next weekend's poker event at The Vic in London. We can personalize offers like this for what customers play and the amount they spend at. In this example, we thank Tom for his entry into Goliath with a GBP 10 free bet to play on his favorite live casino table. Today, we are only scratching the surface of a Recognise Me approach to customer communication.
There are many more opportunities to build customer loyalty and share of wallet as we deliver on the technology improvements over the next 18 months.
... Thank you. I'll hand you back over to Richard.
So recapping on today, you've heard that the digital business at Rank was well behind the curve relative to the market, and we weren't in control of our own destiny. But the size of the opportunity is very significant. We've done some heavy lifting over the last few years and now have a much stronger foundation from which to grow. On top of that, there is a clear product development pipeline that will be delivered over the next 15 months, and that is summarized here. These projects are a mix of developments that will improve customer experience at launch, such as live bingo in Spain and the new apps in Grosvenor and Mecca, as well as enabling projects that will deliver benefits over time.
They improve reliability, allow us to make changes to the platform quickly, support cost reduction, enable deployment of front-end changes at speed, and so on. You've heard the key drivers of our growth for our digital business today are as follows: leveraging the proprietary platforms, which we believe are key assets for the group. We'll have increasingly scalable, modularized platforms that allow us to deliver customer enhancements quickly and with a more reliable experience. Our market-leading brands in Casino and Bingo present us with a significant opportunity to grow the market share from the 2.9% we are today. We have a pipeline of product developments that will improve the customer experience and a plan that utilizes technology and data to really drive growth. We're creating increasingly personalized customer experiences for venues customers, digital customers, and those highly valuable customers that spend their time playing across channel.
Our talented teams focus on their local markets, are set up to maximize the value of our assets and capitalize on the opportunity in front of us. And as I mentioned earlier, that opportunity is material. In the medium term, there is a plan to grow market share in what is a very competitive market. We have the potential to deliver 8%-12% compounded annual revenue growth and margin improvements of 400-500 basis points, and that opportunity is underpinned by our strategic plan that is in place. That plan will deliver material profit improvement and is a critical component of the overall Rank investment case. Over to you, John.
Crikey, I've never been so quiet! We're going to move into questions, but just before we do, just a few words. We've come a long way. When I joined the group, we had good talent, I think, but we didn't have the technology and we didn't have the technology capability and it is tough to retain good talent in an organization, and we didn't have good technology to work with. We acquired Yo in 2018. That deal was not really my deal. It was already lined up when I joined, and I kind of merely rubber-stamped it on the way in. But it's been a very good acquisition for the group. I think you've seen today.
It gives us a solid brand in the Spanish market and, more importantly, technology capability. And, in the U.K., we acquired the Stride businesses, you know, in 2019. The objective was to deliver a proprietary platform and technology capabilities. We had the Gambling Commission's compliance assessment that came a few months after we acquired it, which was a little bit unfair at the time, and that put a bit of a hole in the revenues, but, we'd be in a very, very different place today were it not for the acquisitions. It has delivered us the technology and the talent that we were in much need of if we were to drive Rank's digital opportunity. Since the acquisition, we've been catching up, and you've, you've seen that.
We still have a lot to do, so by no means are we there. We've given you some of the timelines this morning for some of those key technology deliverables. We've historically, I think, punched below our weight in the digital market, and so we have therefore considerable upside, and notwithstanding some of the negative headwinds that come to the digital business and the Gambling Act Review here in the U.K., there is considerable upside for this business. The acquisitions and the talent that have been brought into the organization with those acquisitions have been transformative, and we are. I certainly am super excited about the next, the opportunity over the next few years for the digital business in the Rank Group.
And at which point, I'll invite my colleagues, who've done all the hard lifting, heavy lifting, to take their seats, and we'll turn to questions. I think the format is we're going to take questions from the room, first of all. For those very kindly joining us online, please sit yourself down. For those very kindly joining us online, this morning, if you would, there's an opportunity to ask questions, and Sarah and Scott will add those questions in either as we go along or towards the end, and we'll make sure we cover as much of the territory as you want us to cover. Here we go. Ivor.
