Codere execs hail “outstanding” second quarter
“The second quarter was a standout quarter,” Codere Online CEO Aviv Sher said, leading off the company’s second-quarter earnings call. Codere leadership raised their full-year earnings guidance and touted across-the-board increases.
Codere revenues rose 27% and monthly active users were up 12% during the second quarter, which encompassed the early weeks of the World Cup soccer tournament. The company reported 282,000 new-player signups and 108,000 first-time depositors.
“Performance was outstanding and materially above the 2022 tournament,” Sher said of World Cup-related action. “Net gaming revenue more than doubled over the 2022 World Cup.”
Added Chief Financial Officer Marcus Arildsson, “both Spain and Mexico gave outstanding performances,” and were the company’s primary drivers of revenue. He noted that revenue from all other territories, including Colombia, grew more than 50% during the quarter. Codere also had been making “some incremental investment in marketing,” the CFO said.
Even so, the cost of player acquisition went down in the quarter from €217 (US$248)1 EUR = 1.1450 USD
2026-07-30Powered by CMG CurrenShift apiece to €200 (US$229)1 EUR = 1.1450 USD
2026-07-30Powered by CMG CurrenShift. “If we buy them cheap, they return cheap,” observed Sher. He explained that, as a rule of thumb, “those players don’t last a lot and they come back for the next big tournament.”
Arildsson called the company’s double-digit Spanish growth particularly impressive, given that “Spain remains a mature and tightly regulated market.” Panama was another standout, having had its best quarter.
The CFO explained that Codere had raised its guidance because of the removal in Colombia of a value-added tax, imposed by the outgoing government. Also, Mexico was proving to be a more favorable market than expected, especially with the sidelining of two major competitors.
Asked if there was a World Cup carryover amongst players, Sher replied, “we already see players that continue with us. It’s still early to see. People are a little bit out of money. So far, it looks better than expected.”
Sher estimated that there had been 30% to 40% cross-sell from sports betting into igaming during the World Cup. “We are happy with the result,” he added.
Although monthly users were sequentially down in Mexico and Spain, Sher said, “I don’t think it’s concerning. It’s the summer. The online users that you see is a healthy, active base. The cleaning that you see, it’s intentional.”
Sher added that the World Cup tie between Spain and Cape Verde left many punters high and dry, not re-engaging until later in the tourney. He also pointed out that since the 2026 World Cup had 25% more matches than its predecessor, the comparison with 2022 was one of apples and oranges.
While Sher steered clear of third-quarter previews, he said that Codere had beaten expectations in igaming “by a lot. The vector continues, hopefully, into the third quarter. We need to cruise through August but I’m optimistic.”
Regarding Colombia, Sher said, “there is still more taxes than anticipated. It’s not good enough to marketing, in terms of [return on investment]. Hopefully, we will see a more business-oriented president. With the extra taxes removed, then we can invest more.”
Queried on share buybacks, of which there were none in the second quarter, Arildsson said that Codere was seeing significant cash-flow generation and prioritizing Latin America. He said Codere hoped to get new licenses and territories there.
Added Sher of Codere’s cash on hand, “it should give us strategic ability to make some moves. It’s not a lot of cash. We have some cash in surprise that we weren’t prepared for” and it would take two quarters to decide how to allocate it.”
One particularly argumentative stock analyst pointed out to Sher and Arildsson that Codere’s stock valuation was a fraction of that of Rush Street Interactive. Arildsson replied that the company was actively exploring other options for increasing value. That included acquisitions, but Codere hadn’t hit the numbers that would warrant a share repurchase.
Sher chimed in, “in terms of our share price, part of the game we can’t play is liquidity. We suffer from a lack of liquidity and that affects our share price. The company performs well.”
David McKee is an award-winning journalist who has three decades of experience covering the gaming industry.
Dig Deeper
Related stories
The Backstory
World Cup lift lands on a reshaped business
Codere Online’s strong second quarter sits at the intersection of two forces that have defined the company for more than a year: the increasing dominance of Mexico in its revenue mix and the volatility of Latin American tax policy. The latest results show the upside of that mix when sports calendars, marketing efficiency and product cross-sell align. They also underline why investors have pressed management on whether the company can turn operational momentum into a higher public-market valuation.
The World Cup gave Codere a clear demand catalyst, particularly in markets where soccer drives online betting acquisition. But management has been careful in recent calls to separate tournament-driven activity from the health of the underlying base. That distinction matters because Codere’s strategy has shifted from pursuing gross player additions to acquiring customers who can be moved into higher-margin igaming and retained after major sports events. The second-quarter data suggest that formula worked better than expected, with sports betting serving as a funnel into casino products and other igaming verticals.
Mexico moved from opportunity to core market
Mexico’s rise has been the central development in Codere’s story. In full-year 2025 results, the company disclosed that Mexico had overtaken Spain as its largest market, generating €119.1 million in revenue compared with €90.5 million in Spain. That shift, detailed when Codere Online swung from profit to a 2025 loss, made Latin American performance the main driver of investor expectations even as the company reported no debt and €50 million in cash.
