Rank Leaves Grosvenor’s £8m Weekly Target Unpaid

Grosvenor casinos averaged £7.6m of net gaming revenue a week in Rank Group’s year to 30 June 2026. That is the first full year after UK land-based casino reforms, and after Rank installed 850 extra gaming machines.

The figure is still short of the about £8.0m weekly run rate Rank set in early 2025, when it said Grosvenor had left a prolonged recovery phase. The new medium-term aim is £9.5m a week. Underlying operating profit rose. Reported profit did not.

The £8m Weekly Bet Rank Made in Early 2025

In January 2025 Rank reported first-half net gaming revenue of £401.8m, up 11% from £362.6m. Grosvenor venues led that print at £192.8m, up 15%, with table games up 23% and electronic gaming up 16%. Management said the estate had emerged from a prolonged recovery phase and that it could grow weekly net gaming revenue to about £8.0m in the medium term, excluding later Gambling Act Review benefits.

John O’Reilly, then chief executive, tied that call to investment on both sides of the business and to land-based rule changes then expected from summer 2025. Digital like-for-like revenue in that half was £120.2m, up 14%. Mecca’s digital brand rose 21% to £48.1m and Grosvenor’s digital brand 22% to £41.0m. Mecca venues were £68.6m, up 6%. Enracha in Spain was £20.2m, up 7%.

The law did change. The Casinos Gaming Machines Regulations 2025 sit in a package that gave converted casinos more room on machine numbers and let them offer sports betting. Rank used that opening in England and Wales, put 850 extra B1 machines on Grosvenor floors in the first half of 2025/26, and began sports betting in 24 venues.

THE RECOVERY CALENDAR

1. January 2025: Rank says Grosvenor has left a prolonged recovery phase and aims for about £8.0m of weekly net gaming revenue in the medium term.
2. July 2025: Land-based casino reforms take effect in England and Wales, including extra machines and sports betting in converted casinos.
3. 22 October 2025: A Grosvenor capital markets event raises the weekly aim to £9.5m, with a 5 percentage point margin lift.
4. H1 2025/26: Rank installs 850 additional gaming machines and prints a £7.8m Grosvenor week.
5. 29 January 2026: O’Reilly retires. Richard Harris, the finance chief, becomes interim chief executive the next day.
6. 1 April 2026: Remote Gaming Duty rises to 40% and bingo duty ends.
7. 12 July 2026: Harris becomes permanent chief executive.
8. 13 August 2026: Rank reports a £7.6m Grosvenor week for the year to 30 June 2026.

By the year-end the old £8.0m line was still ahead of the meter, even with the reform kit on the floor. Rank did not drop the ambition. It moved it.

What Grosvenor Took Per Week

Rank’s preliminary results for the year to 30 June 2026 put group like-for-like net gaming revenue at £834.1m, up 6% from a restated £788.4m. Reported net gaming revenue was £835.0m, up 5% from £795.4m. Underlying operating profit rose 21% to £78.6m. Like-for-like operating profit rose 20% to £79.9m. The margin went to 9.4% from 8.1%.

Grosvenor, still the largest slice, took £397.3m, up 5% from £378.4m. London was £123.6m and the rest of the UK £273.7m, each up 5%. Visits rose 2% and spend per visit 3%. Average weekly net gaming revenue was £7.6m, which Rank described as up 5% from £7.3m. In the six months to 31 December 2025 that week had already reached £7.8m, then the full year came in lower.

GROSVENOR WEEKLY NGR AGAINST RANK’S TARGETS

The rest of the group also grew, just not at the old H1 clip. Mecca venues were £143.0m, up 4%. Enracha was £45.3m, up 7%. Digital like-for-like revenue was £248.5m, up 8%. Rank said all businesses grew for a fifth straight year.

