Trainspotting
New Entain CEO ‘jumping on board a moving train’
Interim CEO insists Entain has turned a corner.
Rush Street share sale dampens M&A speculation.
UAE regulatory moves bring “clarity,” says Wynn Resorts CEO.
Light & Wonder, Super Group, Full House and more earnings.
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Leaving the platform
Railway children: New chief exec Gavin Isaacs would be able to “jump on board a moving train,” said departing interim CEO Stella David as she spoke about “green shoots” being visible despite revenue for the year coming in flat and UK profits being “down materially.”
“The Entain train has left the station,” David said.
The company said the online business returned to growth in Q2 and it would show low single-digit NGR growth in FY24.
Top of the shop: Chief strategy officer Sameer Deen said “driving a smooth transition into a regulated Brazil remains top of mind for us,” after the company saw 28% revenue growth in H1.
By the numbers: Entain was promoting Q2 growth and put forward 2024 EBITDA guidance that was marginally ahead of consensus, despite H1 pro forma revenues coming in flat at £2.56bn. Underlying EBITDA was up 5% at £52m but underlying operating profit was down 6% to £288m.
UK & Ireland online revenues were down 8%, UK retail fell by 4%. International was up 10% and Entain CEE saw a 12% revenue uplift.
David insisted 2024 was a “year of transformation” and said the progress being made was “critical to the future.”
Stella, not stellar: As noted in its own H1 update, David said BetMGM was “also a business in a transformational year.” Recall, BetMGM showed revenue growth at only 6% to $978m.
“We are strongly aligned with MGM,” she added.
The departing interim CEO said the iCasino business was “already strong.” But, conversely, she said both parents recognise OSB is a “work in progress.”
“The reality is much of the great progress that we’ve been making in our sports offering is still to fully hit the market.”
She maintained the long-term goal of $500m in adj. EBITDA was deliverable.
Wait and see: Asked about DraftKings’ customer surcharge announcement, David said BetMGM was “observing it with interest.”
“It's not necessarily something we expected to see, but I think it's a kind of watch this space, and we'll see what the customer response is,” she added.
Not the bank of Mum and Dad: CFO Rob Wood added “to be clear” there was no expectation of the parents having to inject further capital.
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AGS shareholders have given formal approval for the $1.1bn sale of the business to Brightstar Capital that was announced in May. The deal is expected to close in H2 next year.
Las Vegas Sands’ plans for a casino bid in New York took a step forward after the Nassau County legislature voted in favor of the company's casino proposal.
RSI share sale dampens M&A speculation
Off the table: The share sales undertaken by the CEO and CFO at Rush Street Interactive suggest there isn’t going to be any imminent M&A involving the company, argued the analysts at JMP.
CEO Richard Schwartz and CFO Kyle Sauers offloaded less than 200k shares each, netting them below $2m.
While the sale of stock was “small,” the JMP team contended it would “suggest to us that any potential sale is off the table.”
Recall, RSI has been subject to speculation over a potential buyout, with a report earlier this year suggesting the company was looking at its strategic options.
An approach from DraftKings has also been mooted, but on its Q2 earnings call CEO Jason Robins said the company was “really focused on winning the US online gaming opportunity.”
Such comments “indicate” DraftKings would “have interest at some point,” but JMP suspected nothing is imminent.
Meanwhile, with RSI shares down over 16% in the past week, it appears investors also felt the price was too frothy.
🐻 Rush Street’s speculation premium evaporates
Wynn’s desert dream
Not a mirage: The creation of the new regulatory body in the UAE as it moves towards the licensing of I+R resort casino gaming “hopefully creates incremental clarity,” suggested Wynn Resorts CEO Craig Billings.
Recall, the website for the country’s General Commercial Gaming Regulatory Authority was launched in late July and the award of a national lottery license was announced.
Wynn has already embarked upon the construction of a facility on Al Marjan Island in the emirate of Ras Al Khaimah.
Billings reiterated that Wynn thought the project was “the most exciting new market in our industry for decades.”
