Good morning. On today’s agenda:

• Wynn Resorts announces sale-and-leaseback of the Boston Encore.

• AGA says the gaming sector is in rude health.

• Nevada breaks a Super Bowl record.

• New York proclaimed ‘sports-betting capital of the world’.

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Wynn Resorts Q4

• Revenues at $1.05bn up 53.5% and adj. property EBITDA up 113% to $149.1m.

• Las Vegas revenues up 186.3% to $493.9m

• Interactive EBITDA losses at $79.4m from minus $7.4m in Q420.

• Wynn completes the sale-and-leaseback of the Encore Boston for $1.7bn.

A quarter like no other: CEO Craig Billings of the results from the Las Vegas operations that “drop was strong, handle was strong, RevPAR was strong”. “I could go on and on.” Deutsche Bank said Las Vegas “simply” outperformed nicely. The Q122 outlook however, was “challenging”, according to DB. Billings said Jan22 was soft due to omicron but that “we're already seeing the demand snap back from that”.

Down by the jetty: Billings noted the sale-and-leaseback on Encore Boston Harbor was “nothing more than a financing and capital structure decision” and cautioned analysts against assuming such a move might also be made in “very different” Las Vegas. Boston Harbor produced Q4 EBITDA of $68.2m.

Desert sands: Billings said Wynn was “almost shovel ready” with the Ras al-Khaimah project in the UAE. 

• “When we open that property, 95% of the world's population will be within an 8-hour flight of a Wynn resource property.”

Burning down the house: Reiterating the message from the last quarter of a pullback from the “irrational behavior” around sports-betting, Billings said he expects segment EBITDA burn to fall to $40m in Q1. “I expect Q2 to be even lower,” he added. Turnover rose 20% QoQ to $785m.

Billings on Wynn Interactive sale rumors: “We were pretty explicit on the third-quarter call about not engaging in the unsustainable user acquisition blitz that has emerged, no pun intended, this NFL season and that we would take a more measured approach.”

Choose your battles: Billings added that Wynn has seen “some success” in igaming and that this was where there was “a logical place for us in that business longer-term.” 

Billings: “Unfortunately, (igaming) is not a humongous TAM right now. Sports-betting is the total addressable market and sports betting is where most of the irrational behavior is taking place.”

Pent-up: While Macau remained subdued, Billings pointed out that ”you need only Chinese New Year to remind yourself of the power of that market and the pent-up demand for visitation”. Macau’s operating revenues came in at $325.7m for an EBITDA loss of $25.9m.

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Super Bowl LVI betting

One big number: The Super Bowl betting tally so far is $413m with NJ, NV, IL, NH, OR, DE, MS and MT having reported.

Smashed it: Nevada broke records on Sunday, dispelling perhaps once and for all the idea that greater access to regulated sports-betting across the U.S. would harm its own positioning.

• The record-breaking handle of $179.8m comfortably topped the previous record set in 2018 of $158.6m.

Nevada Super Bowl betting top 5 by wagers

Source: Nevada Gaming Control Board

Looking for a new New Jersey: The record $143.7m handle represents a 22.4% increase and comes despite New York being open for mobile business across the Hudson. GGR came in at $7.8m.

Illinois: Handle rose to $61m from $45.6m in 2021 and with GGR of $9.5m. DraftKings led the way in handle with $21.5m with FanDuel in second on $17m, though in GGR the positions were reversed ($2.5m and $5m respectively).

Missing the target: Bucking the trend, Mississippi and Delaware have reported declines.  In Mississippi, retail betting handle dropped 21%. This is being attributed to the advent of mobile betting next door in Louisiana. In Delaware, handle fell 19.1% to $1.54m. 

Way out west: According to Oregon Live, DraftKings (on behalf of the Oregon Lottery) took 250,000 bets on the Super Bowl compared to 150,000 last year. Handle came in at $5m. Montana saw handle rise 41% to $696k.

What they’re saying

David Forman, senior director of research, AGA: “It’s pointing to a very positive picture. New York is now online, and there were some concerns about how that would impact the New Jersey market, but it’s been very strong growth in at least those two (NJ and NV) pretty mature markets.”

Bounce back: TV audience tops 100m.

Further watching: AdWeek’s top 10 Super Bowl ads.

Further reading: The $40bn company that won the Super Bowl.

New York wk. 5

Look at me now ma, top of the world: Assemblymember J. Gary Pretlow was ebullient in the press release from Gov. Kathy Hochul, saying that with nearly $2bn of wagers struck in the first 30 days, New York was on its way to being the “sports-betting capital of the world”.

• Wagering total since Jan 8: $1.98bn

• GGR $138m

• Tax take $70.6m

Wagers breakdown: $600m on football, $540m on basketball, $80m on hockey.

What they say

Gov. Kathy Hochul: “Over the past month, we've seen how mobile sports wagering can be an economic engine for New York, driving significant funding to our schools, youth sports, and so much more. As this new industry continues to grow, New York will make sure we have the resources and guidelines in place to make it a success for all.”

State senator Joseph Addabbo: “When we brought mobile sports-betting to New York, we had confidence it was going to be a success, but to be able to break the national record of total handle for sports betting in a single month in our very first month, with primarily only six sportsbooks, is both rewarding and promising.”

Total gaming: New York’s GGR January rose 16.8% to $204.8m with racino up 13.5% to 4156.7m and casino at $48.1m, up 29.2%. Retail sports-betting made a negative GGR of $328k.

