11 June: COVID 'amazing for iGaming' says BetMGM chief +More
Intralot Q1s, SBC Digital North America Day 2, Iowa GGR May, Missouri GGR May, Loto Québec annual results +More
Good morning and welcome to Friday’s E+M newsletter, which brings you Q1s from Intralot, highlights from Day 2 of the SBC Digital North America event, the latest data from Iowa and Missouri and annual results from Loto Québec.
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Intralot Q1s
The top line
Group revenue came in at €102m, up 9.3% YoY. EBITDA was €24.4m, up 55.4% YoY. US operations registered “significant” growth of 21.8% on revenue and 81.8% on prior-year EBITDA. Lottery games accounted for: 63% of revenues, sports-betting 19.1%, VLTs and IT products and services 8.7%, racing 0.5%.
B2B/B2G was worth 66.4% of total revenues, B2C accounted for 33.6%. Geographic splits: Europe 34.4% (-4.5%), US 55% (+5.3%), other at 16.8% (+2.8%).
Operating cashflow rose 127% to €21.6m. Net debt at period end stood at €643.7m.
Moving parts: On the B2B/B2G side, performance was driven in part by improved top-line performance at the Turksih Bilyoner operation, sports-betting in particular doubled YoY with 92% of revenue coming via online. The much-criticised US sports-betting operations in Montana and Washington DC contributed €1.3m. In terms of technology and support services in B2B/B2G, US lottery revenues rose €5.5m boosted by a big jackpot in January. The negatives came in the Netherlands where Intralot had agreed to worse commercial terms and from a dip in Australian revenues.
SBC Digital North America day 2
A hayride: Speaking on an iGaming Leaders panel yesterday afternoon, Adam Greenblatt from BetMGM was effusive about what has been happening in the last year or more when it comes to online gaming and what turned out to be the benefits of the pandemic lockdowns.
“For all the human tragedy, Covid has been amazing for this business,” Greenblatt said. “People had more time, fewer alternative leisure spend options and those who were fortunate enough to keep their jobs had more disposable income. So we’ve been really focused leaning into that, and it will be interesting to see what happens when we come out of this Covid period.”
Get on board: On the same panel, Richard Schwartz, CEO at Rush Street Interactive, spoke about the “once-in-a-generation” opportunity for digitalizing an entertainment industry fully 20 years after other mediums. He noted later on in the discussion that more gaming stakeholders were getting behind the lobbying efforts to persuade more states to legislate online gaming. “People weren’t pushing for it until about two years ago,” he said. “Now all the guys are pushing for it for the first time.”
Time to deliver: On the subject of lobbying, on the iGaming on the rise panel earlier in the day, GAN CEO Dermot Smurfit said the industry had to deliver in the next two years. “A lot of promises have been made, on deliverables and who will get the market share,” he said. Meanwhile, MGM Resorts International boss Bill Hornbuckle bemoaned the lack of foresight that led to Nevada rejecting online betting and gaming initiatives in recent years.
“It’s a real shame that politicians and lobbying stopped Nevada from being the lead in igaming. It pains me to see that Nevada is not at the pinnacle of igaming,” said Hornbuckle.
Viable iCasino: All panelists hoped to soon see online sports-betting regulated in around 20 states and icasino in some 12 states (from the current five). Three to four leading brands are expected to emerge nationally, but Ed Andrewes, CEO of Resorts Digital, said smaller icasino-focused operators which were more reliant on igaming “have a viable business opportunity.” “The players are different, the demographics are more female and regulation is really picking up,” he added.
Time x growth = diversity: When asked about diversity and gender equality in the industry, Brooks Pierce, COO and president of Inspired Entertainment, said “soccer/football represented 70% of our virtual sports turnover” and Inspired was set to roll out a women’s tournament. “Not because we’re gender sensitive but because it’s a huge market and people love it. The determining factor will be whether it does well in terms of volumes.” Hornbuckle was also positive, noting Jette Nygaard-Anderson’s appoiotment to the top job at Entain.