By the numbers: In Q2 total revenues rose 8% to $1.73bn, helped by a near 9% increase in Las Vegas to $629m, while Macau revenues came in at $885m, up 15%. Encore Boston was down 4% to $213m.
Despite the Macau uplift, management was questioned on the difficulties of maintaining market share.
“While we are active every day in the hand-to-hand combat for market share, you can't take market share to the bank,” said Billings.
“What we don't want to do is completely blow out our reinvestment levels and pursue a market share that doesn't drive meaningful flow-through,” he added.
Grid walk: In Vegas, Billings was keen to counter the comments from MGM Resorts regarding the somewhat lackluster forward projections for F1 in November. “Our experience during last year's F1 and more recently during the Super Bowl tells us that we will be the place to see and be seen during the race,” he said.
Analysts at CBRE concurred, saying they expected another “luxury-led” race weekend, adding that Wynn’s luxury tier is “on another level” to its competitors.
See the Light
Halo effect: On the call, CEO Matt Wilson noted the recent take-private deals involving IGT/Everi, bought by Apollo for $6.3bn, and AGS, where, as reported above, Brightstar’s $1.1bn offer has been accepted by shareholders this week.
Private lives: PE investors are “looking for resilient, stable and cash-generative” businesses, Wilson argued. “Clearly that’s what they see in the sector, so I think it’s a good halo effect for the supplier side of the industry.”
But hinting at the integration work to come for his competitors, he added a benefit for LNW was that, having been through its fair share of M&A and divestiture activity, it was “on the other side of those things now.”
The long march: Analysts suggested Light & Wonder is on course to hit its 2025 target of $1.4bn in adj. EBITDA after the company reported increased margins and profits.
By the numbers: Revenue rose 12% to $818m, with the gaming segment leading the way with a 14% increase to $539m, while SciPlay was up 8% to $205m and online gaming rose 6% to $74m. Adj. EBITDA was up 17% to $330m.
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Still Super
Making your mind up: Shorn of the losses from the now exited US OSB experiment, the owner of the Betway and Spin brands was now benefiting from being “nimble and decisive,” according to CEO Neal Menashe.
He added that Super Group found it “wasn’t happy in the US” so it got out of sports betting, but retains an iCasino footprint.
Of the two states it remains operational in for iCasino, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, Menashe said “we’re going to give it a go there because we think the product can compete.” Still, the US iCasino business is forecast to generate losses of $20m in H2.
He added that the US pivot aligned with its global business, where 80% of revenue is derived from iCasino.
Revenue for Q2 was up 9% to $415m, helped by growth from Africa and Canada, both the regulated market in Ontario and from gray market operators in the rest of the country. Adj. EBITDA rose 8% to $81.9m.
Earnings in brief
Genius Sports: The JMP team noted the $95m revenue beat, a 10% YoY improvement, came from the slowest quarter of the year in terms of sports. Adj. EBITDA was up 33% to $20.8m but net losses more than doubled to $21.8m.
Speaking of the rights environment, CEO Mark Locke said the market was now “increasingly duopolistic.”
With the majority of rights split between Genius and Sportradar, the company expected “reduced competitive tension” and a “more stable and predictable” landscape.
Recall, just this week the company confirmed another deal with Football DataCo for English and Scottish soccer data rights.
Full House: Revenues were up 24% and adj. EBITDA rose 35% to $14.1m, but net losses widened to $8.6m off the back of amortization at the new Chamonix and American Place properties.
Playtika said revenue fell 2.5% YoY to $627m but adj. EBITDA was up 3% to $191m. The company said it was “actively” pursuing a strategy of broadening its game offerings via M&A.
Zeal Network: The German lottery reseller said revenues rose 40% in H1 to €76.8m while EBITDA soared 46% to €20.1m. The company ascribed the growth to significant customer acquisition activity.
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Calendar
Aug 8: Bragg, Penn, Inspired, Golden Entertainment
Aug 12: DoubleDown Interactive
Aug 13: Flutter, Sportradar
Aug 14: Raketech, Catena Media
Aug 15: Evoke, Rank, Gambling.com
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