John, thank you. Ivor Jones from Peel Hunt. I feel as I live here, I ought to have my own microphone, really.
You should.
In terms of driving revenue growth, which is more important, a cross-sell from venue customers or direct acquisition of new customers to the group? That's the first thing. Shall I carry on?
Carry on.
You're talking about lots of product and technology developments. When do you put the marketing spend behind monetizing the upside from those investments? Do we see a big step up in digital marketing only in FY 2026, when all of this has landed? So what, how much, when do you start putting costs in ahead of revenue growth in a big way? And lastly, what's the future of the revenue in digital that's generated on third-party platforms? Does that migrate too, or does that wither on the vine? Is that a headwind that you've accounted for? Thank you.
Let me answer the second question first, then I'll hand to Jon for me. We're not envisaging any very, very steep ramp-up in marketing investment. I think the message is that we can drive stronger returns on marketing investment with the investment we're making in technology, through more personalized experiences for the consumer. We'll just get stronger returns. We'll extend lifetime values. We'll get a bigger share of wallet, is more the message than we can drive marketing investment. Jon?
Definitely. So to add to that, as John says, as we see the player values improve, we constantly react to that. We monitor it daily, weekly, monthly, so that is a constant evolution for us. Going to your question, I think, which was what's more important, cross-channel acquisition and engagement or acquisition of new players? For us, the unit economics are really clear. We've got a relationship with our customers in our venues today. We know that when they engage in both channels, they spend more money, not just in digital, but critically on the venues part of the business as well, and they're more cost-effective to acquire. So we can do both at the same time.
In terms of the value that they drive, the cross-channel customer is clearly more valuable to us, but we'll also dovetail and increase marketing as we see the benefits of the customer improvements landing.
The third question, Jon, future third-party platforms.
So today we run roughly 90 brands on third-party platforms. We acquired that as a part of the Stride transaction. These brands cater for a different audience, who are more promotionally and value-led. They typically engage in digital channels and are different to the Mecca and Grosvenor customers. Today, we can drive a good return from those customers by investing in those brands, and there's no current plans to migrate those customers onto the RIDE platform.
Thank you.
David?
Morning, David Brohan, Goodbody. Just three questions. Firstly, thinking about the international expansion opportunity, you know, obviously outlined the kind of the plan in Portugal, but beyond that, is it more organic or inorganic that you're thinking in terms of expanding there? Secondly, in the U.K., you know, how do you see the digital competitive landscape currently in the U.K.? You know, probably not all operators are operating off a level playing field and, you know, is there evidence that that gap is maybe tightening a bit? And then finally, just on Passion Gaming, I know it wasn't really discussed today, but how do you think about the long-term growth story there post the tax, the recent tax increases? Thank you.
If I take Passion Gaming, first of all, and then, Enric, the international expansion point, and maybe Jon on digital competitive landscape. So yeah, so there's a 28% tax on deposits in India that started on the first of October, and the business is not commercially viable in the medium terms at, you know. So, it's when we acquired the business, we put no value on Passion. It's been a lot of fun. They're a great team, but we're a pretty small player in the Indian market. And, we've got with, at the moment, we run it in a way which is cash neutral, not material to the group.
We're reviewing options, but the message to take away is, GST at 28% of deposits is unviable in the medium to long term and unlikely to change in my view. I know there is a review coming in March, but unlikely to change in my view. I hope I'm wrong. But Enric .
Yeah. Well, regarding our international plans, basically now, we are completely focused now in launching Portugal, that, as I said before, it has proven just to be more tough than what probably we expected, probably due to the fact that we are the first online bingo operator, and it has requested much more tests from our, from the regulator. Apart from this, we are prospecting other, countries, new jurisdictions. We are very on top and following the, new regulatory developments in Brazil, but also in other Latin American countries. I think that Portugal has just, demonstrated how demanding it is to enter into every new market.
