Codere Online Q3 revenue surges 31% as Sher maintains conservative outlook
Codere Online CEO Aviv Sher said the company would maintain a conservative outlook despite growth in Mexico leading to a Q3 revenue surge of 31%.
Codere Online announced its Q3 earnings on Thursday, displaying revenue growth of almost a third year-on-year to €62.6 million ($69.2 million).
This was largely driven by the company’s performance in Mexico, its biggest market, with revenue there rocketing 37% year-on-year.
Codere Online’s adjusted EBITDA of €4.2 million in Q3 was a 45% increase over the same period last year, while gaming win surged to €67.1 million, a 30% rise.
But despite the strong Q3 performance, the company opted to reiterate its FY2026 outlook of €255-265 million in gaming win with an adjusted EBITDA of €20-25 million.
This, Sher explained, was down to Codere Online maintaining its conservative approach due to certain market conditions.
These included the changing regulatory environment in Spain, including new identification and deposit rules from the end of October for new customers.
“I think looking at the problems we are facing in Spain, some headwinds from the FX, we continue to be conservative,” Sher told analysts on Codere Online’s post-Q3 earnings call.
“As much as I would like to give amazing news, I’m still staying in the range that we said at the middle of the year, and I think we will continue to be conservative in our approach to the numbers and try to beat them or to get closer to the higher end.”
Post-World Cup slowdown
Q3 featured the latter stages of the 2026 World Cup, with all five of the countries in which Codere Online operates sending a national team to the tournament.
One of those won the tournament in Spain, with Codere Online’s CFO Marcus Arildsson describing the company’s July performance as “exceptional”.
Sher said the World Cup should be treated as an “anomaly”, noting a slowdown in the months that followed the tournament.
“Of course, directly after the World Cup, during August and even September, we saw some slowdown,” Sher explained. “But this is seasonality.
“It was expected when the leagues returned. We saw players coming back, and then there was an international break that also slowed us down. So it was a little bit of a bumpy start, but not outside of our plans and forecasts.”
Spain deposit limits not expected to have major impact
Alongside the regulatory measures taking effect this year in Spain, joint deposit limits across operators will also come in from March next year.
Addressing the potential impact of those, Sher said the company expects some initial disruption but does not anticipate a significant impact on its financial performance.
“We are expecting some slowdown, but as long as all the competitors and all the market will have the same limits, our best guess is that either players will move between operators, or they will remove or change the default deposit limits,” Sher suggested.
“We are not forecasting any huge change, maybe just some slowdown until the players understand how to work with it and use it to their benefit. We think we will be able to mitigate or help the customers achieve the limits that they want to use.”
Arildsson added that Codere Online will work directly with its VIP customers to ensure they understand how to adjust their deposit limits under the new regulations, helping to minimise disruption and maintain their activity on the platform.
Sher vows not to pull out of Colombia
Sher was also quizzed on the tax scenario facing operators in Colombia, with the government and Congress having opened talks on reintroducing a 19% VAT on online gambling deposits.
The CEO described the situation as “very unfortunate”, with the company having only recently scaled back up again after the 19% VAT was scrapped earlier this year.
“We bounced back quite nicely,” he said.
But Sher said the company didn’t have plans to exit the country, adding: “We will go back to the previous approach that we had, which is cash flow zero, trying to maintain the licence and trying to work with what we have, hoping for better news and keep it as an asset.
“But if it will happen as they say, unfortunately, I think we will need to see again some decrease in the revenues over there and our investment going down.
“We will not exit the market. We will stay there and see how it moves forward.”
Potential Uruguay launch edging closer
Analysts also asked how a potential launch in Uruguay was progressing, with Sher previously telling iGB that the company was waiting for online gambling regulation to come in.
Sher said Codere Online remained in discussions, with the wider Codere group “very active” in the Uruguayan retail sector.
Grupo Codere also announced its Q3 earnings on Thursday, with gaming revenues increasing 6% to €344 million, while adjusted EBITDA soared 39% to €65.4 million.
Discussing Uruguay, Sher said: “I think for the past three years, we’ve heard that it’s going to come online, but I think this year maybe it will happen. I think it’s getting closer.
“Of course, once it is happening, it’s a very interesting market for us. We have a very strong position in the retail. We think it will happen. We hear good things. We hear a lot of positive feedback from the government. So we are still with high hopes, and if it will happen, for sure we will be there.”