850 Extra Machines and a Flat Table Floor

The recovery Rank called in early 2025 was a tables story. The year it has now closed was a machines story. Live tables were £175.0m against £174.2m, which Rank marked as flat, and they still made up 44% of casino net gaming revenue. Rank said conflict in the Middle East weighed on tables in the second half. Electronic table gaming rose 5% to £62.5m and is 16% of Grosvenor net gaming revenue.

Gaming machines were the fastest product line, up 11% to £113.2m from £101.8m, after being the slowest in 2024/25. Rank says 2025/26 was the year the Gambling Act Review reforms were enacted in England and Wales, and that the extra cabinets went in during the first half with little in-year capital spend. Grosvenor’s own site now sells that rollout as the biggest expansion of our Slots offering in decades. Machine net gaming revenue averaged £2.2m a week, up from £2.0m, and Rank wants at least £3m a week in the medium term.

GROSVENOR PRODUCT MIX IN 2025/26

• Table gaming: £175.0m, unchanged on the year, and 44% of casino net gaming revenue.
• Gaming machines: £113.2m, up 11%, after 850 extra cabinets went in.
• Electronic gaming: £62.5m, up 5%, and 16% of Grosvenor net gaming revenue.
• Other, including poker: £46.6m, up 8%, with poker net gaming revenue up 10%.

Sports betting is now allowed in all casinos, and 24 Grosvenor venues have terminals. Rank opened a sports betting lounge in Leicester and added viewing and betting at Reading South. Poker’s shop-window event remains Goliath, the 11-day meeting at Grosvenor Casino Coventry, which drew nearly 15,000 entries and a £2.2m prize pot. Grosvenor like-for-like operating profit rose 11% to £35.5m. Reported operating profit for the division fell 21% to £23.5m once separately disclosed items landed.

Rank still runs 50 Grosvenor venues. No casino closed in the year, though talks are under way at three sites, with decisions expected in autumn 2026. In 2026/27 it will trial smaller, machine-led casinos on spare licences. Cabinets already on the floor, not a second mass install, are what Rank is counting on to mature the week toward £9.5m and group underlying profit toward £100m.

Why Mecca’s Profit More Than Doubled

Mecca is the quieter half of the original recovery call, and the cleaner profit swing. Like-for-like net gaming revenue rose 4% to £143.0m from £136.9m. Underlying operating profit rose 107% to £8.9m from £4.3m. Rank closed nine clubs it called commercially unviable, took £6.7m of costs tied mainly to those exits, and said the remaining halls are the ones it is willing to fund. Bingo duty ended on 1 April 2026, which helped the last quarter. Rank wants double-digit Mecca profit in 2026/27.

Enracha, the Spanish venues brand, rose 7% to £45.3m and made £12.0m of underlying operating profit, up 8% from £11.1m. Live bingo and machines did the work. Rank wants international revenue to be a larger share of the group and pointed to YoBingo’s Portugal launch at the end of the year as the next step.

Remote Duty Jumped to 40% in April

Digital like-for-like revenue rose 8% to £248.5m and like-for-like operating profit rose 8% to £37.9m. Grosvenor’s digital brand rose 13% to £94.6m, with slots up 12% and 58% of that brand’s digital revenue, and live casino up 22%. Mecca digital rose 6% to £103.0m. Other proprietary brands fell 5% to £21.0m. Enracha and Yo rose 7% to £29.9m.

The tax line changed under them. HMRC’s duty paper Remote Gaming Duty from 21% to 40% from 1 April 2026, abolished bingo duty the same day, and set a 25% remote betting rate from 1 April 2027. The Budget tables attach an £810m yield to those duty changes in 2026-27. Rank cut above-the-line marketing, kept free bets and incentives, and nudged performance marketing up. Digital like-for-like revenue still rose 12% in the fourth quarter. Harris said digital profit will step down in 2026/27 because 40% duty will sit on a full year.