For us, it's not a matter of quantity, it's especially a matter of finding the right opportunity where we can really use our competitive advantage, and it fits the best. We are looking for this, a lot of options, but we need to be sure that they really fit.
... So I think that's right. Antenna raised, but we're not sure of runway in the short term. We've got plenty other places we've demonstrated this morning. Jon, if I may?
So on to how we see the U.K. landscape. We obviously think there's clear headroom to grow. It is a competitive landscape, but we have clear and distinct propositions for our customers. Mecca is clearly synonymous with bingo in the U.K., and if you grow bingo, you grow your slots base as well. And we're really clear around how we do that, about building a really clear bingo offering. In Grosvenor, we're clearly the biggest land-based casino in the U.K., and we own a position around doing casino really, really well. And at the same time, we've got to be the sportsbook of choice for our gaming customers, as I, as I mentioned earlier. And in answer to Ivor's question, we also see headroom, growing our longer tail of multi-brands and the other brands that we have on our proprietary platform as we deliver customer improvements.
They cater to a different audience that is Mecca and Grosvenor today. In short, it is competitive, but we see lots of opportunity continuing growing.
And from a kind of... If we look it from the other end of the telescope, let me just add to that, Jon, that, you know, all of our U.K.-facing brands operate under the same single license, so, we don't have any negative impact down the track of merging our brands onto one single license. So be it deposit limits, be it self-exclusions. If you self-exclude on one of our brands, you have self-excluded. So, we don't have any pain to come our way from that change.
Hi, Mark, Mark Costar from J O Hambro. Can I ask three questions, if I may? You mentioned app players are much more valuable than normal players. I wonder if you could help sort of give us an idea of the quantum of that in terms of, particularly given you're only 23% versus the 50 target and 70 for the market, seems like quite an opportunity there if there's a quantum of better profitability from those players. Second question was, again, on sort of a bit of quantification, really. You talk about cross-channel customers being significantly cheaper to acquire. I wonder if you could, again, give us some, sort of guardrails around that from a quantum perspective. Related to that, which is my third question, which is the Recognise Me and the single account.
I mean, wasn't this something that Grosvenor One was supposed to deliver? So trying to understand the difference between Grosvenor One and the single account, Recognise Me, and what the difference means in terms of potential efficiency and profitability. Thank you.
Right. Let me. If I again start with the third of those questions, and then I'll, Jon, I'll hand to you for the other two, if you don't mind. So yeah, so, when I was doing my due diligence, I looked back at the, back at the history, and I think, we were talking about a single account and wallet as far back as 2012, I think, maybe even 2011. And, we delivered it in 2019. And what it was, complicated piece of technology. We probably built a Rolls-Royce, in truth, given the complexity of the technology. What we built was the ability to for a Grosvenor customer to use their account balance in a venue, so they could access cash through that single wallet.
But it was a very complicated structure which brought together the online account with their venue account, effectively. Quite a forced data driven piece of tech, which is fine. It, it, it means it's been valuable to the consumer. It means you can access your cash in your venue, you can play online and pick up your winnings, and use your winnings to buy chips and play in the venue. And if you play online and win, you can go and access your cash. And if you play online and you you play on the tables and you win, you can put it into your account and go home and play with that online.
So all valuable, useful, and has helped drive that cross-channel play for the Grosvenor business, which is really important to our Grosvenor revenues today, digitally, digitally and in venue. But it's not the same thing as unifying memberships so that the customer has one single account, one single data view of that customer, so the membership system is consistent across online and in-venue. If I give you an example in Mecca, which we don't have the single account and wallet in Mecca today, but if as a customer, if I walk into Mecca today, we know very little about you. We know your name and address, and we know your date of birth, so we can say happy birthday to you, but we can't say much more than that today.