AGA state of the industry

Key figures

• Total 2021 GGR up 76.7% YoY to $53bn; Q421 GGR up 55.7% to $14.3bn.

• 2021 sports-betitng GGR up 177% to $4.29bn; Q4 up 73% to $1.51bn.

• 2021 handle tops $57bn.

• iGaming up 139% in 2021 YoY to $3.71bn.

Waiting for pick up: Commercial gaming revenues were up 20% on pre-pandemic levels and with casinos being the best performing segment of the leisure sector, CEO Bill Miller said the strong growth was encouraging given continued travel and convention restrictions. 

• Datapoint: The average age of casino goers dropped from 49 to 44 in the past two years, a stat that might revert if or when older demographics return. 

What Miller said

On keeping in touch: “Years ago brick-and-mortar casinos were brick-and-mortar only, now nearly everyone has an online component (to their offering), because they don't want to lose (contact with their) consumers when they are not on the premises.” 

On high OSB tax rates: “You have to remember that if and until we have destroyed the illegal offshore marketplace and as long as it’s an option for bettors, tax rates will matter. If you continue to ratchet up the tax rate you’re making legal products less competitive and if that’s the case players will go to illegal books.” 

On gambling ad proliferation: “I don’t believe we’ll end up like Italy, Spain or the UK because we are starting with responsibility as a core component.”

GiG Q4

• Revenues up 29% to €18.2m and EBITDA up 35%,

• Media revenues up 42% to an all-time high of €12.8m 

• Acquisition of Sportnco is expected to close in Q1.

Sporting synergies: CEO Richard Brown said the forthcoming decommissioning of GIG’s sportsbook and subsequent migration of its customers to the Sportnco platform would drive the planned synergies. He added the “in-house vs. outsourcing tech” question wasn’t relevant to GIG because its “focus on localization” reduced the risk of clients taking their tech stacks in-house and made it “easier and cheaper to launch in local markets”. 

Not keeping count: Brown said GIG’s media division was up 20% in January, adding that the group’s focus on rev share meant GIG was “taking a lot of upfront costs.” But this drove “higher ROI for us because we’re not forced into pursuing FTD counts to generate growth”. 

Earnings in brief

Raketech Q4: Revenues were up to €11.8m vs. €8.5m in Q420, US sports betting acquisitions rose 149.5% to €2.6m, Adj. EBITDA was €5.4m vs. €3.6m in Q420, margins were 46% vs. 43.1% in 2020. In December the group closed the €13.7m acquisition of the U.S. tipster service ATS Consulting,  of which €10.6m was paid in cash. Trading in January was up, with revenues of €4.5m vs. €2.7m in Jan20.

NOTE: WE+M will report on Raketech’s earnings call later in the week.

Datalines 

Massachusetts Jan22: GGR up 156.9% vs. Jan19 but down 13.9% MoM and -11.3% SSB to $82.4m. Jan22 included nine weekend days vs. eight in Jan19 and 10 in Jan21. Wynn Resorts’ Encore recorded $54m in GGR, up 62% YoY but down 13.6% MoM. Penn National’s Plainridge Park was down 20.5% vs. Jan19 and -1.9% MoM but up 0.5% You to $9.8m. MGM Springfield was down 5.6% vs. Jan19 and -16.2% MoM, but up 28.3% Y/Y to $18.6m.

Newslines

The last resort: Resorts’ sports-betting app in New Jersey will be shuttered on 1 March, freeing up a potential skin, according to a message to its customers. The most recent analysis from EKG shows the app was generating just 0.2% market share in the past three months.

That’s why you’re Championship: DraftKings has signed on as the official sports fantasy partner at Norwich FC, the relegation-imperiled English Premier League club, for the rest of the season.

Bombs h’way the lads: Newcastle United FC has announced StatsBomb as its data and analytics provider, integrating the provider’s advanced event data and IQ platform into its recruitment and performance analysis departments.

Drained swamp: The D.C. Lottery’s GambetDC’s betting app, powered by Intralot, was down for iPhone users during the whole of the Super Bowl. The company said the reason for the outage was because Intralot failed to obtain approval from Apple for a required update. 

Lien on me: Gaming machine provider Play AGS completed the refinancing of total outstanding debt by issuing a senior secured first-lien term loan for $575 million due 2029 and a $40 million senior secured first-lien revolving facility due 2027. The proceeds from the first loan will be used to repay existing term loan facilities and related fees. 

Shoplifters of the world: Flutter reopened its international headquarters in Dublin, Ireland following a €15.5 million investment in renovations including Ireland's first frictionless shop.

BA club class: Bet365 has launched sports-betting and igaming in Buenos Aires after receiving licensing for both the city and province. 

What we’re reading

Things fall apart: SPAC mergers falling apart in sign of fatigue.

The NFL, Roblox and the metaverse.

On social

£300k for a website.

Alex Macey @ConceptWin

Why doesn’t anyone talk about this sort of thing? the GC giving Gamcare £300k to design a website. Mine costs me £144 a year. Why do beneficiaries of the GC stay silent about them? Errr, because they’re all beneficiaries. gamblingcommission.gov.uk/licensees-and-…

February 15th 2022

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• Feb 17: Aspire Global Q4, Golden Entertainment Q4

• Feb 18: DraftKings Q4, Acroud Q4

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