“As the industry grows in the US you’ll see more females getting involved,” he said. “Sports has always been male focused but with iGaming we are going to see more input from bricks and mortar casinos where 40% of management is female, it’s a matter of time.”
Let’s get it on: On a later panel looking at developments in slots, Chris Boni, VP of Digital Gaming Products at IGT, said the industry should also think about how a true omnichannel offering comes about. “Is it both sides coming together? Do you cater to older or younger customers? What are other industries doing and what will the supplier mix look like in the future?”
Iowa GGR May
Pull back: Compared with May19, Iowa saw gaming GGR rise 21.2% to $158.6m, representing a pullback from the 30.1% two-year comparison for April and a sequential decline of 1.2%. Caesars was up with the pace with growth of 19.8% to $40.9m, as were Boyd’s two properties which generated $16.5m between them. Penn’s Ameristar was slightly off the pace, up 13% on May19 to $16m. Sports-betting GGR was down 20.6% sequentially to $6.1m while handle of $114.9m was down by 2.9%.
Missouri GGR May
Across the wide Missouri: Missouri managed both a two-year comparison leap, up 13.6% on May19 and a sequential rise of 1%. Though visitation was down 13.7%, it was more than made up for by a 31.7% increase in spend per visitor on the May19 number. Sequentially, those metrics were reversed with visitation up 3.3% on April but spend per head down 2.1%. Penn led the way with $56.4m of GGR, up 5.9% on the two-year, followed by Boyd’s properties with $46.4m, up 14.1% on May19 while Caesars was up 7.1% over the same comparison to $41.2m.
Loto Québec annual results
Remote redirect: Loto Québec suffered a 48.6% drop in revenues to CA$1.4bn and a 66.2% drop in net profits to CA$457.6m in 2020-21 due to the closures of its land-based casinos, retail lottery outlets and distributed bingo and video lottery terminals for three quarters of the period. The group’s online activities benefited from players redirecting to remote gaming. Online revenues increased 171% to CA$368.3m, iCasino recorded CA$244.4m of those revenues and iLottery CAS$123.9m. The group paid out CA$432.6m in dividends and CA$102m in taxes to the Québec government.
Newslines
Parks service: BetMGM has entered the Washington D.C. market via a partnership with the Washington Nationals which will make the app available at Nationals Park. The multi-year partnership will also see a BetMGM retail sportsbook open later this year at the venue. While the BetMGM app can be downloaded throughout the district, bets can only take place on a mobile device within two blocks of the stadium.
Back in the game: Century Casinos has announced that all four of its casinos in Alberta, Canada have now reopened. Casinos throughout Alberta were closed on December 13, 2020 to comply with a quarantine imposed by the Alberta government to contain the spread of Covid. Century’s Polish and US casinos are also open.
At the races: Golden Race will see its virtual sports products made available in the US for the first time via a new partnership deal with Kindred via its Unibet brand. Pending the receipt of its first US license, Kindred will start offering Golden Race’s top-quality virtual sports and number games to US online players through its platforms.
Masterpiece theatre: Betsson has announced a B2B deal for the German market with the gaming subsidiary of German media group ProSiebenSat.1 to provide the backend for a new brand. The jackone.de offering will also target other international markets. The deal with ProSieben subsidiary Masterpiece Gaming will launch ahead of the Euro 2020 tournament which, by our reckoning of the calendar, means today. The agreement is based on a performance-based product fee and will run for two years, with an option of renewal.
What we’re reading
Tribal following: According to this story from Front Office Sports, the legalization of sports-betting in ESPN’s home state of Connecticut has convinced the sports media giant to go ‘all-in’ with sports-betting.
Norwich City’s reverse ferret over BK8: The club has “taken on feedback” from the fans and ended the shirt sponsorship deal three days after first announcing it.
Calendar
16 Jun: New Jersey May data
Contact us
Scott Longley scott@clearconcisemedia.com
Jake Pollard jake@openmediaservices.com