We don't know whether you play online. We don't know what other Mecca venues you go to. We don't know when you last came in. We don't know if you have been with us for the last three weeks. Lots of obvious data points we don't deliver. And the cross-channel piece of that is vitally important. And what the unified membership system will deliver is one single view of the customer, regardless of channel. So everything, our experience and our knowledge of the customer, is kind of completely seamless. That's the direction of travel we're headed in. We could only do that, by the way, with proprietary technology. There was no way we could have done it across casino and bingo without bringing technology in-house. So that's the step change, Mark, that we are making.
Jon, I think the value of app players, 23%-50%.
So on average, from our current app players today, they're worth around a third more. The obvious benefits are you're in a customer's pocket 'cause you're on their homepage. We have the ability to push notifications as well, which is a really important marketing channel. Give some of the examples that we gave earlier. But the two other things that are really exciting about the app work that, that Jonathan talked about, John talked about, sorry, is it's a critical enabler for the cross-channel piece. So serving content that's really, really relevant for customers if they play in a venue and go online, and that space to be able to personalize that app is critical. And also, we know that if we're on, in a customer's pocket, the app customers generally stay with us for longer.
So that's why we're really excited about the opportunity that the apps bring. I think the second question was then, on average, what's the cost differential between acquiring a player? It on average can move depending on how we spend our money, but on average, it's around a quarter to 1/3 cheaper than a digital-only player.
A chunk of that is the incentivization of colleagues.
Yes.
We reward colleagues. In fact, what we do is the P&L in venues includes the cross-channel revenue for the consumer below the line.
Hi, morning. I have Richard Stuber from Numis. 3, please. The first one is, I guess we've seen across the U.K. market, different companies going ahead of others in terms of safer gambling measures. Obviously, some outperforming others more recently. Where do you see yourself compared to the rest of the market in terms of implementation of those measures? The second question is, I guess you've got two proprietary platforms. Is there any longer term for you to have just one? And would there be cost savings? What's the advantages of having two separate ones? And the third question is: could you say what proportion of your digital revenue comes from cross-channel customers?
I think you said how many, what percentage of your venues players play in digital, but not what proportion of your digital revenues is from cross-channel. Thank you.
Let me take the first one in this case, the safer gambling one, my specialist subject, and then I'll pass the second question about proprietary platforms to you, Jonny, if I may, and digital revenues to you, Jonny, if I may.
So safer gambling, I think we've always been ahead of the curve in truth. I think the nature of the Rank Group is we're always ahead of the curve when it comes to what we deliver in terms of safer gambling controls to the consumer. And we've had our moments with the Gambling Commission, and but the last of which was post the Stride acquisition and the compliance assessment of the Stride business.
What we have done is merged all of our customers that sit on, as I've said, on one single account. So, we don't have that pain to come, where you are merging customers from across different licenses onto one license, or onto one platform. So we don't have that pain to come. In terms of the triggers we use, what have been classed as financial vulnerability checks in the Gambling Commission consultation, we're running that today at ground zero. So when a customer registers, we carry out a vulnerability check on that customer today. The consultation is based on GBP 125 and GBP 500, different periods apply. So we're already doing that at zero.
So if we were to move our, those levels upwards, that would be something of a cost saving for us in truth, because there's a cost to carrying out those vulnerability checks. In terms of financial risk assessments, much discussed, obviously, providing, over very importantly, we deliver on, the, government's proposal in the White Paper, and these are genuinely frictionless financial, assessments of the consumer. I, I don't think we've got any concern about that whatsoever. And, and if, if it adds to our knowledge of the consumer beyond the kind of 20 markers of harm we already monitor, then I think it's positively a good thing. If it's creating huge amounts of friction for the consumer, then I think that's problematic, right across the industry.
Probably a bit less so for us, because our triggers, I would say today, are the lowest in the sector. John?