Management’s tone around Mexico has remained constructive despite regulatory uncertainty. On a fourth-quarter call, Chief Executive Aviv Sher described Mexico as the company’s growth engine while acknowledging that the government’s increase in gaming taxes from 30% to 50% would test margins. The company framed the issue as manageable rather than existential, saying operational efficiencies and lower acquisition costs could offset some of the burden. That position was reinforced in Codere’s discussion of Mexico as both a growth engine and a tax challenge, where executives said they did not see a risk to revenue generation.
The Mexican market also has offered Codere a competitive opening. Executives have repeatedly noted that two large rivals were sidelined for political reasons, reducing pressure in a market where brand, payments and local media can matter more than broad international scale. By the first quarter of 2026, Mexico represented 53% of Codere’s business, compared with 41% for Spain, according to management commentary during Codere’s upbeat first-quarter earnings call. That mix helps explain why the company has prioritized deeper investment in existing markets rather than a costly push into new jurisdictions.
Spain offers stability, not breakout growth
Spain remains important because it provides scale, brand history and a regulated base in a mature European market. Yet its role has changed. It is no longer the primary growth story. Management has described Spain as competitive and tightly regulated, with growth possible but more incremental. Earlier this year, Sher said the market appeared to be moving toward a plateau, although the company was still posting consecutive quarters of growth.
That balance is visible in Codere’s capital allocation. Spain can support earnings and customer engagement, but Mexico and selected Latin American markets have commanded more of the growth narrative. Codere has tried to raise the quality of player acquisition in Spain rather than chase volume through aggressive promotions. That approach reflects a wider theme across the company: management wants customers who justify their marketing cost, particularly in markets where regulation limits advertising flexibility and where sports-driven acquisition can produce short-lived users.
The second quarter’s World Cup surge complicates the comparison with prior periods because the 2026 tournament offered more matches than 2022 and arrived in a more developed Codere customer base. Still, the company’s comments about cross-sell from sports betting into igaming point to a strategic objective that applies to both Spain and Mexico. Big events create acquisition spikes, but the value comes from moving players into products that remain active after the final whistle.
Colombia remains the tax overhang
If Mexico is the growth engine, Colombia is the cautionary tale. Codere’s executives have spent several quarters warning that deposit taxes and emergency levies distort the economics of marketing and customer retention. The company’s stance hardened after Colombia imposed a value-added tax on deposits, a measure management said made new investment unattractive. In one prior call, executives effectively issued an ultimatum to Colombia over the tax burden, saying Codere would not increase investment if the levy remained.
The issue did not disappear when the earlier VAT lapsed. In the first quarter, Sher said a 16% emergency levy allowed Codere to operate its existing Colombian database but did not support fresh marketing. That left the company in a holding pattern, waiting for political clarity and signaling that capital would go elsewhere if returns remained constrained. The consequence is visible in management’s broader comments: Colombia is not being treated as a growth market under current rules, even though Codere would likely reinvest if the tax structure changed.
The Colombian experience also informs how investors read Codere’s optimism about Mexico. Tax increases can be absorbed when revenue growth, market share and customer value are strong enough. They become more damaging when they apply to deposits or otherwise reduce the economics of player acquisition. Codere’s second-quarter guidance raise was helped by the removal of a Colombian VAT, but executives still sounded cautious about whether the political environment will become business-friendly enough to justify a larger push.
Currency and listing issues shaped the run-up
Codere’s current momentum follows a period in which external factors obscured underlying performance. Last summer, management pointed to a 19% devaluation in the Mexican peso as the main reason revenue did not look stronger in euro terms. On that call, the company also said it had regained compliance with Nasdaq listing requirements, removing a public-market uncertainty that had weighed on sentiment. The company’s explanation, captured in Codere’s account of peso-related earnings pressure, showed how dependent reported results had become on Mexico’s currency as well as its customer growth.
That history matters because the second quarter’s results are not simply a matter of tournament luck. Codere had already been refining its marketing spend, cutting back on unprofitable promotions and targeting customers with stronger lifetime value. In Mexico, executives said they were weeding out bonus hunters. In Spain, they emphasized higher-quality acquisition. In Colombia, they refused to spend into uneconomic tax conditions. Those decisions helped set up a quarter in which elevated demand could translate into stronger revenue without a proportional surge in acquisition costs.
Investor pressure now shifts to valuation
The strategic question is whether Codere can convert operating gains into a better valuation. The company has generated cash, carries no debt and has repurchased shares in the past. Yet management has been reluctant to commit to buybacks when it sees possible opportunities in Latin America or needs working capital to support growth in existing markets. Executives have also acknowledged that limited trading liquidity affects the share price, an issue that earnings growth alone may not solve quickly.
For now, the second quarter gives management a stronger case that its focus on Mexico, disciplined acquisition and igaming cross-sell is working. The stakes are larger than one tournament quarter. Codere is trying to prove that a Spain-based legacy brand can produce scalable online growth in Latin America while navigating abrupt tax changes, currency swings and thin public-market liquidity. The latest results strengthen that argument, but the next test will be whether World Cup-acquired players remain active after the event and whether Mexico’s tax burden can be absorbed without eroding the margins investors are now being asked to value more highly.