THE DUTY SHIFT AND THE START TO 2026/27

• Remote gaming: Duty is 40% from 1 April 2026, up from 21%.
• Bingo halls: Bingo duty ended on 1 April 2026, which fed Mecca’s profit jump.
• First six weeks: Group net gaming revenue is up 8%, digital up 10%, Grosvenor machines up 15%.
• Medium-term profit: Rank still aims for at least £100m of underlying operating profit.

Machine Games Duty, the land tax on slots and electronic roulette, is still 20%. Rank says any rise would hit venue viability at Grosvenor and Mecca and cut tax receipts within 12 months. That is the live political risk sitting on top of a year in which the company says it paid over £225m in taxes and duties.

A £5m UKGC Bill Cut Reported Profit

Underlying profit and reported profit parted company. Statutory operating profit fell 7% to £55.7m from a restated £60.1m. Profit before tax fell 15% to £39.2m. Profit after tax fell 23% to £29.9m. Basic earnings per share fell 22% to 6.4p. Underlying earnings per share rose 15% to 10.5p. The gap is £22.9m of separately disclosed items.

THE SEPARATELY DISCLOSED ITEMS

• UKGC proposal: A £5.0m payment in lieu of a penalty for historical failings in Grosvenor venues, tabled after a licence review, with Rank saying the commission is minded to accept.
• Spain fraud: A £6.5m loss from a payment fraud in the Spanish business, found in December 2025, with recovery called unlikely.
• Impairments: Charges of £14.8m and reversals of £13.8m, a net £1.0m, on weaker venues and some better outlooks.
• Club exits: £6.7m of costs, mainly the nine Mecca closures.
• Restructuring: £3.7m of restructuring and other costs.

Net cash before IFRS 16 was £56.8m, up 25%. Net debt on an IFRS 16 basis was £147.2m, down 5%. Return on capital employed rose 3.2 points to 18.3%. Rank refinanced in June 2026 with a four-year £120m revolving credit facility. The board recommended a 2.50p final dividend, taking the year to 3.50p, up 35% from 2.60p. Employee engagement was 8.2, against 8.3 a year earlier.

Harris Now Owns a £9.5m Weekly Target

O’Reilly’s last set of interim results, on 29 January 2026, still talked up both channels and the path to at least £100m of operating profit. He retired that day. Harris, chief financial officer since May 2022, ran the group as interim from 30 January 2026 and was named permanent chief executive from 12 July 2026. John Ott became chair in November 2025. Cliff Baty is interim finance chief.

The 2026 annual report now sells a pathway to £9.5m-plus NGR per week at Grosvenor, with machines and electronic gaming as the economic engine, and at least £100m of operating profit in the medium term. Harris’s first full-year letter keeps that profit line and puts machine optimisation at the centre of the remaining Grosvenor gap. The first six weeks of 2026/27, with group net gaming revenue up 8% and Grosvenor machines up 15%, are the early evidence he is using.

Tax increases for clubs like ours, with high levels of supervision and operating on tight margins, will swiftly lead to lower tax receipts as much-loved bingo halls and casinos will be forced to close, impacting customers in local communities.

Richard Harris, Chief Executive, The Rank Group Plc, preliminary results, 13 August 2026

Shareholders vote at the annual meeting on 8 October 2026. A first-quarter trading statement follows on 15 October 2026. The £8.0m week Rank sold when it declared Grosvenor recovered is still unpaid. The new number is £9.5m, and the cabinets that are supposed to close the gap are already in the rooms.

Disclaimer: This article is news reporting and analysis of The Rank Group Plc’s published results and related UK tax and licensing changes. It is for information only and is not investment advice, a recommendation to buy or sell Rank shares or any other security, or tax or gambling-licence advice. Readers should consult a qualified independent financial adviser and, where relevant, a licensed tax professional before making any investment or commercial decision. Figures, targets and regulatory statuses are those given in Rank’s results, its 2026 annual report and UK government papers as cited, and they can change with later trading updates, Budget decisions and Gambling Commission outcomes.