Question two. The two platforms. The U.K. and Spanish markets are regulated differently, so we maintain two separate platforms in order to make sure we meet those requirements of the regulator in each jurisdiction. It's much more cost-effective for us to do it that way, given the work that we have to put in place behind the scenes in the back end. We do share code in certain areas where we can, and we'll be doing more of that as we start to align the code bases, but it doesn't make sense, operational or cost sense for us to have one platform that covers all jurisdictions.
Cool.
And then the final question on the percentage that cross-channel customers make up in the digital business. In Grosvenor, they're just under 1/3 , contribute 1/3 of the revenue, and in Mecca, it's around 20%. Maybe just to clarify that, I gave the stats 9% in Mecca and 5% in Grosvenor. That, that's venue customers, percentage of venue customers who go online.
Any more questions here?
Hi, Mike Savage, Killik. Just following up from that last point then, and in playing catch up on that cross-selling, you touched on Mecca, joint liquidity, Grosvenor, live roulette dealing. Is that just following others in the industry who are already overweight on that cross-selling initiative, or have you got some original-... policies you're pursuing, as well as you just catch up with others that are already overweight on the cross-selling program? Jon?
So I think the real power for us in cross-channel is the data that you get. So in the example that John gave, when a customer walks into Mecca, being able to understand who that customer is and what they do, is where you unlock the power of the value upside for us. Because you can personalize any interaction that you have online, and then in venue, you can curate an experience that John talked about to make sure we give players what they want. In terms of the product development angle of that, joint liquidity is really important, 'cause as Richard said, it builds the prize pool both online and in venue.
We weren't the first to market in terms of streaming live tables from our venues, but we're certainly taking an increasing position and doing it at greater scale than others in the market. I said earlier, what we're seeing is players increasingly resonate with the tables that they are near them or the venues that they visit to. So having a geographic footprint that does that really well, and then building on the features that we have today, is a really important part of the product roadmap that I talked about.
Yeah, the sweet spot for the group is that this group of customers that are playing cross-channel and playing more than one channel, and in the casino market, clearly, we've got 51 of 117 casinos in the U.K., so it's inevitably a sweet spot. In bingo, you know, we've got 55 of what's now 250, 260 venues, you know, typical bingo clubs in the U.K.. And so again, a clear sweet spot is that cross-channel base. From a competitive standpoint, we're in a strong position.
Mark?
Sorry, three quick last ones for me, from me. Just on Enracha first, just you talked a little bit about cross-channel promotion within the framework of what the rules allow. I wonder if you could expand on what you can do there. And in that context as well, just curious as to why you stream bingo from a studio rather than, say, using an Enracha venue like they do in Grosvenor from a live poker table, as an example. The second one, just on Grosvenor more broadly, I mean, why is it, do you think, that the brand is still punching so much below its weight from a recognition perspective, given you are the clear market leader in the U.K.? And what can you do to change that?
And then finally, just on AI, you talked about what you're doing with customer support and safer gambling, but you also mentioned in passing about the data there. I wonder if you could talk about, you know, given the very significant data pool you will have on a unified platform and the new technologies, what you can do to utilize that and tailor and launch generally unique or differentiated product from the data you have, that others won't necessarily be in possession of. Thank you.
Okay. Enric, if you would, the cross-channel promotion in Enracha, which has always been a challenge, but we're making some headway on, and why don't we stream from venue rather than studio?
Okay. Of course, yes. Well, in Spain, one of the main characteristics is that, the online gambling is regulated at the federal level, while our venues are regulated at a regional level. And it always gives a lot of complexity when it comes to try to do this kind of cross-channel activities, because there is a lot of regulation behind everything which we do. This is probably one of the main issues that we have just to overcome, to implement them. Anyway, we are starting just doing some that obviously are possible. Like, for example, one of the first things that we want to do is to allow the registration from our venues. So when one player join our loyalty program, automatically, we want just to create the website account. This is one of the first things that we want to implement.
