Plus500 reported revenue of $462.9 million for the first half of 2026 today (Monday), a 12% rise from a year earlier. EBITDA barely moved, up 1% to $187.5 million, as the London-listed broker spent more to bring in new clients.Customer Income, the measure Plus500 treats as its leading indicator of client activity, reached $460.8 million, up 24% and the highest for any six-month period in five years, the company said. All figures in the update are unaudited.Plus500’s Second-Quarter Numbers Cool After a Fast StartAlmost all of that growth landed early. Plus500 reported $242.1 million of revenue in the first quarter, which leaves $220.8 million for the second, up 5% on the year and about 9% below the opening quarter.The client numbers point the same way. New customers hit 65,723 across the half, a 17% gain, but only 25,856 of those arrived in the second quarter, down from 29,268 a year earlier.Active customers in the quarter also edged down, to 131,214 from 132,602. Customer Income tells a similar story: $270.6 million of the half-year total came in the first quarter, leaving roughly $190 million for the three months to June.Profitability moved with it. The EBITDA margin was 41% for the half, against 44.6% a year earlier, on our calculation from the reported figures. Plus500 said it deliberately raised customer acquisition spending and that currency-related cost headwinds weighed on reported results, adding that underlying performance was stronger on a constant currency basis.Source: Plus500 H1 2026 trading update (unaudited). EBITDA margins, the Q2 Customer Income figure and the Q2 new-customer change are Finance Magnates calculations from the reported figures.The World Cup Payout Is Still Not on the PagePlus500's non-OTC arm, its US futures and share dealing operations, accounted for about 15% of group revenue, or roughly $70 million, growing about 30% year over year. Since the US business generated around $35 million in the first quarter, the second quarter looks broadly flat by comparison.That matters because Plus500 spent the half building a position in US prediction markets, adding Kalshi's CFTC-regulated sports event contracts in June on top of the retail platform it launched in February. It also clears for the CME Group and FanDuel event-contracts venture.Prediction markets processed more than $50 billion in June, with Kalshi taking roughly $33 billion of that, including $7.4 billion in World Cup trades, according to Artemis data. The tournament began in mid-June, so only a few weeks of it fall inside this reporting period, and Plus500 does not break out prediction market revenue at all. The first real read on it will come with the full results.London-Listed Rivals Are Working the Same VolatilityThe first half was a friendly one for UK-listed retail brokers. Gold's swings, the Middle East conflict that lifted crude earlier in the year, and shifting rate expectations kept clients trading across the cohort, and Plus500 credited heightened volatility for part of its own revenue growth.IG Group reported first-quarter organic revenue of £331.2 million (about $447 million), up 19%, and raised its full-year outlook in May. Its interim results for the six months to June 30 land on July 31, alongside a running strategic review of its domicile and listing venue. CMC Markets posted first-half net operating income of £186.2 million and a Westpac white-label agreement it says will expand its Australian customer base by 40%.Both carry US or diversification stories of their own. IG's tastytrade is a futures and options business rather than an event-contracts distributor, and IG's chief executive said in March the firm has capability in the prediction markets space without committing to a launch. Plus500 is the only one of the three currently distributing CFTC-regulated event contracts to US retail traders, and it also matched rivals on extended hours in June, when it launched 24/5 trading on stocks and ETFs, a market IG, eToro and Capital.com entered earlier.Consensus Math Points to a Lighter Second HalfThe board now expects full-year revenue and EBITDA to be in line with market expectations, "following several upgrades this year," Chief Executive David Zruia said. In April, after the first quarter, the company told investors both would come in ahead of consensus, so the bar itself has moved rather than the message reversing.Plus500 puts current consensus at $811.5 million of revenue and $368.1 million of EBITDA, sourced from compiled analyst forecasts on Bloomberg. Against the reported half, that implies about $349 million of revenue and roughly $181 million of EBITDA still to come, a mix that would require a materially higher margin on a materially smaller revenue base.Zruia added the half delivered "the strongest Customer Income in five years and the highest revenue in three years," attributing it to customer quality and the reach of the group's platforms.Plus500 finished June debt free with more than $850 million in cash. It reports full H1 results on Monday, August 10, along with new dividends and buybacks, adding to the roughly $2.9 billion it has returned to shareholders since its 2013 listing. This article was written by Damian Chmiel at www.financemagnates.com.

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