GVC Holdings said that its pretax loss narrowed slightly in 2018 as revenue greatly increased, and that trading in the new year was strong.

The company said it made a pretax loss of 18.9 million pounds ($25 million) in 2018, compared with a loss of GBP22.6 million the year before. Revenue was GBP2.94 billion, up from GBP815.9 million a year ago. The greatly-increased revenue is attributable to the acquisition of Ladbrokes Coral Group, the company said. GVC booked a GBP322.5 million amortization charge related to acquisitions.

The bookmaker said underlying earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization on a pro-forma basis totaled GBP755.3 million, in line with its previous guidance of pro-forma underlying Ebitda in the range of GBP750 million to GBP775 million.

Profit before tax for the full year of £434.4 million, up from £151 million last year.

Kenneth Alexander (CEO) said:“The Group’s full year results reflect a very strong performance with proforma net gaming revenue 9% ahead of last year and proforma underlying EBITDA 13% ahead. 2018 was a transformational year for the Group with the completion of the Ladbrokes Coral acquisition in March making the Group the largest online-led sports-betting and gaming operator in the world. Excellent operational execution, effective marketing and a good World Cup helped both the legacy GVC and the acquired Ladbrokes Coral businesses perform ahead of expectations and materially ahead of the market, delivering market share gains in all our major territories.

The GVC operating model leverages the Group’s leading proprietary technology and product development capability, applying central marketing expertise alongside local operational execution. This model is proving highly effective. Combined with the benefit of being a truly global scale operator, together with the opportunities provided by the integration of Ladbrokes Coral and our joint-venture in the US with MGM Resorts, the Board is confident the Group is well-placed to absorb the impact of the Triennial Review and associated tax increases in 2019, and deliver strong EBITDA growth in future years.”