But it's basically our legal restrictions, why we can't strengthen it more. And regarding our studio in our live bingo product, well, the fact is that what we are doing with the live product is that we are not touching the RNG. So what I mean is that the outcome of the game doesn't come from the studio itself. It's still something virtual, so the balls are called virtually, and the only thing that we are doing is just putting a presenter behind the scene, right? So that we'll be presenting and energizing the game, but we are not touching the RNG, which is an important part.
It's more a way just to dynamize the game, and that's why we are not doing this from our venues, and we are using a studio, because in fact, it's we shouldn't be able just to call the balls from our venues.
Yeah, so, largely a regulatory issue, and, the way to think about it is that, our venues in Catalonia are regulated by the Catalonian government. And, obviously, our online business is regulated by the DGOJ, which is the federal government, and, therein lies the challenge. But anyway, we're working our way through. Let me take the why doesn't Grosvenor why does it punch below its weight? I think the answer is history, actually, 'cause I'm long enough in the tooth to remember all of this stuff. And, you know, in the early days of the online market in the U.K., us bookmakers, I was a bookmaker at the time, we were much quicker to the party, is the truth of it. And, you know, the big early brands in the casino world...
We discovered it early because it was quite an expensive business to recruit sports customers, and the lifetime value of a sports customer is quite tricky economics. But you know, I remember getting to a point where 46% of sports customers were playing casino games online within their first month of play. That changed the economics for sportsbook operators in the U.K., and that has, you know, the sportsbook operators in the U.K. are the dominant online casino players. That's a function of history. If you, when you carry out research and ask the consumer to identify either spontaneously or prompted brands that they can play with online, it's the sportsbook operators, it's Sky Bet, Bet365. They are the brands that the consumer first mentions in the context of playing casino games online.
But that's also why that sweet spot is that cross-channel player. And something like, what's the stat? Of customers who play in a casino, every year, 70% of them are playing casino games online. So there is a big opportunity for us in that marketplace. I'll let Jon and Jon do the, what the opportunity is in, with the data pool in terms of new products and new opportunities.
Can I start?
Mm-hmm.
I'll start. So, I mean, I'm immensely proud of the Central Engagement Platform that we've built. It's built on state-of-the-art technology, and I'm really proud of the team that built it. What we're doing now is consuming vast amounts of data on our customers, some of it quite difficult to turn into something that you can use. So we've created three layers, a bronze, silver, and a Gold layer within that Central Engagement Platform. Bronze layer, raw data, all comes in from all the different sources. Silver layer cleans it up, turns it into something usable. Then the Gold layer , which allows you to turn that, create data, data tables and maps that allow you to use that data for the right reason in the right way. And that's the area that we're now developing, that's what we've moved into. So the Bronze/Silver stuff's largely done.
The pipes there exist, and the data is pushing through. It's now about turning that data into something real and valuable that we can use with a consumer. So, for example, a customer will be able to know their online activity, and then we could perhaps use that for when they walk into a venue. So, you know, we know they play Cleopatra online, so we could potentially send a notification that says, "Okay, we know you love Cleopatra. Your favorite slot is down the corridor on the right-hand side." You know, that's where we want to get to, and we need to get to with some of this stuff and much more. So we've got the raw platform. It's now creating that Gold layer of data and using it most effectively in our business.
That's where John will take over, I think.
Yeah, just add a few things to that. So data is the fuel that really gets the technology going, and it allows us to personalize the experience. Soon, we'll be able to deliver a unique, personalized homepage for each customer, and that can reference when they like to play, the amount they like to spend there, and the products they want. And that's when the data becomes really, really powerful for us, when they're on-site with us, but also then when we try to communicate with them when they're not on site, so we can tailor our communication to be really specific to what they want. And as John mentioned, that there are significant benefits in venue from doing that, and it. We gave the example of Beth earlier.
