Plus500reported revenue of $462.9 million for the first half of 2026 today (Monday), a12% rise from a year earlier. EBITDA barely moved, up 1% to $187.5 million, asthe London-listed broker spent more to bring in new clients.CustomerIncome, 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 fiveyears, the company said. All figures in the update are unaudited.Plus500’s Second-QuarterNumbers Cool After a Fast StartAlmost allof that growth landed early. Plus500 reported $242.1 million of revenuein the first quarter,which leaves $220.8 million for the second, up 5% on the year and about 9%below the opening quarter.The clientnumbers 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 29,268a year earlier.Activecustomers in the quarter also edged down, to 131,214 from 132,602. CustomerIncome tells a similar story: $270.6 million of the half-year total came in thefirst quarter, leaving roughly $190 million for the three months to June.Profitabilitymoved with it. The EBITDA margin was 41% for the half, against 44.6% a yearearlier, on our calculation from the reported figures. Plus500said it deliberately raised customer acquisition spending and thatcurrency-related cost headwinds weighed on reported results, adding thatunderlying performance was stronger on a constant currency basis.Source:Plus500 H1 2026 trading update (unaudited). EBITDA margins, the Q2 CustomerIncome figure and the Q2 new-customer change are Finance Magnates calculationsfrom the reported figures.The World Cup Payout IsStill Not on the PagePlus500'snon-OTC arm, its US futures and share dealing operations, accounted for about15% 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, thesecond quarter looks broadly flat by comparison.Thatmatters because Plus500 spent the half building a position in US predictionmarkets, adding Kalshi's CFTC-regulatedsports event contracts in June on top of the retail platform it launched in February. It also clearsfor the CME Group and FanDuel event-contracts venture.Predictionmarkets processed more than $50 billion in June, with Kalshi taking roughly $33billion of that, including $7.4 billion in World Cup trades, according to Artemis data. Thetournament began in mid-June, so only a few weeks of it fall inside thisreporting period, and Plus500 does not break out prediction market revenue atall. The first real read on it will come with the full results.London-Listed Rivals AreWorking the Same VolatilityThe firsthalf was a friendly one for UK-listed retail brokers. Gold's swings, the MiddleEast conflict that lifted crude earlier in the year, and shifting rateexpectations kept clients trading across the cohort, and Plus500 creditedheightened volatility for part of its own revenue growth.IG Group reported first-quarter organicrevenue of £331.2 million (about $447 million), up 19%, and raised its full-year outlookin May. Its interim results for the six months to June 30 land on July 31, alongside a running strategic review of itsdomicile and listing venue. CMC Marketsposted first-half net operating income of £186.2 million and a Westpacwhite-label agreement it says will expand its Australian customer base by 40%.Both carryUS or diversification stories of their own. IG's tastytrade is a futures andoptions business rather than an event-contracts distributor, and IG's chiefexecutive said in March the firm has capability in the predictionmarkets spacewithout committing to a launch. Plus500 is the only one of the three currentlydistributing CFTC-regulated event contracts to US retail traders, and it alsomatched rivals on extended hours in June, when it launched 24/5 trading on stocks andETFs, a market IG,eToro and Capital.com entered earlier.Consensus Math Points to aLighter Second HalfThe boardnow expects full-year revenue and EBITDA to be in line with marketexpectations, "following several upgrades this year," Chief ExecutiveDavid Zruia said. In April,after the first quarter, the company told investors both would come in ahead ofconsensus, so the bar itself has moved rather than the message reversing.Plus500puts current consensus at $811.5 million of revenue and $368.1 million ofEBITDA, sourced from compiled analyst forecasts on Bloomberg. Against thereported half, that implies about $349 million of revenue and roughly $181million of EBITDA still to come, a mix that would require a materially highermargin on a materially smaller revenue base.Zruia addedthe half delivered "the strongest Customer Income in five years and thehighest revenue in three years," attributing it to customer quality andthe reach of the group's platforms.Plus500finished June debt free with more than $850 million in cash. It reports full H1results on Monday, August 10, along with new dividends and buybacks, adding tothe roughly $2.9 billion it has returned to shareholders since its 2013 listing.This article was written by Damian Chmiel at www.financemagnates.com.