Good morning. On the agenda for today

• PointsBet says it is targeting “super users”.

• Boyd Gaming stays positive as profits dip. 

• Betsson adds a kick to its positive Q3.

• Kambi EBITDA collapses on “challenging” quarter and DraftKings exit.

• Betmakers Technology adds a form guide to its proposition.

O Superman.

PointsBet promotes ‘super-user’

US turnover rises 50% YoY to A$523.8m but falls 24% QoQ, while group gross win falls 2%YoY to A$115.1m on poor Australian performance.

Walks like a duck: PointsBet US CEO Johnny Aitken was keen to emphasize the “super-users” target audience wasn't simply high rollers renamed. “They are highly engaged users who bet three times a week,” he said. “They’re not high rollers, as such, and not to be confused with professional or sharp players.”

• Grease lightning: The live betting push continued with PointsBet’s version of micro-betting, called Lightning Bet, which Aitken claimed had performed well on launch.

• Aitken added PointsBet had pursued a “measured approach” to marketing in the quarter, with promotion expense as a proportion of GGR down to 45% from 57%.

• In Ontario, handle rose 31% sequentially to A$20.9m but gross win struggled to a mere A$1.6m.

Down, down under: Australian operations saw gross win fall 17% YoY and 8% QoQ to A$73m as the period lapped a tough lockdown-affected comparative period. Andrew Catterall, CEO Australia, said the business was following a similar strategy of “reactivating higher-value clients”. 

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Boyd remains confident

Boyd points to resiliency as revenues rise 4% to $873m but adj. EBITDA falls 1%

Flat bat: Facing questions about the pressurized consumer backdrop, CEO Keith Smith was keen to stress Boyd was not seeing any negative change in behavior. “Performance has been right in line with previous quarters,” he noted.

• By segment, it was the Las Vegas locals market that saw negative revenues (down 2.4% to $225.8m). But Downtown was up 17.5% to $49.5m, and the Midwest and South was up 5.7% to $602m.

• Smith noted it was the higher-value players that were driving growth, with any softness coming from the lower end and unrated segments. He also said the older demographic was slowly coming back.

• “They probably won't all come back, but those that have come back, their worth to us is much greater,” he added.

• The Boyd-run Sky River Casino near Sacramento, California, opened in August.

Get go: Boyd said it hoped to close the $170m Pala acquisition in the next several weeks. Smith said he hoped Boyd would be able to build a “profitable regional online casino” business and spending marketing dollars “isn’t the goal”.

• “We want to be in front of our customers, and generate new customers, but we would expect to be profitable,” said Smith.

Betsson seeks B2B boost 

The acquisition of a majority share in sportsbook provider KickerTech comes with the pre-announced Q3 revenue rise of 18% to €200.3m, while EBITDA is up 19% to €48.6m. 

What’s the Fuß? Betsson acquired 80% of the Vilnius-based sports-betting tech provider KickerTech for €14m. Kicker recorded LTM revenues of €2.6m and EBIT of €1.3m. The deal comes after Betsson said Q3 growth, as pre-announced at the start of this month, was helped particularly by LatAm and the CEE region (read: Turkey).

• CEO Pontus Lindwall said the KickerTech acquisition “broadens” Betsson’s potential spectrum of customers. B2B revenues were up 57% to €45m during Q3.    

• Lindwall said he saw “no drop in activity despite (economic) problems around the globe”.

• No show: With regard to Germany and the Netherlands, Lindwall and CFO Martin Öhman said the group had submitted the relevant paperwork but did not have visibility on licensing or revenue projections. 

Kambi slips

A “challenging” Q3 sees revenues drop YoY 12% to €36.7m, while EBITDA dives by 47% to €10.7m.

Give my remains to Broadway: Kambi said the “tail end” of DraftKings business in the third quarter last year added to the strain on the year-on-year comparison, with multiple mentions for seasonality on the call. Kambi also recently made public the details of the severance deal with Penn for which it has received $12.5m post-quarter end.

• Shape of things to come: CEO Kristian Nylén said the recent Shape acquisition would have a “great impact” on the Kambi offer. 

• He added that “more and more” of the prospects were looking for help with front-end design and build. “This deal was very natural for us,” he added.

• Moon shot: Looking at the recent deal to provide retail betting services to Great Canadian – initially with 10 casinos in Ontario – Nylén noted that GC was owned by Apollo, which has various other interests in the gaming space.

• Is that it? During the Q&A there was a hint of irony about whether Great Canadian was part of the previously discussed “great” pipeline. Nylén demurred.

Betmakers buys form guide

The Australian-based betting backend provider has bought Punting Form for A$3m in cash in order to bolster its global horse-racing offering.

Background: Punting Form uses proprietary IP and AI to create sectional times and benchmarks for horse racing, which are used for time-based ratings systems and by professional wagering syndicates, wagering operators, content creators and form analysts.

• Betmakers will integrate the offering into its global betting service offering with improved pricing and margins.

• An earnout of A$17m is up for grabs over the next three years depending on performance and is set at ~4x revenues and 8X EBIT.

Analyst takes

Macau: The latest data suggests daily revenues are now range-bound at around MOP100m a day excluding holidays, suggested the team at Jefferies. They expected the market to break out from this new norm eventually, but the timing of that remains, as ever, as clear as mud with the start date for the new eVisa scheme yet to be announced.

Recession watch 

“The impending recession” is how the team at Truist termed the short-term future facing the gambling sector. Noting Monarch’s upbeat messaging last week, they suggested the market would soon find out whether “larger, more diversified” operators convey the same message. 

• Mean machine: Looking at Caesars, the team noted it has been the worst performer in the sector YTD. News about the long-rumored Strip property sale, and a strong earnings statement and outlook “could drive some mean reversion”.

Fan no more

Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin has completed the sale of his 10% stake in Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, the parent company of the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers and the NHL’s New Jersey Devils franchises. 

• Rubin announced he would sell his stake in the pro teams in June to avoid conflicts of interest over the upcoming launch of the Fanatics online sportsbook.

Newslines 

Esports: In a vote earlier this week, the Nevada Esports Technical Advisory Committee passed the regulations for expansion of esports wagering in 2023.

OddsJam has appointed Benjie Cherniak as a strategic advisor. Meanwhile, DFS operator SimWin has appointed ex-DarftKings sportsbook head Jamie Shea as a non-executive director.

Genius Sports has extended its data partnership with bet365 and will seek to integrate its Second Spectrum tracking technology into the sportsbook’s tech infrastructure. Contrary to other press reports, it should be noted on NCAA betting data, the deal only covers the data from the Mid-American Conference (MAC).

On social 

Joe Weisenthal @TheStalwart

Just saw the word slowbalization

8:31 AM ∙ Oct 26, 2022

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Calendar

• Oct 26: Churchill Downs

• Oct 27: Evolution, Kindred, Red Rock, VICI, BlueBet

Contact

• Scott Longley scott@clearconcisemedia.com

• Jake Pollard jake@openmediaservices.com