When a customer walks into a Mecca venue, we can greet them with the product they play. We can recognize when they were last in venue with us, and we can give them rewards that reflect what they want to do, giving a really, really tailored customer experience. So for us, it's all about how you take that data to deliver a really good experience. In digital, that's about being really, really personalized with the offering to the consumer. In venues, it's about taking that data and put it in the hands of colleagues to deliver a great customer experience, to show that we understand our players.
Ivor.
Thank you. You've talked about an ambition for growth for revenue growth for digital. To understand the upside and downside risks, it'd be helpful to know how much of that 8%-12% is your assumption about the market overall, and how much therefore is market share gain? And I was thinking about those very useful graphs that showed the balance between operating profit and cash flow. I was thinking it would be useful to know the balance of cash generation across the group and those CapEx numbers. But I know you're not necessarily going to talk a forecast. Maybe you could talk about this year. How much of that is capitalized development cost for the digital business at an abnormal level that runs down?
So within that mix, in a couple of years' time, is digital the cash generator that's driving CapEx investment in the venues part of the business? How does that mix play out in terms of cash generation? And then, lastly, just a confirmation, really. I think if Treasury harmonizes online gambling duty at, say, 21%, I didn't feel like Rank's very much at risk from that, given the mix of business. I'd like to just make sure that's right. Thank you.
Well, Richard, you take the first one, I'll take the second. I mean, it's... You're right. There you go. It's today, it's about GBP 500,000 cost if it were to be 21% across the board. We'll wait to see whether that's what government has in mind. We'll see the consultation when it comes out, but it's, it would be about GBP 500,000 a year in terms of incremental cost. Yeah.
Out of the total CapEx for the year that we're in, so we've guided to GBP 50 million for the current financial year, between 20%-25% of that relates to the digital business. Some of that is at elevated levels, but there is a good chunk of that that will kind of persist in the medium term, just from ongoing development on the site.
Within the overall growth expectations for digital, how much of that is your assumption about market?
So there's a few moving parts over the course of the next few years. So you've got the gambling review impact.
... So the 8%-12% is kind of cognizant of that gambling review impact. So I mentioned earlier that the statutory levy has an impact within that in terms of profitability. And the limits for online slots have an impact on revenue and profitability. We've got kind of low to mid-single digit market growth built into the overall forecast. So yeah, we're at just under 3% market share at the moment. We've got circa 30% + in venues. I'm not suggesting for one minute we can go from three to 30, but if you can get the three to four or five, then that is, you know, that delivers a good chunk of that revenue growth that I've outlined.
Thank you. Online questions, if we may.
Yes, we've got a few questions.
Sorry, and we'll come back.
We've got a few questions online, so first one's from Vishal Bhatia from Jefferies. A question for Enric, please. Looking forward to the launch of the digital proposition in Portugal, how will you judge success of this venture in, say, three years?
Well, for us, obviously, Portugal is a very interesting opportunity, especially because, as I show you, nowadays, there is no anyone offering bingo. Exactly as we have. Yeah, so is my micro still working?
Well, that's...
Thank you. Exactly replicating, as I mentioned before, the same strategy that we have followed in Spain. So, leveraging our strategy in a bingo model based that allow us to differentiate, that's how what we really want to do. So to differentiate from the rest of the competitors in the market, and also using our formula, where we used to link or to associate a lot with influencers and ambassadors. That used to be something very relevant for the kind of customers that we target. That's the way how we want to succeed in Portugal.
Further question from Vishal for you as well, Enric. You're almost annualized-- You're almost annualizing the launch of YoSports . Please can you talk about the learnings from that and how they may or may not help your launch in Portugal? In addition, what is a good result for YoSports in three years? Thanks.
