Good morning. On today’s agenda:

• Reducing leverage is 888’s “absolute priority”, says CEO. 

• DraftKings signs a deal with Churchill Downs to launch a horseracing app.

• Nevada keeps on breaking records. 

• Earnings in brief come from Allwyn and Rivalry.

Crazy horses.

888’s debt priority

The need to achieve lower leverage levels is top of the agenda for 888.

Absolute beginners: CEO Itai Pazner said yesterday during an investor day that deleveraging is 888’s “absolute priority” in the near term. Analysts at Jefferies said the company “repeatedly underscored” its need to deleverage. Recall, the company has £1.8bn of debt with 64% of it subject to floating rates.

• CFO Yariv Dafna said the group would seek to repay the £347m loan taken out to help pay for the William Hill takeover in the coming months. 

• He said the move would not have a “material impact” on the cost of debt but would help with hedging. He said 888 was aiming for 50% of its debt to be fixed. 

• The group increased its savings target from £100m to £150m as part of its drive to reduce leverage to below 3.5x EBITDA.

Fight among yourselves: Migrating William Hill and Mr Green onto the 888 tech stack is another key project, Pazner said noting that in some markets the brands were “competing against each other and reducing profitability”.  

• In the UK 888 said it will focus on reducing the cost of sales to drive growth.

Sexy beast: In the US the SI sportsbook will refocus as a casino-led operator after facing “intense competition” in OSB. Lewis suggested casino brought in an “unsexy sweet spot” of older demographics. CFO Yariv Dafna said US losses would reach ~$20m in 2022 and high single digits next year.   

**Sponsor’s message** Venture capital firm Yolo Investments manages €550m in capital across 80 of the most exciting companies in fintech, gaming & blockchain. The Gaming Fund, regulated by the Guernsey Financial Services Commission, a dedicated 29-company, €183m AUM portfolio has invested in fast-growth assets including Dabble, Kalamba, SimWin & ThriveFantasy. Yolo Investments has just opened its fund to new investors as it looks to scale new cutting-edge concepts, including its exclusive high-roller land and live casino brand, Bombay Club, global banking network & OTC desk Aims Group. 

Get in touch with your pitch or disruptive products to plug into our investment network!

DraftKings’ equine jump

DraftKings becomes the latest company to sign up with Churchill Downs to bring pari-mutuel betting to their platform.

Giddy up: DraftKings will be bringing horse-racing betting to its customers via a separate app called DK HORSE after signing a deal for CDI subsidiary Twin Spires for the provision of advance deposit wagering technology.

• Church and state: The new app is scheduled to launch ahead of the Kentucky Derby next May and will need customers to sign up and deposit with entirely separate accounts.

• DraftKings said due to the “structure of the agreement” it expected the offering to be immediately profitable.

Deal 2: Recall, in September FanDuel signed a similar deal for TwinSpires tote betting content. That deal also saw FanDuel become a non-exclusive sponsor of the Derby and also involved broadcast content.

• Chalk/cheese: Wells Frago noted DraftKings would be more reliant on CDI with the deployment of its tech solution. 

• Pointing to reports that the deal was structured 60/40 in CDI’s favor, the analysts suggested the deals would be worth between $10-$12m in EBITDA to DraftKings. 

• JMP suggested the value of pari-mutuel was often overlooked, suggesting it offered “low-risk (and) fixed percentage” returns.

Datalines – Nevada

Strip revenues rose 0.5% YoY to $705.8m but it is Downtown (up 18%) and Locals (+11%) which are the drivers behind a 4.5% rise in statewide GGR to $1.28bn.

Staying the course: Wells Fargo noted the Strip fundamentals “remained consistent” with the performance in recent months and recent operator commentary on October trends. They noted that visitor numbers for October are “finally” back to 2019 levels. 

• Sports-betting GGR was $56.9m on handle of $921.5m with the mobile/retail split on GGR being 48%/52%.

• The team at JMP noted that seven of the last eight months have set monthly gaming revenue records with the market now up 20% YTD “in the face of tough economic conditions”. 

• Macquarie repeated the message from earlier in the week suggesting they were “bullish” about further Las Vegas growth. The team’s FY22 forecast for the Strip is $8.2bn, up 16% YoY and 25% ahead of 2019.

Back, back, back: The team at CBRE noted conventions and group business had “returned in a big way”, up 32% YoY and bolstered by a strong events calendar, two Raiders home games, NASCAR and a music festival. 

• CBRE noted that strong room pricing was “serving as a material inflation buster for casinos”.

✈️🚂🚗 Las Vegas visitor numbers YTD

Earnings in brief

Allwyn: The lottery and gaming operator said Q3 revenue rose 11% YoY to €958.6m while adj. EBITDA was up 10% to €319.9m. The company recently announced a buyout of UK National Lottery operator Camelot and the sealing of a €1.6bn financing deal.

• Czech your privilege: The company noted its success in driving online sales in the Czech Republic where the channel now accounts for 46% of all sales, up from 39% in the prior year period.

Rivalry: the esports-led Toronto-listed betting operator said it achieved a first-time profit in October and revenues in Q3 of C$7.1m. Revenues in October hit C$4.5m, five times the figure from Oct21. The company said the profitability milestone demonstrated the “inherent operating leverage” of its business model.

Newslines

Aspire Global has been slapped with a 328k fine by the UK Gambling Commission for AML failures.

The New York Post reports opposition to the Caesars/SL Green Times Square casino project with the Broadway theaters calling it an “unprecedented and dangerous experiment”.

The Dutch regulator has ordered all operators to cease offering cash-back bonuses citing fears over encouraging excessive gambling.

Tally Technology will use data from Sportradar to populate its fan engagement activations.

Superbet and Genius Sports have signed a deal to provide a suite of free-to-play games.

Kaizen Gaming’s Betano brand has debuted in Ontario, its first launch in North America.    

What we’re reading

Seven nation army: Lobbyists descend on Austin as betting talk escalates. 

Non-core: HuddleUp on whether Apple will buy Man United.

It just went a bit crazy: The FT on FTX’s lavish spending.

Calendar

Dec 6: The Startup Month #5

Dec 13: Deal Talk #5

Dec 20: Due Diligence #2

Contact

• Scott Longley scott@clearconcisemedia.com

• Jake Pollard jake@openmediaservices.com