Okay. Well, YoSports, as I commented also, we launched especially that brand in order to to prevent our customers just to move into other websites, in search of a sport. It's not because we'd really consider that is our core product or our core market. It's not at all. So we come from where we come, and we are good on where we are at. But anyway, it's always good just to have another brand that allow us also just to basically to retain these customers. That's why we launched YoSports. Apart from this, there are a lot of restrictions in Spain right now in order to advertise, so it's not the best market now to launch a brand, especially because you have to compete in the most competitive segment, which is a sport against the big ones.
So, we still consider that we have a lot of room. It's not going to be massive, but we can growth, obviously, in Spain. What have we learned of this? Well, I think that it's completely two different markets. I think that probably Portugal is more related to what we know to do and how we can use our competitive advantage and our own style. So I think that it will be a completely formula and a completely business model, the one that we want to use for Portugal.
Thank you.
I've always wondered why there are so few operators licensed in Portugal, and having worked through the homologation process as described, we now know the reason why. It's not easy, and we'll be the first bingo brand in a market where, you know, it's zero. You know, it's a zero bingo brand market today, online bingo brand, but for those who know the Portuguese market, it's a very strong land-based bingo market, so that's the opportunity for us. Remains to be seen how much of that market will move online, but it's an interesting opportunity.
Thank you. Further question from Vishal, and it's for Richard. With regards to your targets of 8%-12% compound revenue growth, what assumptions do you pencil in for these new launches in Portugal, YoSports, et cetera?
So within the 8%-12, a large chunk of that is gonna come from the U.K. digital base. So we've spoken today quite a lot about the opportunity that we have with the Mecca and Grosvenor brands in particular and that cross-channel opportunity. So they will make up the lion's share of that 8%-12% growth. But at the same time, we're expecting nice contributions from Portugal and, to a lesser extent, the YoSports brand .
So that's all the questions from online. Maybe we can go back to the question in the room, if you want to.
Richard. Unless we've asked, answered it, Richard.
Thanks. So just a couple of follow-ups. The 8%-12% growth in online, how do you see that split between sort of Grosvenor and Mecca? Is most of the growth gonna come from the Grosvenor part? Another point is, in the Grosvenor, in terms of the cross-channel, sorry, of the cross-channel, what proportion of your, sort of, of your venues customers are probably overseas, which means that you can't really target them for the online brand? So yeah, how much of, how much of that is, of your venue businesses are really a captive market?
Okay, let me take the second one, and then, Richard, I'll hand to you, if that's okay, for the first answer. So, you know, there's a big Pareto in land-based casinos in the U.K., particularly in London, where, you know, relatively small percentage of customers who cross the threshold are important in terms, revenue terms because they are international visitors coming to London for two weeks, three weeks, four weeks, six weeks. For those who've been out and about in the last couple of weeks, you'll see in London, it's quite busy again, so it's picking up for Christmas, and which is always good. But the relevance in the online space is negligible to zero, really doesn't register.
We're very restrictive on anybody playing with us from outside of the U.K., so extremely restrictive. So it's irrelevant to us. The eight to 12, how much is Grosvenor, how much Mecca? Jon might want to take that.
I'm happy to. So I think our view would be both present significant opportunity. If you compare the gap between the current percentage of customers in venue who also play online, it's 5% in Grosvenor and 9%. So we naturally see a higher cross-channel opportunity on the Grosvenor side of the business, and equally for the Mecca and Grosvenor digital customers, we still see significant room to grow. So I wouldn't call out any kind of large differential there between the two. I don't know if you want to add to that.
Grosvenor customers are probably worth more per visit, aren't they?
Yes.
So in addition to that, they're both a significant opportunity, but probably marginally Grosvenor, I'd say.
Right. I think we've got a bit of lunch and, or some, certainly something to eat and drink. Can I thank everybody who's joined us in the room? Can I also thank those who've joined us online? Many thanks. I think for those in the room, we're all gonna be around, so if there's any further questions or anything anybody would like to come and chat to us about, that'd be great. That'd be terrific. Thank you again, all, for coming this morning. Many thanks.